A small world's big buzz!

Mini good foods

Jen Tuttle of Miniholiday is one of my (Traci's) favorite artists--she loves contributing, has a great attitude, and creates delicous-looking food, among other things. When Melissa was working with Martha Puff on the "minis as jewelry" gallery (American Miniaturist May 2013 issue [AM121]), she was sharing some of the artists who were going to be included, and I was looking them up to see what sorts of sweet treats I could find. On Jen's Etsy page, I found a pair of Twinkie earrings.

YES. I KNOW. TWINKIE EARRINGS.

My lifelong best friend, Shani, and I would always give each other Twinkies for various occassions--birthdays, Christmases, random get-togethers. So when Hostess filed bankruptcy and we thought Twinkies were gone forever, we lamented, and tried to find an appropriate subsitute in Little Debbie Cloud Cakes or Mrs. Freshley's Dreamies. Somehow they weren't the same. When I saw the earrings, I knew I had to get them.

But wait! Would she even wear Twinkie earrings? Is that a socially acceptable accessory in the presumably serious financial investment company where she works? I debated until I saw that Jen's earrings could also be created as wine charms, and I knew immediately what Shani's birthday present would be: four wine charms, each of one of her favorite foods. The Twinkie was just the beginning! Jen, bless her heart, set up a separate listing for my random collection of foods, and a few weeks later they were in my apartment.

 

I brought them to Shani with a bottle of wine (obviously) when I visited for her birthday, and she loved them--particularly the banana cream pie, which I'd custom-ordered from Jen since Shani likes that flavor better than the lemon meringue that was listed. "Look at the little banana slices!" she kept saying.

In the same box she used to send those, Jen also included the pair of brownie earrings that she'd done a tutorial on and that she sent as a giveaway for Dollhouse Miniatures May-June 2013 issue (DHM33). Don't they look unbelievably delicious??

YUM!! Brownies with frosting are my ultimate sweet-tooth craving. So, big thanks to Jen for both making my friend's birthday special and also for this fantastic giveaway for DHM readers!

Traci

 

Little gifts

This is a little late, considering the contents, but bear with me!

In our March-April issue (which you can purchase here), one of our Star Letter winners was Susan Rensch. As a thanks for choosing her as our winner and sending her a prize, she decided to send each of us a little gift! Thank you, Susan, that's so generous of you!

And when we received the packages, we of course had to document it.

 

Within the boxes pictured above were even smaller packages, like those little Russian dolls that have even smaller dolls inside them. Here are photos of each of us trying to delicately remove the paper without damaging the contents!

 

 

 

Finally, we got the little pieces out. There were adorable little woven baskets filled with paper, and painted eggs with our names on them!! How she managed to do that on such small items, I have no idea. A steady hand and a teeny paintbrush, apparently.

 

 

After opening the gifts, we stood around and talked for a while....

 

...and then we took our picture together, because we all wore red, even though it wasn't Valentine's Day.

 

So, all in all, it was a pretty great day. Thanks again to Susan for sending on these sweet little gifts!

Museum Admission Giveaway for Dollhouse Miniatures

Are you planning a trip to Europe--or looking for an excuse to do so? Our Jan-Feb issue of Dollhouse Miniatures (downloadable version here) announced a fabulous giveaway: free tickets of admission to The Toy Worlds Museum Basle. The museum houses more than 6000 teddy bears, dolls, toy grocers’ shops, dollhouses and miniatures, making it the only one of its kind in Europe, and it holds many special exhibits throughout the year.

For miniaturists, this fascinating collection as well as the special exhibits provide the opportunity for unparalleled invaluable information about period pieces and toys. As well as being great inspiration, anything you see in the museum could help you add authenticity to scenes by recreating some of these toys in miniature, and looking at a photo just does not give you the same amount of detail as you'd get from seeing them in person.

Visit their website for more information on the museum itself or on future special exhibits. Perhaps you'll be interested in their upcoming exhibit, "To wind up and charge," which will run from April 20 to October 6 of this year. This will highlight moving toys from the past 100 years, from cars to teddy bears to animals. There will also be 70 short films highlighting the movements of the pieces so that you can recreate them in miniature with all their moving parts! "The early toys were often made completely from tin and could be found with elaborate and detailed lithographs," says the museum's announcement of the exhibit. If you're creating a playroom or nursery from the mid-1900s or even a modern collector's room, this is the exhibit to catch!

Happy, the Violinist

Toplay Ltd., (T.P.S. v. Tokyo Plaything Shokai), Japan, around 1956, wind-up toy

 

Other upcoming exhibits include an exhibit about starlet Marilyn Monroe (running from Oct 19, 2013 to Apr 6, 2014) that includes "more than 700 original memorabilia and personal items of the extraordinary icon" on display. What better way to add to your Marilyn scene than with recreations of pieces from her real life? There is also a series of Christmas biscuits and cakes from around the world (Nov 30, 2013 to Feb 9, 2014) as well as a historical look at shoes (Oct 18, 2014 to Apr 6, 2015) and their transformations over the years.

The best part? These tickets don’t expire, so you can use them whenever you are in Switzerland or can plan your trip around any exhibit that you find particularly interesting.

The winners of these tickets will be chosen by random drawing. To enter the drawing, email traci@ashdown.co.uk with your name, address, and phone number. You could also fax this same information to (507) 634-7691. Just be sure to put Museum Giveaway - Dollhouse Miniatures in the subject line. But hurry--the deadline for this entry is Friday, March 22, 2013, just a few days from now!

Make this kit yours!

Interested in owning this kit? Go ahead. Take a look.

The kits are available from participating DMMA merchants (the starred shops are participants; you can also buy online from many participating stores). Supplies are unlimited, you can design and decorate it anyway you like, and its simplicity is perfect for anyone--from a beginner to an expert. The cottage measures 13" deep, 11 9/16" wide, and 18 3/8" tall, and the porch extends it another 4 1/2" out.

Here's an added bonus: you can try to win a prize! The Dollhouse Miniatures Merchants Association is sponsoring a contest that anyone who buys these kits can enter. It's called the Make it Yours Contest, and that's just what they want you to do--make the kit your own. Our Jan-Feb issue of Dollhouse Miniatures announced this contest for these kits in our Big Buzz section, and you can read more about the contest on the DMMA website.

ANYONE can purchase this kit, whether you plan on entering the contest or not, so don't feel pressured! But if you do participate in the contest, you can win two kinds of prizes: door prizes (done by random drawing) or a prize based on quality and craftsmanship of your final creation. The deadline for the contest is September 30, 2013, so buy your kit sooner rather than later!

And finally, to get your creative juices flowing, here are photos of two completed shops by DMMA members to show you what you can do with the kit! (You can click on the photos to see them at full size.) Happy miniaturing!

 

 

Our Charlie Brown trees

I (Traci) have gotten a lot of really nice emails from readers after my welcome letter in the Nov-Dec issue of Dollhouse Miniatures (issue 31). In it, I discussed how I had lovingly decorated my small and unimpressive Christmas tree with lights and ornaments and holiday spirit, only to have friends and family deem it a bit "sad." What a humbling experience! This has happened to me with my minis, too--it's a shot to the heart when something you've lovingly handcrafted is dismissed so easily by others. The tree is highly reminiscent of the beloved Charlie Brown Christmas tree:

 

 

But just as Charlie Brown's Christmas turned out well when the rest of his friends helped decorate the tree into a beautiful holiday display, so too have my friends come through for me. My mini friends have sent emails mentioning similar situations they've encountered, where their various minis or hobbies haven't been appreciated by others, and that you just need to keep doing what you love no matter what the result (as one woman wrote, "Keep on doing your own thing and enjoy doing it. If others don't 'get it,' too bad for them. You're original and have an imagination. Some people don't appreciate, understand or have the ability to be unique.  We should buy them cookie cutters").

So in that spirit, my coworkers and I are sharing our holiday trees this year--all of which are little Charlie-Brown-eque creations. Enjoy, and may your Christmas and holiday season be full of many mini beautiful things!

My tree, originally published with my welcome letter. Do you see my macaroni ornament? :-)

 

Allison's tree. She's primarily involved in creating most of our digital products as well as being the editor of Bead America and the US articles for Teddy Bear Times.

Melissa's tree. She's the sub-editor for American Miniaturist. I think this one may be favorite!!

 

Wright Guide general store

Anybody who loves the feel of Americana is (or should be) aware of Wright Guide Miniatures. Mary Ann and Grover Ledyard have spent decades creating and perfecting pieces and scenes that portray quintessential aspects of American culture, from a TV repair shop to a dentist's office.

In Dollhouse Miniatures issue 31 (our January-February 2013 issue, which is currently being printed but is now available for our iMag subscribers and for download), Jan Stuart describes our draw to the pleasant old-timey feel of Wright Guide's general store piece and gives some notes on general stores as part of American culture. She then lets Mary Ann and Grover take over to describe their fond memories of general stores of their youth, some notes on how they created their store, and what they hope to accomplish in the future.

We didn't have room to fit all of Mary Ann's memories in the article itself, though we definitely wanted to! So here, we have the complete collection of Mary Ann's thoughts and observations of general stores of her youth--plus, we have a page of Cutouts of general store signs that Jan Stuart put together. These are 8.5" x 11" in 1:12 scale, but you can resize as you wish.

I hope you enjoy reading about Mary Ann and Grover's work as much as I did!

Traci

 

Mary Ann’s store memories

I have always enjoyed the old, peaceful way of life, when things were slow and easy going—when you knew the old-time grocer at Mason's Store in our town of Waldron, Mich., and he knew you. As a child, I had the chance to experience the old general stores where folks bought most of the needs for those days, and farther back in time, my Mom and Dad did, too. He drove the Model A Ford, which is the first car I remember. Yes, I was very small at the time; Mom drove us to town, as my father worked 60 miles away at the Toledo Blade newspaper and only came home on weekends. 

The farm families grew most all of their foods and meats, but we did need other things from the store, which were sold from a barrel or in bulk. I have lots of fond memories of them. About five miles away, we had another, The Munson General Store. You could buy anything there, from dynamite to Native American peace pipes. In the rural countryside, the little general stores stayed in existence longer than in the city. I believe many of the glass display cabinets and shelves stayed in use because country people didn't change over to the modern way of life quite as fast. The old coffee grinder and cash register stayed for quite some time; some of the very old containers were retired to the upstairs. Then, in later years, our family was able to buy that building for our print shop, and so we acquired many of the old and unusual items, such as tea bins, biscuit boxes, wooden boot box, etc. 

Click image to view full-size.

The General Store proprietor was made by Darla Knox (who is no longer making dolls).

 

The most fascinating thing I remember is the high oak ladder, which was used to reach the boxes high up on the shelf. It was made on wheels and the top side would slide down the line of shelves to get another item. Sometimes the grocer would need a long reaching device to go even higher and clamp onto the box needed. I also remember the tin ceiling squares, and some of them were real fancy. The wooden floors would creak as you walked down the aisles, but everything was neatly placed on each shelf, and the grocer or clerk always came to assist my mom with anything she might need. Most of the time, we were the only family in the store, but occasionally a neighbor or friend would come by and visit for a while right there in the store. There were two wooden benches outside the two big glass windows, where the older citizens of the town would sit in the summertime and discuss all the things happening in the little town; everyone knew everyone, so the conversation went on for most of the day. I can still hear the sound of the screen door slamming as people went in and out. It had a spring on it to pull it back and made a loud noise.

They had just about everything you needed to set up housekeeping and more. From dynamite to horseshoe nails and fresh eggs to salves. You might see Pine Tar Soap and Fels Naptha Soap for scrubbing clothes on a washboard, tacks and hammers, sewing thread, pots and pans, mouse traps and beaver traps, canning supplies…everything! They kept the milk in glass jars, there in the same case as the meat, which had big glass doors on it. They cut up huge pieces of meat and also ground their beef there in the store. My mom would buy the oilcloth by the yard for our kitchen table, from a rack like the one in our miniature store (oilcloth was similar to vinyl on a cotton mesh backing and was a durable table and shelf covering which wiped clean with a wet cloth; women sewed highchair and laundry basket covers and lined their husbands' lunchboxes with it, too).

Click image to view full-size.

Mary Ann gives basic construction tips for making the oil cloth you see here. It was sold by the length needed.

At our store, the pickle barrel was no longer in use, but I had seen them in other areas, such as in Amish Country. We also shopped at a very large store in Toledo, Ohio, where they sold cheese in big round chunks and had a large glass dome over it. This was an exciting time in life, to visit this huge store. I can still smell the coffee freshly ground. It seems that all the old stores had a smell of their own. It must have been those wood floors stained with food spills, or paint spills, or even just “age.” The past years of the old stores seem to still be fresh in my memory—it's too bad that we can't pass these thoughts, memories, and feelings along to the new generation. But, maybe we can, through the vignettes of years ago.

 

Download GeneralStoreCutouts

 

Looking for more?

You can download issue 31 here or buy a printed copy if you like.

You can read more about Wright Guide in the article from DHM20 from March-April 2011 (you can buy the printed issue or a downloadable issue).

Interested in subscribing to Dollhouse Miniatures? A one-year subscription sends six issues of fabulous miniatures directly to your door.

Can't wait for our printed issues to be mailed out? You can subscribe to our iMag, or just view a sample iMag if you're not sure.

Mini book pages

In our December issue of American Miniaturist (AM116) we printed a tutorial by Sarah Boone and Corinne Dean for making miniature copies of two Christmas classics — The 12 Days of Christmas and The Night Before Christmas. These two books are so beloved in real life, of course they are in mini too! 

The pages in the magazine were for 1:12-scale books, but the illustrations were originally for oversized, coffetable books. Here you can find pdf versions of the book pages Sarah and Corinne used, which fit an 8.5" x 11", letter-size page. Simply print them on a color printer, and you will be able to make these beautiful Christmas books for your own minis. The pages can be resized as you wish to make mini books of all sizes. Nothing like a few favorite Christmas stories to start the holiday season! 

 

Download 12 days of christmas template Download The Night Before Christmas

 

You can find the complete tutorial and the December issue here: AM116 Downloadable Issue

 

Fun surprises in the mail!

I absolutely LOVE getting all the mail we do. It's fun to hear from readers, and though I don't have time to respond to every contest entry or short note scribbled after a sub renewal, I hope you all realize that I read everything and enjoy it to no end.

I especially enjoy mail when we get little surprises! Here are my two latest favorites. First up is another card from Emma. For those of you who don't remember, Emma is the granddaughter of our warehouse guru, Fran. She sometimes joins Fran in the office, and she is always smitten with our little guy, Arthur. Apparently Kelly recently ordered some Girl Scout cookies from Emma, and here is Emma's thank-you note:

(If that doesn't make your heart melt, I just don't know what will.)

 

And now my other fun piece of mail, courtesy of the wonderful Martha Puff, who recently finished her end of the monumental task of two--yes, two!--galleries for our April issue of American Miniaturist. The first features some beautiful spring pieces by very talented artists, and the second gallery has been making my tummy rumble for days on end as I cutout photos of cakes and pastries. Yes, it's a food gallery, and trust me, you will want to eat something before you look through the article, or you will end up making brownies for yourself at night. Anyway, Martha sent me some beautiful pieces from Sue Ayers of Sue's Little Things! This photo is courtesy of my new iPad (yay!), and I haven't played with the settings, so the photo is a bit low-quality. But if you look below, you will see a print-quality photo of some of the same pieces, upcoming in our April issue. Enjoy!

Traci

 

Tips and Tricks: Making Rosebushes by Polly Morris

In our January issue of AM (AM105), we include an article about Polly Morris and three of her scenes: a Silk Fabric Shop, an Atlantic Fish Market, and a greenhouse. Within the article, we included several tutorial-like tips and tricks from Polly herself, specific to each scene. Here, we share an extra tip from Polly: a tutorial on how to make a rosebush, from her Greenhouse.

Click on any of the photos to see them in more detail.

 

To Make a Rose Bush

Materials List

Paper Punches:

Rose petals - Paw Print punch by EK Success

Rose calyx - Large Sparkle punch by Carl Craft (the larger one)

Rose leaves - Medium Ash Leaf #2 by Punch Bunch

White printer paper or white rice paper

Design Master Colortool floral spray paint 676 Basil

(or Seminole Green Delta Ceramcoat or equivalent)

Green 30 weight Japanese paper-covered floral wire

Naphthol Red DecoArt Americana acrylic paint or equivalent

Seed beads

Fun Foam

Aleene's Tacky glue

Polymer Clay

Tweezers

Stylus

Straight Pin

Burnishing Tool

 

Step 1. Prepare paper for the green leaves and the calyxes. Use regular white printer paper or white rice paper if desired. Spray with Design Master Colortool floral spray paint 676 Basil to match the paint color to your paper covered floral wire. If you cannot find this paint, use thin washes of Seminole Green paint from Delta Ceramcoat or equivalent. Apply the paint in light coats. A hint of white showing through here is preferable to a thick, opaque coat. 

Step 2. Prepare white printer paper or white rice paper for red roses. Use light washes of Naphthol Red DecoArt Americana acrylic paint or equivalent. Once again, it is better to have a little white showing through than thick, opaque paint coverage.

Step 3. Make the leaf sprays. Use 30 weight Japanese paper-covered floral wire. Use only paper-covered wire or the following technique will not work. Cut the floral wire into 1-3/4" segments.

Punch out two ash leaf sprays and flip one over so the branches curve in opposite directions. Apply Aleene's Tacky glue to the stem parts only. Gently curve your wire to match the shape of the punched spray. Press the paper to the wire and use tweezers to crimp the paper snugly around the wire. Take extra care to make it look nice and neat.

Make the other one (the one curved in the opposite direction) and set the pair of leaf sprays aside to dry. You will need to make lots of these as rose bushes have more leaves than flowers.

Use Seminole Green Delta Ceramcoat paint or equivalent to blend the stem and the wire. Use a ball point stylus, draw the center vein on each leaf. Lightly pinch the tips of each leaf to add dimension.

Step 4. To make the roses, cut 1-3/4" floral wire stems for your roses. Glue a seed bead onto the end of the wire to use as a base to build the rose. Paint it the same shade of red as the petal paper. Punch rose petals with the Paw Print punch, but discard the foot pad. The egg-shaped toes will be used as rose petals. Lay petals out on the Fun Foam or several folded paper towels. Use a burnishing tool to gently form cupped petals. The bottom of your petal will be the slightly wider end.

Using tweezers, dip the wider end of a petal into tacky glue. Do not be too sparing with the glue, or the petal will not stick. On the other hand, too much glue can spoil the look. Attach the base of the petal to the bottom of the red bead, cupping it around the bead. Repeat so that you have two petals facing each other. Let the glue set up for a few minutes, then gently coax the petals to form a slightly open cone around the bead. Think of these petals as if they were twelve and six on a clock face. 

Dip another petal into the glue and attach to the bottom of the bead where three would be on a clock face. Then add another petal directly opposite at nine o'clock. For the next round, place petals between twelve and three, between three and six, between six and nine and between nine and twelve. This pattern means the petals will be evenly overlapped.

Poke a hole in the center of the calyx with a pin. Gently cup with a stylus tool and slide up the wire under the rose. Follow with another bead and paint the bead with Seminole Green Delta Ceramcoat or equivalent. Study real roses or photographs and adjust your rose and calyx with tweezers to get a realistic look.

Step 5. Make rosebuds from polymer clay. Form polymer clay buds on a 1-3/4" floral wire stems. A tiny egg-shape with a pinched tip is all you need. Bake according to the manufacturer's instructions on the package. Cool to room temperature and paint to match the open roses. Add the calyx as described above and another bead painted with Seminole Green or equivalent to finish.

Step 6. Build a rose trident. A trident is a three-pronged spear, like a pitchfork, and it will be the basic unit to build a rose bush. Flank a rose stem with a leaf spray on either side. The rose should be slightly taller than the leaf sprays and the leaf sprays should flare away from the rose. That is, the leaf spray on the left will curve left and the leaf spray on the right will curve right. Line the three stems up so they are parallel. Apply tacky glue to the bottom half inch of the stems, gather together to form a trunk. Set aside to dry.

NOTE: Vary the rose tridents with polymer rose buds or all leaf sprays.

Step 7. Join the rose tridents together to form basic rose bush. Make four rose tridents and several extra leaf sprays. Position three rose tridents so the stems line up at the bottom. Apply tacky glue to the bottom half-inch of each rose trident. Gather together to form a tight trunk.

The next step is to disguise this ugly glue junction by carefully positioning the fourth rose trident on top of the others. Slide it down until the flowers and foliage cover the glue junction. Find a discreet place underneath to glue the base of the fourth trident to the trunk.

When dry, trim the stem bottom of the fourth rose trident to match the length of the others. Use extra leaf sprays as needed to hide the glue junctions. Now you have a basic rose bush.

How to create a climbing rose vine from a basic rose bush

Position a rose spray above the basic rose bush. Look for a discreet place to glue it where the rose spray wires were glued together. Hide the glue junction with additional leaf sprays as needed. Attach another rose spray to the stem of the previously added rose spray. Continue if desired, aiming for a herringbone effect.

Tips and Tricks: Silk Fabric Shop by Polly Morris

In our January issue of AM (AM105), we include an article about Polly Morris and three of her scenes: a Silk Fabric Shop, an Atlantic Fish Market, and a greenhouse. Within the article, we included several tutorial-like tips and tricks from Polly herself, specific to each scene. Here, we give you a few more tips from her Silk Shop: how to make a rack of silk ribbon reels, how to display fabrics, and how to make tassels for a display screen.

Left: Artist Polly Morris; below: two sides of Polly's Silk Fabric Shop.

Click on any photo to see a larger version.

     

Silk Fabric Shop

Tip 1. To make a rack of silk ribbon reels

I used an old NAME Roundtable Workshop technique to make my ribbon rack. I wrapped ribbon between pairs of stuck-together binder paper hole reinforcers loaded on a 1/4" dowel. The hole reinforcers create the spool ends and the 1/4 dowel acts as the spool.

Step 1. Paper-backed silk. Glue scraps of silk fabric to Manila folders or index cards using Aleene's Tacky Glue. Let the glue set up for a minute or two to prevent bleeding through. Lightly burnish to get perfect contact. Practice makes perfect but small stains will not ruin your project. Just cut around them or wrap perfect sections over imperfect areas so no one will see them. The paper backing will generally keep the fabric from fraying when it is cut and it makes teeny pieces of flimsy fabric much easier to work with.

Step 2. Cutting the ribbons. Slice the paper-backed fabric with a sharp, new X-Acto knife. Do not use scissors. Precise cuts are important. My ribbons ranged from 1/8" to 1/2" wide. If you have ribbon fraying problems, gently swipe a bit of tacky glue to the edges and let dry before attempting to roll.

Step 3. Assemble a roll of ribbon. My ribbon racks were displayed in an old picture frame and I cut 1/4" dowels to fit inside. Each spool of ribbon will need two pairs of hole reinforcers, joined sticky side to sticky side, to create the spool ends.

Step 4. Start by slipping a hole reinforcer onto a 1/4" dowel. Add another hole reinforcer so that the sticky sides face each other. Gently press them together. Loosely wrap the paper-backed ribbon around the dowel and glue the ribbon to itself. Do not glue the ribbon to the dowel. Continue to wrap. When finished, glue the end of the ribbon to itself so that this edge will not be seen.

I like the look of partly unrolled ribbon spools, hanging down the back, so I unwound the ribbon roll a little before securing with glue. Thread another set of hole reinforcers on the dowel, sticky side to sticky side, and gently press together.

Now glue the sides of the ribbon roll between the spool ends. Once again, do not glue the ribbon to the dowel. Now you have one free-moving spool of ribbon. Repeat until you have filled the rods.

Step 5. Assembling the ribbon rack. Fit the filled ribbon rods into a picture frame backed with silk glued on to card stock (a light cardboard) using Aleene's Tacky Glue. Adjust the rods and positions of the spools to look right and glue the rods in place.

 

 

Tip 2. To display fabrics

Step 1. Cardboard bolts. My bolts were made from 1/16" mat board, cut 1- 7/8" by 7/8". Paint the mat board edges white. No need to back the silk with paper as was done for the ribbons, but each bolt will need fabric cut to 3-1/2" wide by at least 3" long. Pay attention to the grain of the fabric, especially if you want to drape the fabric. Make fabric lengths longer if you want to have some extra yardage to drape. If you plan on draping fabric, the grain of your miniature bolt of fabric should match the grain, or selvage edge, of real fabric. Glue the folded fabric to one end of the bolt and begin winding. The folded edge will become the top of the bolt. Tack down the end to finish, choosing a spot no one will notice.

Step 2. Make tube-style bolts of fabric. I used Starbuck's Frappuccino straws which are bigger than ordinary soft drink straws, measuring 5/16" in diameter. Cut the straws into 4-1/2" and 5" lengths for variety and spray with a beige cardboard-color paint. Some paints have trouble adhering to plastic straws, but a primer should help. If all else fails, cover the straws with brown paper from grocery bags. 

Step 3. Cut the fabric into 9-1/4" and 8-1/4" widths, ranging in length from 3" to as long as you like. The selvage edge is the grain of the fabric, and your miniature bolts will drape better if you match directions. Fold in half, and lightly press if needed. Glue one end to the painted straw and roll it up. The folded edge will become the top of the fabric bolt. Glue down the end of the fabric, choosing a spot no one will see. If the fabric is noticeably fraying, swipe the edges with a little tacky glue and let dry before rolling. If your fabric choice is too thick to look right folded, cut a piece half the size along the finished selvage edge. Wrap the bolt so that the selvage edge is along the top instead of a fold.

 

Tip 3.  Make tassels for a display screen

I used one leg of a broken spring-loaded clothes pin as a form to wrap the tassels on. The wood needs to be very smooth. Clothes pin legs are tapered so it is easy to slide the tassels off once they have been wound. I use 100% cotton thread which has a natural silky luster that cotton/poly blends or all polyester thread do not have. 

Step 1.  Begin by double-threading a darning needle with the color of your choice and knot the ends together. Set aside. Wrap thread around the clothes pin leg just below the notch for the spring. Nice, plump little tassels will need to be wound about 20-24 times, but experimenting is a good idea.

Once it is wound, cut the thread and create the top of the tassel by running the threaded needle under the wound thread a couple of times. Cinch it up tight and tie off, but leave yourself two inches of thread to act as a handle. Add a little dab of tacky glue for good measure in a discreet place. Do not take the tassel off the clothespin yet.

Step 2. Pinch the thread handle and top of the tassel between your left thumb and index finger and carefully slide the tassel off the clothespin. Continu ing to pinch, clamp the bottom of the tassel. I use those tiny copper clamps made for assembling circuit boards found at Radio Shack. Still pinching, wrap a contrasting band of thread just below the tips of your fingers. Tightly wind this thread about five times, cinch it. You can stop pinching now. 

Step 3. Adjust the contrasting band so that it is between 1/16" to 1/18" from the top of the tassel. Add a touch of glue to secure the knot in a discreet place. Trim the extra thread away when dry. Repeat with a second color just below the first band, if desired. Finish by slipping scissors into the bottom of the tassel and cut the threads. Fluff the tassel, straighten the cut if needed and adjust the contrasting thread bands. Do not cut off the thread handles yet. You will need them to tie to other tassels to form bunches.

Step 4. Display Screen. My tassels were displayed on a screen I made from basswood covered on both sides with a thin piece of cardstock covered with a very thin piece of fiberfill and wrapped in silk fabric. The edges of the silk were turned under to look neat and glued in place before gluing the cardstock to the basswood. The other side was made the same way except I added a crisscross of ribbon before I glued the cardstock to the basswood.