Architecture doll house III

This is the third entry about the Architecture doll house that I've been making over the last few months. I wanted to update my old doll house (exhibition box). The old one had pink flowery wallpaper, old wooden furniture, etc. I really liked it as well but I wanted to create a modern doll house that showed some of the trends going on now. It'd be fun to make a new one every 10 years or so to see how design changes. What do you think? In this dollhouse I've included some of the trends of the last few years and perhaps future ones (?). You can see the progress of the doll house by looking at my previous enteries: I and II.

Included in the doll house I have made:

- A Random Moooi lamp.

- 3 Benjamin Hubert lamps which I hung in a twig to get the scandanavian naturistic style.

- A clock without numbers straight on the wall

- A cement kitchen island with gas

- A wooden rustic benchtop/table overlapping the cement kitchen. Cement has been a material used a lot in the last years and the combination with wood has become a classic.

- "recycled" materials such as the wine cork. (It has been in to use old wooden crates with writing on them)

- Grey rustic woolen rug.

For instructions on how to make these objects check out the previous enteries. I and II.

After doing the final touches yesterday the dollhouse is (almost) finished. I drilled 3 holes in the top to hang the lighting, glued the carpet on (I only noticed that the edge was lose after looking at the pictures, so that is fixed now). I drew a clock on the wall. I was undecided whether to draw the type of clock with the big numbers (just 12, 3, 6, 9) or like this. I also added the cork as a pot holder, an unused "benjamin hubert lamp" as a vase, and put some toothpicks in a clay jug for decoration. The only thing missing I think is a colourful painting in the background.

The kitchen table is made from soft wood used for architecture and boat models. I added a "glass" sheet that interlocks with the wooden benchtop. The glass has a horizontal slit and the wooden piece has a vertical slit.

A close-up of the Moooi Random light, the clock, and the corner with various objects. The cork I thought resembeled well the "recycle" approach to architecture and design that is popular nowadays.

View from above of the cement kitchen island with a wooden benchtop/table. The wannabe Benjamin Hubert lights are hanging from a twig from the ceiling.

This was a slightly earlier version. I took away the beer bottles in order to give less untidy look.

Architecture doll house II

My doll house is coming along well. For the begining of the "making of" click here. Yesterday I made the cement kitchen out of DAS. Das dries completely after about 2 days (depending on the size of the object you make) in room temperature. I did it in two parts: first the bench top and then the part that the benchtop sits on. When it had almost dried I used staples to make the gas stove.  I let it dry benchtop down in order to make sure it would remain straight.  I also made four lampshades out of cement that were supposed to resemble Benjamin Huberts cement lamps. Not sure if I suceeded but I really like them. I'm only going to use 3 of them and hang them on a twig that I found on my terrace the other day. Quite a scandinavian look I think. 

The making of the kitchen and Hubert lights.

Setting up the stage.

The cement items are left to harden.

The Benjamin Hubert lamps.

The kitchen section. The lights are going to go diagonally over the kitchen top and not hang out the front like this.

A detail of the kitchen top. Staples were used in order to make the gas stove.

Another version with the Moooi lamp. The Random Moooi light will hang in the corner of the left side.

Architecture doll house

I decided to re-new my doll house. I have lovely porcelain dolls that my grandma hand made! I also have some beautiful wooden furniture that I was givien to by my grandpas syblings when I turned 12. I used to love playing with doll houses when I was a kid and perhaps that was the begining of my architecture career? I also played with Lego, so I'm thinking that these two things combined were good for developing my creativity. This isn't actually a complete doll house but more like a "show room".I started looking at modern furniture for dollhouses this Christmas and realised that they are extremely expensive! The mini models of famous furniture such as the Myran chair, cost the same amount as a full-sized one. So that's when the thought came along that I should make my own mini-furniture. I had already made a Mies Van der Rohe chair for a university model so I knew that it was possible. That chair was in a smaller scale than this room will be but at least I knew it was possible. All the furniture won't be copies of famous furniture. So far I only know I'll make a "Moooi Random light" and a Benjamin Hubert light. There'll be a cement kitchen with a rustic dining table. And maybe a library area in the oposite corner with a bookshelf (have to deside which one in that case). So far so good. I will post another entry later on with the updates!

My Moooi light!

This is the final result of my Moooi lamp. I am very happy with it and it was nice to be able to give a handmade present for Christmas.

 To make your own Moooi "random" light you will need:
- A ball (I used a 55cm in diameter yoga ball) - yoga ball, beach ball, kids plastic ball, depending on how big you want it.
- 400 m of string. You can use both plastic string and paper string or even cotton yarn. Usually a ball of string is about 50 or 100m.
- Wall paper paste (I used 35g of powder that you mix with water for each ball). You can also buy ready made paste.
- Light bulb (look for a biiig one) either clear or not.
- Electric cable. At Bolagret you can find really funky colourful "rope cables" that look real nice!

Time required:
The first step will take you 2-3 hours and then consider 24 hours for the glue to completely dry.


Cost:
Ball:  2 - 12 euro (depending on what type you use)
String: 1 euro / ball of string = 4 euros.
Wallpaper paste: 3 euros
Big light bulb: 4 euros 
Electricity cable: 7 euros
Total cost: max 30 euros for first lamp shade and 18 euros for the next ones.
(The original Moooi Random light costs at least 450 euros and copies can be found from 80 euros)


The yoga ball I bought cost 12 euro but obviously I can use it again, so I hardly see this as a cost. And obviously if one plans to make many, you already have a ball that you can use.

Start by winding the string around the ball a few times (8-10 times) and then tie it together. Cut the string and start again. It doesn't matter if it always finishes at the same point. The easiest way to go is with the first ball of string to keep the same center point and go around and around.

With the next balls of string start in different points, always tying it to a previous string in order for it not to slip. Don't worry too much is a string becomes loose. You can cover it with a few layers of string and also the glue will make it firm in the end.

This is the ball after about 2-3 balls of string has been wound on.

You will need about 400m of string to cover a ball with a 55cm diameter. Make sure you leave an area without any string so that you can take the ball out. It only needs to be about 10-15cm large.

These are the two lamp shades that we made. A white and a blue.

We put a bit some plastic on the floor in order to avoid getting wallpaper paste on the floor. Then we just slabbed it on not being all too careful. Just make sure you turn the ball a few times while it's setting in order to avoid that the part sitting on the floor remains gooey and soft.

And this is the result!

Lovely shadows!

My lovely Moooi random copy!

Luxury vs. Budget I

When you start learning about design you can start to see the difference between a design piece and it's copy. It's not always easy though and at other times very obvious but one decides it's not important. The main reason one chooses the copy generally is the price. It's simply a choice.
I recently bought the coat hanger from Tiger for just 4 euros. I couldn't resist simply because I had seen the Charles Eames version live for the first time earlier that day and saw that it cost 250 euros. After having bought the Tiger coat hanger I went into Lagerhaus and saw that they also have a copy, (that I thought looked much worse than the Tiger one) for 14 euro. So I was very happy with my 4 euro budget coat hanger.
When it comes to the Moooi lamp, well it's a gem! It is truely beautiful. BUT I decided to make my own! I bought 400m (yes you need all of it) of plastic string used for wrapping presents, a yoga ball (that can obviously be cleaned and re-used) and paper machè glue. It took about 2 days all in all once I had everything I needed. A few hours to wind the string and a day for it to dry. Anyway, I'll do a detailed blog entry about that later on!