cogitation on cardboard "building", and other miscellany

in which our plucky heroine has a functional ordinary sort of day...

Today, though interrupted with an extended nap, was not too fraught. An early morning bike ride before the heat rolled in was very satisfying. The miniature Viking Style heraldic flag is done, but I still need to come up with some sort of miniature portable hole to set it up next to the tent. I managed to call my mother this afternoon, and talked to her for a while. (and realised that I can set a phone alarm to remind me of a good time to phone her each day) I have prepped most of the ingredients to make and freeze a batch of pot stickers, and transfered the sugar macerated figs into the freezer, since it is still too hot for making jam. Tomorrow little Wellington will come over for a two week dogsitting stay. This week has a lot of moving parts, and I am going to draw out a chart in my bujo, since the calendar page is too small...

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time in the tinyworld:

In response to a query about building dollhouses from cardboard, I decided to corral some of the online sources I referred to, as well as to write down my own experience and effort. The building of Caer Cardboard is an ongoing process, as yet rather unfinished, but definitely one that gives me great pleasure.

Even a rough plan in the beginning is very helpful...I first made sketches and a drawing to decide how I wanted the house to look, more or less, at least, how big each room would be, as that would determine how large the cardboard panels I would need. Since it is quite easy to cut the laminated cardboard, I was less worried about the window sizes and locations.

I then began using up many of the large pieces of corrugated box cardboard I had been saving, and made either two or three layer laminate, using white glue, placing the corrugations perpendicular on each layer, and weighting each laminate piece down thoroughly while it dried, as the first time, when I neglected to do so, created a very warped piece only fit for the recycle bin. It does take a significant amount of time for the cardboard laminate to fully dry, and it is better to be certain that it is DRY before moving forward.

I found the cardboard panels are easily cut using a box cutter and a metal straightedge, as one would in any papercraft or book arts. Be sure to put something underneath to protect your work surface, I use one of those thin floppy inexpensive plastic kitchen cutting boards. And of course, pay good attention always when using sharp knives. I decided that for me, the easiest way to assemble the cardboard into a structure was with hot glue! I am not building for eternity, but for my own amusement. Other forms of glue will be more archival, but also require more jigs and clamps to hold in place.

As a way of strengthening the joints and sealing up the edges I thought that using paper tape was a much cleaner and easier method than the glue and spackle method, particularly since I already had a huge roll of paper tape on hand. It was slow, but really satisfying to see the difference it made; the photo at the top, showing the before and after of the side of the roof dormer makes it really clear. Once I had covered all the internal and external joints and edges, and again that took some time doing it bit by bit and letting it dry, I decided to coat the whole house with gesso, as a sort of primer before exterior painting, or interior wallpaper/paint, or adding any trim or windows.

A great deal of my decisions have been based on what craft supplies I have on hand, as this project began not that long into the very first isolation in 2020, as a way of doing what I could, with what I had, in hope of keeping at least somewhat sane....

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At the beginning of the pandammit, I found this video from Bentley House Minis to be both amusing and inspiring, more for her technique of laminating cardboard into layers for greater strength.

Ann Wood is the artist who created the Tiny Rag Doll pattern, which drew me back into the world of miniatures, the Miss Thistle Society, and the Tiny Rag Doll Nation. In this post she discusses a material that I consider crucial to successful cardboard dollhouse building: gummed paper tape (water activated). I also love the way she has used clothespin halves as brackets to help support the upper story floor. PS she also has a tutorial to use egg carton cardboard to make a "stone" fireplace hearth, and the same technique can be used to create stone flooring, or even the appearance of stone walls or foundation on the exterior of a cardboard house

These posts from Dollhouse Smithery are useful as well in thinking about how to build from cardboard and foamcore, and they have information about using paper mache to help bind the structure together.

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I found this method of presenting temperature data to be very vivid and easy to understand. A fuller explanation of the image and where the information was sourced is here on the NASA website...

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Kestrel apron	ironing cart	yard waste bin
2	tiny armchair	shims for molding	recycle bin
3	tiny plate rack	tub trim added	ancient printer
4	four hair snoods	pruned quince + plum	yard waste bin
5	snood and pillow	added bathroom hooks	recycle bin
6	indigo tiger dress	worm bin refreshed	x
7	x	bathroom wall touch-up	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - I have a house chockablock full of various kinds of craft supplies. This is a great blessing in keeping self at least as sane as I ever am!

Time of Isolation - Day 913