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miniarquitect

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Hello

This time I want to show you some bathrooms which I have made for different miniature houses.

As you know I build houses with an aesthetic of the beginning of XX century but with a contemporary feeling, this is the reason because of I use accesories and lights that, in some case, have been designed one hundred years after.

So, in these bathrooms I try to reproduce the atmosphere of these rooms, I keep the ancient cast iron bathtube and the bath sink, which in many cases was made in England, as I can do in a real restoration of a flat. But the toilet and the bidet are new ones. The toilet because the original ones have high cistern and this is quite inconvenient, and also because this piece was usually separated, so you have to put a new one in the bathroom. The bidet, because was not very common. So toilet and bidet are from the same collection while bathtube and sink are the original ones.

I also keep the same tiles, quite worn and no so shining, and up to a hight of 1,60 m, and I paint the rest of the wall. Although, as you can see in one of the toilets, all the wall is painted but has a varnish protection of 1,60 m also.

lights, as usually, are modern. And floors, as described in one of my topics.

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  • 1 year later...

This is stunning! I've said it before and I'm having to say it again, I never saw this thread! Thank you Bill for bringing it back to the front. I don't want to complain but I really don't care much for this software/site layout..........  (back to the front haha)

Seriously 500 people saw this and nobody commented??? These bathrooms are fantastic. I am so sorry I did not see it sooner----

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Hi, I agree with miracle chicken, your work is impressive. Being new to this forum ,I admit my navigation really needs improvement.You have a special talent for flooring and tile wall treatments. They look so very convincing and really give you the feeling of that time period. Did you hand carve your simulated white porcelain towel rack fixtures? They are remarkably detailed and add to that period feeling .I think bathrooms in miniature houses can often be one of the most challenging rooms to make, and it is always fun to decide whether you want period fixtures of the time the house was built, modern fixtures in an older house, or both. But that's part of the fun. With a Cumberland house I built, the original house may not have had a bathroom at all ( only an outhouse) until the family could afford ( or "modernize") to add one to the house-so the entire bathroom house addition would have to be simulated in miniature.Fun.

I also love the way you got your shower curtains to hang so naturally- that is so hard to do ( I have even tried using plastic from grocery bags!) ha! I really enjoy your photos .

Thank you, Gail

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Hello Bill, Thank you for your interest, frankly, I had forgotten this post I wrote more that one year ago!!

Gail, the towel rack fixtures, the original one is carved, but after I made a silicone mould to fill them with polyurethane resin. And the shower curtain, of course it is made with a grocery bag!!, but not those plastic one I use those biological one, made of potato fecula!!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Beautiful and Inspiring work as always. You capture the illusion of the rooms so beautifully that you have to really look twice to spot they are not full size.

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Great work Francisco, when I was teaching in Norway Janne had some miniature magazines for us to read, one evening I paged through a few of them and came across this article on how to make a basin, I was about halfway through looking at the step by step photos when I thought...surely this must be your work, I checked who wrote the article and I was right! It was fascinating to see how you transform a few pieces of wood into these wonderful basins that looks like the real thing.

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Hello Elga

 

As you may imagine all this process is followed to build an original piece that I will use to make a silicone mould.

It is not very practical to repeat them each time somebody wants to buy a  bath basin!

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Yes, I did wonder about that as I assumed you made molds, for somebody who has never made molds it is still fascinating to see how the prototype is built, having used molds to cast dolls and a friend that sculpts I know there are a lot of factors involved in getting it right so that the final product is easily released from the mold.

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You are right. One important problem is how the final piece is released from the mold. It means that when I build the prototype, I am always thinking in this moment.

 

But in my case there is even a bigger problem. As you know, I work with mortars that reproduce colors and textures of real stones. But the face which is used to fill the mould, in contact with air, these properties change. So I have to choose a surface that is going to be hidden, and, obviously, (Peter's principle!) it's always the worse possible!. So I have to think the cutting of a stone façade according to that, sometimes adding joints (logicals but not necessaries). or moulds in three parts..

 

But I still think that your carving work is more difficult!

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The basins are beautiful bathroom editions... I love the basins that are painted in the style of an "old masters" hand with painted florals... they were always on the back of home design magazines like Architectural Digest.  The silver basin is wonderful... makes me want to remodel a real life bathroom.  This basin is lovely, but probably not appropriate for my dream Georgian Build.

 

ah... perhaps these will be available at the Madrid Show, and I can see the quality is impeccable!

 

The molds are very cool, and something I would love to learn how to create..

 

Tamra

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Hello Tamra,

These basins are contemporary. It is quite sad the lack of interest about designs of XX century (and XXI!).

As I said once about the work of Atomic Miniaturist, modern or contemporary pieces have the difficulty of reproduce something in a small scale as well as the use of materials absolutely naked and minimun thicknesses that, in this scale, are always unstable.  

At the end, 3D printers will be the only way of having an "acceptable" modern miniatures.

And here, in Spain, in Europe it is something quite common that you can find an inox basin or toilet with modern finishings in a Romanic Monastery of XIII century, after a renovation.. . Or in your case, a modern appartment in a skyscraper in NY plenty of "comodes", Louis XII chairs, "boiserie"...

Contemporary miniatures are not necessary ugly or of second league... Depends on us!

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I think we all agree that there are fantastic artists in the modern field today...but in the end it still boils down to personal taste, I love antique furniture and my real house are full of them and I enjoy making those pieces that I might never be able to afford or have place for in my modest size house.

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Yes Elga. You are right, it is a question of taste, of course!

But, although you like ancient pieces of furniture, you dress like XIX century?. Do you have a modern cooker, fridge or washing-machine?. Your bathroom is victorian with original pieces?, all your lights are chandeliers, no led bulb or halogen?... your real decoration is according to the style and period of your house?...

We don't live in a bubble and sometimes I will like to see more flexibility. modern and ancient style miniatures looks like two separated worlds, like oil and water, and real life is quite more interest and rich. And don't forget one thing: when you build a Rococo, or Tudor scene with electrical lamps, you are opening the door to any kind of anachronism.
 

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No, you can keep the clothes of older times, and yes of course I have the modern appliances in my house, although most of them are hidden in the scullery while my kitchen itself looks more like a traditional farmhouse kitchen with the build-in cupboards done up in a way that makes them look like seperate pieces with quite a few pieces of loose furniture and the walls covered in blue and white plates.

And hmm, I have two Victorian style bathrooms with reproductions baths and a 1940's cupboard in mine that has the basin on top to similate a wash bowl...guess I am a lost case!

But I do love my modern technology gadgets...and if anybody wants to give me a Porche I will take it happily.

In my miniature house I want to capture the feel of the past while I don't really want to live back in those days myself. I do think though that slowly more people are turning to the mix you are talking about in miniature, I do see it on quite a few blogs and FaceBook.

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Dear Elga,

you are not a lost case... I think!

As This post is about bathrooms let me show some examples:

This is from the flat in Barcelona where we live few years ago. We kept the original bath tub (cast iron) as well as the basin, English, from the begining of XX century. The building was built in 1906 circa.

 

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These are from the country house where I live: Cast iron bath tub, grey marble and white marble basin (originally were ancient kitchen sinks) and showers made of stone.

 

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I understand you perfectly....But I don't  mind a warm and modern design if it is made with good taste! and not all old and ancient things a necessarily better

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Those are all lovely bathrooms Francisco!

And yes not all old things are necessarily better, just as not all modern things are good either, but a good mix of quality pieces from different era's can be wonderful. This past Saturday we went antique shopping and my youngest daughter went with. It was interesting to see that she loved the really old desks, tables and bookcases but also liked some of the vintage 1960's and 1970's furniture and accessories and said that she would like a good mix in her house one day, up until now she hasn't shown any interest in antique furniture.

And I have been thinking since my last post, most of my friends both here and overseas mix modern with older pieces in their dollhouses and room boxes, I actually know very few who religiously stick to a specific time period, they all say it is too limiting.

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  • 2 years later...

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