Abalone Tiles

Ah, Baloney...!

Tiles Tiles and More Tiles, Dear Readers, is what I have to show you for this week! And a little bit of confusing structural expansion details because I had to extend the basic Framework for the Tree to make it taller! Here below you can see the Tree House as it now stands next to The Folly.....

I know it looks kind of awkward and rough like this with all the wires dangling and the outer skin not applied... but it gives you a sense of the placement and scale of the structure. And if you look closely at the top on the right you can see the "corner post" sticking up... this is what all the doors are attached to.... but it was not tall enough so I spliced another length on top....

You can see it closer here... 

and it also allows me to build the doors on the side 

for access to the two small rooms off the bathroom... 

one will be a dressing room and the other will hold the toilet....

And as with the Dressing Room on the level below.... 

the door to these side rooms will need to be somewhat curved! 

At least there is now a post to attach it to!

And these tiny rooms also needed the Tiles fit for their floors...

 

 

Here you can see the view from above with them partly tiled... 

with me testing the walls in place to make sure the tiles still allow the walls to fit....

And here you can see the walls have their paint 

and the tiles are mostly in place...

A Lot of fiddly fitting....

Here the doors into the bath room are open....

And you can see the shells and tiles I have added to the doors....

But I am getting ahead of myself here....

First I must tell you that at least a Dozen years ago, before I had allowed myself to start making miniature dollhouses, I bought a book that was all about Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle Dollhouse. I couldn't believe my eyes looking at the pictures of what she had made... and I was just enraptured by the whole idea of a Fairy Castle Dollhouse! I think it was at that moment that I started to believe that Someday I would make my own dollhouses! Amongst the many images from that book that stuck in my head, one was the floor tiled with Abalone Shell tiles...... I was smitten... and ever since I have wanted to make an Abalone Shell Tile floor! So when I found pieces of abalone shell in the jewelry section of Michaels... I had to buy it....

Even though it was not cheap... and there wasn't much of it!

As you know from previous posts, I decided to use a different shell for the floor after all....

So the Abalone pieces are being used for the walls....

which requires some fancy fitting to make them work with the space!

The doors required their own special treatment too....

I had several pieces of white tile identical to the dark ones I used for the fireplace surround....

they fit the doors quite nicely, 

especially when topped by a scallop shell which matches the shape of the door!

These are real scallop shells I have collected on the beach over the past few years!

Here you can see that I am trying to fit the different sized pieces of Abalone shell

trying to make them work with the overall design... and just put them where they will fit!

And I am using the small scrapbook tiles to fill in around the Abalone shell.... 

again trying to make a coherent design from disparate pieces!

And on top of that I am running out of the small tiles! I couldn't find more of them 

(I bought them several years ago before I had this planned!) 

so I am just patching it all together the best I can!

Here you can see I have filled in with the pale blue tiles.....

And if you look closely you will see that the unevenness of the design left tiny gaps between the rows of gold and blue tiles.... And here I decided to take advantage of this gap by inserting tiny LED lights and making sconces...... (which had not been part of the original plan....!)

Sorry it is so hard to see... if you poke the pictures they enlarge.....

I attached sequins below the bulb....

And more behind the bulb to act as reflectors......

And then we test the lights..... Wowee!!! They are Bright!!!!

So I added the Perfect shades.....

More scallop shells!!!

Isn't that Incredible???

We Have to see how it looks in place....

It is so difficult to get the lighting and focus right inside these Tiny rooms...!

You can sort of see the effect I am trying to achieve.....

It really isn't an Abalone floor after all.....

And I am running out of Tiny Tiles.....

One might be tempted to say "Ah Baloney!"

But I am going to stick with Abalone!

Tiles, Tiles and More Tiles....