Interview on the Maltese Magazine - GWIDA

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all well and had a good weekend. Just in a few days My Miniature World will be having it's grand opening. I'm quite excited about it and looking forward to the event. It's keeping me quite busy so let's hope for the best. Before I start I wanted to welcome the new followers of my blog. Welcome!

Almost two weeks ago I had my first interview on the Maltese Magazine GWIDA. Gwida is the best selling magazine on the island and I was honored to be part of it. I want to thank Roberta Magri for asking me for the interview and for giving me such an opportunity to share my work. 

I have enjoyed the interview as Roberta has asked quite a few interesting questions that no one has ever asked me before.  The interview was featured on the Gwida magazine 15th August 2018 and had a four page feature. 

Before the magazine was out for sale at the shops there was also the TV commercial which was broadcast on the Maltese TV  channels and social media, where I have also been mentioned and featured.

The interview is in Maltese Rebecca Micallef - Il-Bennejja tad-Djar tal-Pupi. As it is in Maltese and most of my followers don't know the language,  I have translated the interview in English for those who are interested to read it. Here is the link Rebecca Micallef - The Dolls House Builder. I hope you will find it interesting. 

I am quite pleased with the outcome and also a few of my favorite miniature rooms have been featured.

Miss Leah's Bedroom

J.R. Art Gallery

Miss Leah's living room

That is all for today. I hope I will get to pop in before the grand opening with an update on the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. If not I will keep you posted with all the excitement of the event. 

Take Care and See You Soon

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Adding the last touches to the Guest Room

Hello everyone,

Just popping in for a quick update on the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. Hope you are all well and that you had a great week. I'm quite busy and still can't believe that today week I will be having the launch on My Miniature World Exhibition. I want to thank you all for your warm wishes and private messages. Thank you for your encouragement and support. It's been a long way but finally it's here and I hope that I will make it to the finishing line. I also want to welcome the new followers to the blog. Welcome! and I hope you will find it interesting. 

I am working hard on the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn as I really wish to finish it before next week. So far it's looking promising. Today I will be sharing with you the complete guest room with the additional accessories and details. 

The guest room needed just a few more details that I wanted to add. The first thing that I wanted to do was make more paintings on the wall as they looked quite bare. 

I have used canvas like always and went for antique sword fighting themed paintings. 

I didn't go for fancy frames. I just wanted to add a bit more with simple accessories being the guest room. 

I decorated the dressing table with some accessories too and with perfume bottles that I made using jewelry beads. 

To the glass door panels of the wardrobe I added lace curtains which were very common in the Victorian period. 

I made a couple of clocks using buttons and one of them was set in the guest room and the other in the pub.

The final touches was the bed side table which definitely looks much better with a bottle of water and a glass. A lamp shade and a book. 

I think Mrs. Charlotte Perkins will enjoy her stay at The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. 

I hope you like the complete guest room. I am quite happy with the outcome of the room. It looks just right. Make sure to keep tuned for the next update on the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn and for more exciting news. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

My Miniature World is ready to open it's Doors!

Hello everyone,

How are you all? Hope you had a great weekend. I can't believe that we are half way through August and with that the day is getting closer to the grand opening of My Miniature World.

Yes, finally I can start breathing again as the long wait is over. It's been a tough two years to finish everything and make things in order as I wanted. There were quite a few hurdles in the long journey but I have surpassed them with flying colors. All the dolls houses are in place ready to be exhibited to the public.

 The dates have been set and there will be a whole weekend for the public to visit the dolls house collection.

I am very excited about it and I have to admit very nervous too. I still can't believe that it's happening. It is a dream come true to have my dolls house collection open for everyone to see especially here in Malta. I am very proud to say that it is the first dolls house exhibition to ever happen here on the island.

I have also added a Visiting / Info / Contact Page to the blog.

Even though it's not officially opened yet, last Saturday I had a very special guest to visit the collection.

Ms Annigje Kruytbosch and I.

The President of the Douzelage  Ms. Annigje Kruytbosch from Holland and three others of her delegation had the pleasure to have a tour of the dolls house collection. The 'Douzelage is a town twining association with one town from each of the member states of the European Union.  I guess it was my very first experience to share the collection. According to the Mayor (my boss) they were very impressed, so I am quite happy with the outcome.

Even though my collection has been moved out from my home and now they are going to be showcased, I still get to spend quite a lot of time with them. Every evening I get to light them up and see the magic that they bring.

From here I want to thank my family especially Gilbert. He has worked hard in these past two years to transform the area and turn it into a state of the art dolls house showcase. I also want to thank a few friends for their help and constant support and encouragement.. Thank you all for making all this possible. 

This is all for today. I will be updating you very soon with the latest additions to the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. I am hoping that the project will be all done before the opening. So keep tuned for the next update.

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Completing The Parlour in The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all doing well. It been quite busy here like always. Today it's been raining quite heavy. Quite strange for August I would say, but I think having such a hot and dry summer, mother nature, has been kind to provide us with some rain.  

I have been working a little on the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn and now I can say I have completed the Parlour. I totally love this room especially with it's final touches.

The Parlour in The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

There is a new guest at the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. Everyone, meet Mr. Fletcher Oaks. He is another handsome doll made by my favorite doll maker Beverly Senatore. 

Mr. Fletcher Oaks is British and he is in his early fifties. He is married and has two beautiful daughters. He lives on the outskirts of London.  He has just visited the Pub & Inn to meet Madam Arabella Barrett. At her age, Madam Barrett can't travel as frequent as she used to. As she is living and spending most of her time in Regent Street, looking after the business, Mr. Fletcher Oaks looks after her estates. The parlour is the best place to have a quiet chat over a glass of wine. 

I have also added the last few details to the room. One of the things that I definitely wanted to change was the library. I hated the covers of the books that were put on the shelves. I got myself busy by counting the books that I used. There are 28 big books and 24 smaller ones. I took the measurements and printed book covers accordingly.

Then very patiently, I covered every single book. The books definitely looked much better with their new cover. 

The bookcase looks more realistic now with the new book covers.

The coffee table looked quite plain with just the wine glasses so I made a few Victorian style pastries with fancy icing. These kind of pastries were very common in the period especially during a high tea or offered when unexpected guests arrived. The tiny pastries were made out of polymer clay. 

They are nothing special, but they fit the part well.

The final addition to the room were the two sabers or what we call curved dress swords that I have placed near the picture of my father on the fire place mantel. These were hand painted by the 'Maestro' himself.

Here are a few pictures of the complete room.

This is all for today. I hope you like the Parlour as much as I do. I will keep you posted with the new updates on this project and with the ongoing news at My Miniature World, so make sure to keep tuned. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

House Cleaning - The Prize

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all having a great week. There goes another month. August is going to be quite a busy month for me and I'm quite excited about it. I will be keeping you updated later on with the upcoming news and event. The new area where my dolls house collection is set, is almost done and it does feel like home being there. 

Before I start I wanted to welcome the new followers on my blog and at G+. Welcome!

A few weeks ago my dearest friend and fellow miniaturist José Pereira Torrejón surprised me with an unexpected gift for the new dolls house area.

José sent me this lovely original antique magazine cover called 'The Prize' dating March 1906. The illustration is just beautiful and it's called "House Cleaning". The picture features two Victorian girls cleaning their dolls house furniture. You can imagine how thrilled I was with it, not only for it's colorful picture but even for it's age. Thinking about it, this cover has over 112 years of age!

The Prize Magazine was published for children in the late 1800s / early 1900s. Like most magazines, they were bound into book form, like having a hard cover binder and it is unusual to find complete ones, particularly earlier editions from the 1880s / 1890s. So far I haven’t come across any pages of the interior but I have to say that the cover pages are beautifully illustrated. 

The issue of this cover is marked No. III from the new series. 

There was no doubt that I would have ordered a special frame for it and hung it among my dolls houses for everyone to see.

I don't have words to thank you enough José for such a lovely gift. It fits perfect in the room. I can't be thankful enough for your constant support and encouragement. It means so much to me. xxxx

Being such a fan of the Victorian era I couldn't help not turning the magazine into a miniature. Then again I thought of actually sharing a tutorial how to do them.

Making The PRIZE miniature magazine.

I have found some nice 'The Prize' cover magazine and downsized them and turned them into miniature magazines. In the sheet that I prepared, you will find 12 miniature magazine covers and a template for the inner pages.

Things you need:

You need to print the The Prize Magazine Cover Sheet on a printable A4 white cardboard.

Some white craft tissue paper

A metal ruler

A scalpel craft knife

A Glue stick

A pair of scissors

Step 1:

Before starting cutting the magazine cover sheet, it is important that you score the spine of the magazine very gently using the metal ruler as a guide and the craft knife. Be careful not to press the blade to hard on the sheet because it will tear very easily. Use the guidelines that I have made over and below each magazine  to find the center of the magazine cover. Scoring the cover of the magazine, makes it easier to fold and definitely it will look much neater.

Step 2

Using a scissors cut out the magazine covers and also the template for the inner pages.

Step 3:

Fold the magazine covers and put them aside. After scoring the cardboard magazine sheet,  you will find it very easy to fold the cover and they do keep a nice shape.

Step 4:

Using the inner page template for size, cut out 4 pieces from your craft tissue paper sheet. Each miniature magazine contains 4 pieces. The pages of the magazine will be blank but it will look much fuller with a few pages in it (for the 12 magazine covers you will be needing 48 pieces)

Step 5:

Fold each inner page piece in half that you just have cut from the craft tissue paper. Add a little glue on the fold (spine) of the page and stick it to the center of the fold of the other page. 

Doing so you will be having 4 inner pages folded and stuck together. If the pages came slightly uneven, all you have to do is fold the pages and just trim all around excluding the folded part (the spine of the pages)

Step 6:

Before gluing the cover to the pages make sure that the pages fit in nicely to the cover. When you are happy with the setting of the pages in the cover,  add a little glue in the center of the magazine cover and press the folded pages inside it. 

Put something heavy on the closed magazine until the glue settles.

Here are the finished miniature "The Prize" Magazine collection for your dolls houses.

I have already used my miniature magazine which is the same one of the framed picture for one of my projects.

I thought little Heather, who is residing at the moment at J.R. Art Gallery might like a copy of her own. 

I almost forgot! Talking about "The Prize" magazine, it just reminded me that we have a winner to announce for the free give away! So the tiny miniature book will go to Veronique Blommaart. Congratulations Veronique! Please contact me by email with your postal details so I can send it to you. For the rest don't worry there will be more give-aways to come in the near future!

Hope you have liked today's blog post. It's a bit different from usual but I couldn't not share such a wonderful and meaningful piece! Besides, thanks to it, I got to do a tutorial too.

Keep tuned for the next update on the current project The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn, which is almost coming to an end. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx