More pictures of the Gothic Mansion at night....
Of course, Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, does her patrol of the rooms after the guests and family have retired for the evening....
'Twas the night before Christmas....and all through the house.
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...except Mrs. Danvers...
who was on patrol....
Spooky and yet so lovely!~ The countdown to Christmas continues! Lisa
I finally have some pictures of the dolls decorating the tree of the Gothic Mansion! And they are lovely....
Yesterday, I worked on the structure that will be Santa's candy factory and also started decorating the tree in the Gothic mansion...I got some surprising photos, I did not think these turned out all that great until I started editing.
Here is a photo of the full structure...
I am still way behind on the Set B of this set. I have had some starts and had to scrap what I started because it did not work structurally. Fitting it together so it can be photographed and so it will hold props, dolls, is time consuming especially when working with materials like foamboard, insulation board, etc. as well as wood.
Enjoy!~Lisa
I finished editing the photos of Agnes at the mansion, and I'm really pleased with them. I have never really given alot of re-dress time to this lovely diva, and I'm glad I took the time to go through some of my dresses. The gown she is wearing is Concerto in M Agnes Von Weiss who was one of the very first Agnes at a W Club convention, who I was lucky enough by chance to win on a w club lottery on the forums. That doll is my favorite doll and her mansion is the mansion, Maison de la Royale, which resides in the doll room. I think in all right now I have about five Agnes dolls. They are quite literally taking over. She is one of my favorite characters,next to Elise Jolie and Victoire and of course, Poppy.
She is so very stunning, isn't she? I just cannot get oer how she is so chic in this dress. She kind of oozes the 30's and 20's sleekness. I so loved that period with the furs, and the silk clinging to the body.
Here's a little black and white and a little light play to give you an idea. Her luggage is in the background as she's just arrived home from the city for a weekend houseparty to the country. Let the cocktails begin, but after tea, of course...
A whole view of the mansion with the columns. Construction will begin as soon as the prop I have ordered arrives and Set B will be in full swing and my schedule settles down a bit from this week. Since Halloween is over with, I can rest now with the spooky dolls and begin to work on the mansions' Thanksgiving and Christmas decor in full splendor. Though it is a 'gothic' mansion , like all mansions it has a extravagant/luxury factor and I want to take advantage of that with my divas.
Part of the inspiration for this 'set' or diorama has been my Pinterest board,
Miniature Set Building and some wonderful pins of the movie, and its behind the scenes set builders- The Boxtrolls. Mainly of their homes, the lovely staircase, and the characters, the town, and so on. Other movies as well that required animation. Building dollhouses is much like miniature set building but 1:6 scale is really when it gets into set building as the figures are life like and articulated and there is more detail. And the Gothic Mansion- Dark Hollows- is the culmination for me, of a dream of building a set. Just to see if I could do it.
Today I will be getting lighting in my shop.I had purchased some lights to set up as my lighting sucked and it is difficult to take photos as once that upper floor was put in, the lower floor was very dark and there was no way to light it to get really good photos. These lights are extremely bright so I am going to have soften them so that will be another problem as it is a limited space. I may have to take one wall down to photograph this which will be difficult. One of the things that is great about this is the challenge of figuring out all the problems! It is fun, believe or now. I'm finally also getting to play with all my dolls.
Here are some photos of Agnes that I will leave you with....
Tomorrow will be a busy, and hectic day as there is a doll show so I hope to get some pictures, and some cool items for the mansion. If not, I will have a post up later in the week!~Lisa
I have been preoccupied with getting the columns for the interior of the mansion done. One of the problems I faced was not only my schedule but the PVC material I chose to make the columns out of. PVC pipe is coated with a laminate of some sort as I was informed by my hubby, who works with it and cut down the columns with his saw for me since his PVC pipe cutters were too small for this pipe thickness. So the columns had to be sprayed in very thin layers with the spray paint and allowed to dry in stages, which takes longer. It got done, just took me longer with my schedule and I haven't had time to get by the shop to work on anything else lately.
So here is a picture with the columns installed! And some of my more 'new' Fashion Royalty ladies enjoying the mansion, who haven't had much camera time.
These two photos show the downstairs and upstairs with the columns in place and a doll able to stand on the upstairs floor for staging.
Some of these ladies are fairly recent acquisitions such as Edge Vanessa and Mademoiselle Jolie, but Purity Dasha has just recently been de-boxed a few months ago when I was doing hat commissions and needed a really snooty model. I think she was from 2013 or 2014? W club. I never de-boxed her as I was so undecided on her but could not bring myself to sell her. I loved her face sculpt and skin tone and wanted to find the right evening gown for her before I began to put her in another outfit. Right now I am shopping for long, beautiful evening gowns for my girls, as I would like to have a really big evening event for them. More on that later. I think Dasha looks stunning next to this red velvet wallpaper, don't you?
I think this is another Vanessa. She too, is still in her original outfit except for the shoes, which are Starlight Poppy's. Out Sass Vanessa- that's it. I never could bring myself to undress her because she made such a fantastic shopper in that cute suit for LaBelle's. Some dolls I debox and they just become continuous shoppers in my town. This time I would like to find a gown for that beautiful hair.
Mademoiselle Jolie expects service and expects it quickly! The great and powerful Oz is the perfect butler in that suit. Some dolls, especially playline ones, make the perfect maid, cook or butler in my dioramas because of their looks or articulation. Oz has and was purchased with the full intention of being Agnes' butler or footman from Day 1 of his arrival in the dollhouse.
I will have more pictures up as I edit them and watermark them. Regretfully, I have had to begin to watermark my pics instead of just posting them as I have found some of my pictures have been used without my permission or without someone asking in the past, so I am attempting to take this measure.
I will have some more photos up tomorrow, this is it on the progress so far. Hopefully that much needed prop for the rest of the mansion's progress will arrive by next week and we can get on with the next wing's building or rather, Set B!
Welcome, Welcome to the Witches' Tea Party!
Oh Dear, you are rather late. Good Evening...I am Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper of Dark Hollows Manor......
....'Do come in, don't be shy. The witches are waiting, I'm sure they won't put a 'spell' on you, cackle''.....
As you enter the Dark Hollows mansion, to the Witches Tea Party, prepare for some spicey tea that is smoking hot, with cakes of red velvet ....no need to ask their ingredients....mahahaha........
Inside, tea is indeed 'smoking hot' with tarts and red velvet cakes thick with cream....served by an elegant hostess Witch....
Oh the horror of it! Sarcophagus in the parlor! And our guest Witch of Oz is the Wicked Witch of the East, no less, waiting for her sister from the West who has not yet arrived...Morticia Addams, and Lucy, are both politely partaking of the Witchy tea and cakes....in this Gothic mansion.....
As the tea cools, and the guests chat over their ghoulish plans for Halloween, and all the rest of October, the witching hour of tea comes to a close as the hour chimes on the grandfather clock.....and the gargoyle statues brood over the door and the fireplace....and our witchy tea party comes to an end.....
Run, don't walk for that door! Mrs. Danvers will see you out!
Hope you had a be-witching time at our 1:6 scale witches' tea party!
~Lisa
Be sure to visit Vanessa's Main Witches' tea at the
Fanciful Twist Witches Tea Party where you can blog hop with a whole list of bloggers who are having a tea party today, on October 24th! Leave comments in the comment section of my blog and I will try and visit your blog too!
**A note, for tomorrow----
Thank you for visiting my blog. I am doing this blog post on Friday so it will be up early in time for the tea party for Saturday, as I will be too busy in the evening and morning to post, and wanted to make sure it was up! So just a note, if I don't respond immediately tomorrow, I will eventually answer all of the comments. Lisa
'Twas the night before Christmas....and all through the house. 
