Hi! So, I just found the most amazing cake tutorial ever. Here's the website: http://www.cdhm.org/tutorials/making-a-miniature-cake.html. This is the best. It made the cakes I'm making look sooooo professional. I'll post pics of them soon. Also, if you have time, please check out this blog: http://cynthiascottagedesign.blogspot.com/. Bye!

Lots and Lots of Medieval Food

Hi! I have finally completed all of my medieval fruits, vegetables, meats, and fishes. I've been working very hard on all of them. If there is a certain type you want to know how to make, just comment below!



Here are my meats! On the top right, I have two different types of sausages. On the bottom right, I have some lamb legs. Bottom left are geese. Above the geese, I have a hanging pig, a turkey, dead rabbits, roast turkeys, a roasted boars head, hanging fowls, and stakes.



Top right I have some eels, next to them, I have some little crawdads. Next, I have some river fish in a basket. Below the basket of fish, I have some mackerels. I then have some rainbow trout, fish stakes and some large fish.



These are leeks.

These are yellow and green pears.



These are figs, freshly picked.



  

These are apples.

These are peaches.

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These are plums.

These are carrots.









These are cabbages.

So, as you can see I have been hard at work. I hope you like all the food!!!!



Finished Plague Victims and Dead Bodies

Hi! I have finally completed my bodies and dead people! Here are pics:



To make my linen wrapped body look dirty and gross, I used dry (not oil) artists pastels. I scribbled with the brown pastel on a piece of paper and mixed it with an teeny tiny bit of water. I then used my finger to spread the pastel over the body in smudges.




Here is a picture of my finished dead cart with the bodies. I stained the dead cart a darker color, used a thin black wash over it, and then scored it with the blunt end of a craft knife, to make it look like there are many planks nailed together to built the cart. I also used a super fine tipped black sharpie marker to dot little nail holes.




Here are pictures of my finish living, or freshly deceased, plague victims. I used blue and black pastels mixed with water to give my people a blueish black tinge. The lady in green is gonna have a head covering and be a dead body, because she has plastic hair, which I don't like.



As you can see,  all my dead people are looking a lot more realistic and dead. Here's one more picture of a new creation:



This is a tiny jar of leeches for my plague hospital. To make it, I first used black clay and made some leeches mirroring those I found in pictures. My favorite leech picture that I mirrored my tiny ones on is below. After I baked my leeches, I used a hardening clear liquid, like scenic water. I melted this with a makeshift double boiler and poured it in my jar in layers, putting in the leeches a few at a time. I put in my cork and I was done! I'm going to cover the cork with a brown linen, but other then that, I'm finished!



So, as you can see I'm really progressing fast. I'll be posting pics of my medieval food dollhouse soon. I've mostly glued it together, so hopefully (cross you fingers for me) it will be done by the end of the week.

Bye!

Building

Hi! Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I've been really busy. I was just cast in the show called Annie, so I've had rehearsals and stuff. However, I have got lots of work done on my doll houses. My mom and I have decided to enter a competition with medieval meat, fish, vegetable, and bakery shops, so I now have two doll houses to work on.

For the plague hospital, I have been doing a lot of work. So far, I have my wooden shell put together, bricked, and painted the base color. Here are pics of each step:

(Sorry the pic is sideways... I'm not very computer savvy and I couldn't figure out how to rotate it. to do the bircks, I used some stuf that comes in a red tub called "Wallboard Joint Complex. It comes in gigantic tubs the are sold at ace hardware, probably home depot, and other such stores. The consistancy of it is thick and goopy. After spreading it on my wooden structures, I used a flexible plastic palate knife the trace brick lines in it, leaving blank lines the thinkness of my second floor, so I can just pop it in easily. After my bricks were dry, i painted with with a paint color called "Latte", as a base coat.)



This is the painted building. Over the latte base paint, I used a maple water based stains, mixed with water (always mix paints with some water, It helps them spread, and makes your paint last longer. Just be careful about your added water quantities, you don't want too much) and lightly coated my bricks. I then gently used a rag to dab away the extra paint. Over this, I paint a very watery wash of the latte color, which I almost immediately wiped away. I then used a water black wash, and a watery burnt sienna wash to paint a few random brick different colors. I wiped the excess from these, and tah dah!!!! My bricks were done!!!





For the floor, I first painted it a base color of mud stone paint, then i did a series of washes of brown and finally a VERY watery wash of black. If you make one, just keep experimenting until you get the look you want.

I've also been hard at work on bricking and painting my shop buildings, but the look pretty much the same as the plague hospital, so I won't show you pics until it's all put together.

All I have left to do for the plague hospital is put in my second floor, my roof, and decorate my interior, as well as strategically place the rat i made!!!! But, I'll write more on my rats, and my finish dead people and bodies in my next post!!! Bye!