Miniatures: Furniture

The trouble with having a Dolls House is that it needs to be furnished. One can buy ready-made Tudor furniture overseas but there's not much choice here in South Africa.
	The Four Poster Bed I searched our Miniature Guild Library for a Four Poster Bed and found a few for sale by UK artisans but nothing on how to make one. I did, however, find a photo of a genuine bed on an auction site on the web but no measurements. The design of the original was very ornate and I have made it much simpler. A couple of years as a trainee draughtsman, way back in my distant past, proved useful! (Not to mention a low-end CAD programme - Imsi's Turbo-CAD v. 2.00 - which makes life easy no matter what you are drawing!) I decided that, in all likelihood, the base of the bed would be probably be about 18" off the the floor and not much longer than 5'6". I kept the size smaller than a modern bed (men were shorter in those bye-gone days!) as I wanted it to fit into the bedroom and still leave a little room for other furnishings! This was enough to work out the rest of the measurements.
	The Corner posts were turned on a Minicraft Drill/Lathe, from pine. The back panel. bed ends and roof are all plywood and the bed base is thin pine strips. The square panelling is very thin strip wood from a window blind cut to size with mitre snips. The only purchased wood is the trimming on the lower section of the back panel and edging the bed ends and roof. Four Poster Bed (.zip file, right click, "save target as...") These are the plans only - there are no instructions
Tudor Settle

Design "borrowed" from a photo in a magazine. This is not the high backed variety but more like a pew - once again made from plywood and strip wood from a window blind. The seat is hinged and lifts for storage. As this is not my original design, the plans are not available.
Tudor Stool and Bellows
	I designed these for a Workshop at the Miniaturia Guild of Cape Town - the stool is pine and is assembled with the aid of a simple jig. The design on the seat is hammered using simple found objects. The Bellows are made from gelutong with jewellery findings trims and thin leather.

	Furniture

	© 2008 Sue Farmer - Butterfly Minds