The Olde Abbey at Christmas ~ another christmas celebration at Bearcabinminiatures

Well, we have seen 'Woolembees At Christmas' and the 'Wizards and Witches' having their good old knees up in the Library, so now its over to to The 'Old Abbey' to see whats going on in there....

The Christmas Tree is sparkling and looking through the window, is that someone sitting inside?

It's Christmas and everyone has gone to The Olde Abbey...

Flora has just arrived, but it's standing room only...

The little Olde Abbey is full...

of christmas happiness and celebration....

and present sharing....

Merry Christmas from the Olde Abbey

Just the Santa Cabin to go now and then it will be christmas :)

Julia xxx


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Christmas at the Olde Abbey

There is still quite a bit of work to do on the Olde Abbey. I have more 'ageing' to do on the internal walls, weeds to plant outside and that huge window still needs its stained glass! But with christmas nearly upon us and two days off, I decided it was time to make a little christmas scene in the Olde Abbey. So in has gone the tree, surrounded by pressies and the pews and aisles are filled with everybody I could find from my various houses. Quite pleased with how it is looking, I took my photo when the light was good and downloaded it to my computor. Then... in walked the son.... who has an eye for everything and never misses a thing.... and guess what..... he has spotted a mistake! One of my candles on the candle table has fallen sideways and is now leaning against my angle, my protests of 'Well it's not lit!' has fallen on deaf ears and now I have to take everything back out to get too that pesky candle. I will be glueing it down this time, not just tacky waxing it!!!!

Julia xxx

The Olde Abbey has stained glass

Working 13 days in a row has left me with no time to make minis, but I did manage to have a little play around with the glass paints for some of the Olde Abbey's stained glass windows. For the top window, I used a picture of a real church window as my template and placed it under my acetate. I then drew around the outline with a black outliner glazing pen and filled in the design with my own colours, which I mixed up from red, yellow and blue glass paints. The large window is going to take some planning, as I want it to be really impressive, but for now, I have leant some 'leaded' glass against the middle section of the window.

For the side windows, I used the same outliner pen to draw the lines of 'lead' and then made up a slightly mustardy yellow colour to gently 'wash' over the windows. I was pleased with the way it  turned out, as it looks as if the glass is really old.

I also did a bit of work on the roof and subjected it to some lichen and moss!!

Oh, and we have grass!!

Julia :0) xx

The Olde Abbey has a roof!!

Work on the Olde Abbey has been slow, but tonight we found time to paint window surrounds and wood stain the roof shingles. All the roof needs now is a bit of moss and the roof will be done. Next, I have to paint the stained glass to go in the windows!

The Olde Abbey ~ Part 3

Before I start rabbiting on about the exterior stonework, let me first apologise for the lateness of this post. I had said I would be posting part 3 of the olde abbey on the weekend and it is now tuesday, but I have been busy with the 'bill - paying' job!! and have been too exhausted when getting home at 9.15 pm to sit and concentrate on this post!!

Anyway, here it is, I hope it will be of use to those of you who want to give stoning an exterior wall a go.

The stone compound we use is from Bromley Crafts, their website is,
http://www.craft-products.com/dolls-house-brick-stone-tiles.asp

You will need fast tack positionable glue, (which we buy from our local store) a brick or stone stencil and the brick or stone compound, both available from Bromley crafts. The compound arrives in a dry state and you mix it with water to form a paste. You then spray the stencil and lay it on your piece to be stoned. Hywel uses a decorators wallpaper scraper to apply the compound and then once you are happy with the cover, you gently pull the stencil upwards and away. After a quick wash and dry of the stencil, you repeat the process again until you have finished your piece or need a tea break!!


















When all the pieces are covered, we leave the compound overnight and then give it a light sanding down, which can be dusty, so it's best to do it outside. The finished stone can then be painted or aged as you wish. You can see from the top photo that I have started to age the stonework on the Olde Abbey. I used acrylic paints to add the darker grey stone and moss effect. Then, when you are happy with that, you give it a little coat of clear varnish to seal it and your done!

A little tip, use non-yellowing clear varnish if you don't want to darken the finished stone colour.

The Old Abbey ~ Part 2

Hywel has been busy in the garage laying the floor - the miniature floor in the Old Abbey that is!! I couldn't decide whether to use floor boards or have a flagstone floor, so poor Hywel patiently laid out the floor boards, fashioned the walls around the base so that I could an idea of what it would look like when all put together and ... I wasn't happy with it!! Good job he hadn't stuck them down was his only comment!

So, next he mixed up a tray of grey mortar compound, spread it over the base and left it to harden overnight. Yesterday, I marked out the flagstones, sanded it all down to give a worn, patchy look and sealed it with clear varnish. It looked great, but.... it didn't look right against the stone exterior walls. Too much grey.... so it was removed with a lot of mumblings and huffing and puffing from Hywel....oops!! (The garage is attached to the house and the door between the kitchen and garage is always open, so I cant escape the mutterings, if I do try, they get louder, funny that!!)

Then last night, the mutterings from the garage turned into a 'I am doing the floor and you don't get a say in it this time' Huh, I haven't been well, I am allowed to change my mind.

Anyway, I hate to admit it, but his new floor looks fab, he cut the floorboards in half length ways to make them thinner and then arranged them in a pattern. The photo doesn't do the floor justice, it does look good, (don't tell him I said so though) Once varnished it the pattern will be more visible and it looks much better against the stone exterior walls.

Next weekend, the Old Abbey blog post will be all about the stone exterior walls.

Below is a taster........

For anyone interested in Miniature churches, there is a fabalous website http://www.miniaturechurch.co.uk/ and they now have a blog St. Hilary's Miniature church

The church was made by Vic Newey and it has loads of wonderful residents and tales to tell.

The old Abbey ~ Part 1

Before I start rambling on about my new project, I thought I would show you photos of an earlier church we made. It was a lovely church, but due to lack of room, we sold it earlier this year. It went to a lovely new home in America, where thankfully it is well loved. The exterior was old stone which I had aged and mossed and the front porch had real lead! All the stained glass windows were hand painted by yours truly and boy, did they take months! There was even a little hedgehog, sitting by on the grass on one side :0)

Inside, Hywel had laid real floorboards and I made loads of little trimmings, etc. Of course, I didn't sell my little vicar, who was made for me by Julie of Bellabelle dolls. He will take up residence in the old abbey once it is completed, although the abbey will be smaller than he is used too!! (due to the lack of space) The abbey will be just big enough for a couple of pews down each side side and of course the pulpit. Big enough for a lovely christmas display, but small enough to fit on my sideboard!

As you can see in the photos, the work on the old abbey has begun with the windows being stained and the inside walls have had a rough coat of pollyfilla. We use ready made 'shops own' pollyfilla, which is cheap enouigh and we roughly apply it with an old knife. Once dry, we then 'wash' it with cold coffee to give the old aged plaster effect. At the moment, I am trying to decide what to put on the floor. Originally, it was going to be floorboards again, like the old church, but I quite fancy old grey flagstones, I will have to have a play around with the both and then decide. The roof will be cedar shingles again, as they look the part and can easily be mossed and for the inside Hywel is busy cutting and aging wooden beams.....