A cautionary tale

I have heard about mini folks chopping of various bits of appendages whilst working on some project or another and wondered how they did this.  Surely, when concentrating on something small you know exactly where your bits are in relationship to a sharp implement.  It is a curse being smarter than everyone else!

I was cutting 1/16th cardboard and managed to slice off the top right corner of this digit including finger nail.  Received wisdom says if it is still hanging on by a thread stick it down with superglue so it can heal.  Why this is a step too far for me I have no idea, so mine is fastened back on to my finger with two tight Bandaides and my other fingers remain crossed that it joins back up again.

So, please, please..... if you do lots of steel ruler (yes mine was steel) and sharp knife cutting do not be a cheapskate like me - buy a proper one..... with a protective edge (or any other safety feature), like this one .......

Here's what I was doing before slashing flesh stopped play.

I've messed about with a ton of notions for the small library but in the end I decided to keep it simple.  Firstly, put the door at the back of the room so we can see into the corridor behind.  Then have bookshelves on that wall and the two adjoining side walls.  The dolls house hinge impinges on the right hand wall so I don't want to bring the shelves right to the front edge.  this gives me the opportunity to add in a little furniture.  There will be two corner chairs (actually corner shaped) and a small work table and chair and bob's your whiskers.

Being unable to visualise stuff in 3D, I decided to mock up the shelves to see how they looked in terms of volume - hence the cardboard/finger slice disaster.

This is just stand-in furniture and won't be used here.

There will be a four foot wide (RL measurment) bookshelf either side of the door with a shelf and trim running over the door connecting them.  On each side wall will be a six foot bookshelf, probably divided down the centre into two three foot wide sections.  All with cupboards underneath.

I don't want corner shelf units as they eat up the space and they don't accommodate books very well; so mine will just have a simple butt join.  Right now the idea is to top them with small plain coving which will then continue round the room.  The bottom edge will be trimmed with skirting board and also continue round the room.

I am pretty sure I want them painted rather than the usual brown wood.  This would be in keeping with their original incarnation..... here's my two year old description of this room .....

Library
This room was originally a service room for the dining room (now the music room) and had built in shelving around the room for dishes etc.  It seemed an ideal place to store Elizabeth's massive collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century books.  There is no fireplace here and the room now has a sophisticated system to control the temperature (constant 70 F), light (automatic shades at the window and individual 'spot' lighting where needed) and humidity (50%).

This is more a book repository than a working library.  Elizabeth tends to do most of her work in her office which is located on the ground floor in one of the old service rooms. However, there is a small table and some chairs in case books are just being used for a short while and don't need to be taken out of the room.



(25/09/16)