More "blemish" than "Flemish"....

Working on the Mini House Project has made me look much harder at my surroundings than I previously have done.

Although I believe I know every corner of our dusty little Victorian pile, staring at one small part of it for hours, while you try to replicate it in miniature, can throw up unexpected challenges.

For instance, I'm pretty certain in the 9 years we have lived at No1. Heatherside Corner, I must have noticed at some point, that the front door was glazed with "Flemish" patterned obscure glass. After all, I have polished it and the two round bullion panels, on numerous occasions.

And I've peered through it even more times, at countless unexpected callers, before opening the door.

I'm sure anyone on the other side must have noticed. Or at least they had hoped that the large distorted face, with googley eyes looming out of the gloom at them, was down to the pattern in the glass, and not a permanent trait of the inhabitant's countenance.

So I'm not sure why, after having finished the miniature arched door for the Mini House, that one morning as I was dragged through the real one by an eager Furball on the way to his ablutions, I was slightly surprised to notice it wasn't glazed with plain glass.

I don't know what that says about me, although I don't ever remember sewing an "Observancy" badge to the arm of my Brownie uniform, which suggests I was never awarded one, and therefore it's something of a relief to know I haven't let myself down.

But having already made the miniature door and sealed in the glazing, when this epiphany took place, I was faced with a dilemma.

How to turn the glass, already firmly in situ, with no way of removal, into "Flemish" patterned obscure glazing.

I had a few unsuccessful trials with a spare piece of window glass and various clear substances, before turning to the web for inspiration.

Step forward Deluxe Materials Glue 'n' Glaze, which annoyingly I could have bought in person at the City of London Dolls House Fair a couple of weeks before, had I known that 1) it existed, or 2) that I would need it a fortnight after I had trotted past their stand on my way to ogle the miniature plant stall.

That aside, after considerable research on the subject, I decided this was the stuff to save the day.

The product, designed for glazing dolls house windows, can be applied in the required thick white "gloops"- technical term*, and dries crystal clear over a period of days.

As I type, it still probably needs a couple more days to dry completely clear but the general effect is there.

Not quite "Flemish", maybe a little more "blemish".

But guaranteed to distort the tiny face of any occupant of the Mini House beyond recognition, and therefore my work here is done.

There was some trial and error on a spare piece of glass before taking the bullions by the horns

Almost dry. All that is missing is the googley-eyed face looming towards you from the other side....

From Oxford Dictionaries
gloop

Pronunciation: /gluːp/

Definition of gloop

[mass noun] informal sloppy or sticky semi-fluid matter, typically something unpleasant:

The arched front door

Although the plan was to make the inside of the Mini House echo the interior of No 1. Heatherside Corner, the outside was never going to look the same. For a start, we don't have an ornate wooden veranda on either level, or bay and dormer windows.

The real deal

We do have an arched oak front door though, which is something the Mini House did not possess.

In fact, its front door was a little odd. While most of the external fittings were obviously part of the original kit, its previous owner had gone "off roading" when it came to the front door. It was half the size it should have been, and only the most vertically challenged Bender would have been able to walk upright through it.  So it had to go.

I'm not blessed with an aptitude for carpentry. So armed with my Bosh multi tool and a sense of purpose, but with a slight feeling of dread that if I got this bit wrong I would ruin the whole of the front of the house, I made a bigger hole.

With my rudimentary woodworking skills holding me back somewhat, I had hoped that I would be able to buy an arched front door kit. But it became apparent from searching the various dolls house forums, that unless I wanted a large glass-free ledge and brace church door, I was out of luck.

Without the necessary skills to whittle one from scratch, I settled for the next best thing. Divine inspiration, you could call it. I bought a gothic church window kit instead.  This gave me the frame (cut down as the door frame) and the internal surround (which became the surround of the actual door).

Together with some window struts left over from the first patio door kit I bought (which went wrong at an early stage and fell apart), and an off-cut of ply, I have made a slightly wonky, but reasonable stab at an arched door.

The addition of two glass bullseyes was supposed to finish it off, but I'm not entirely happy with them at the moment. I really need a way of making the glass look more "Flemish", as they stick out like two sore thumbs, but as yet have no ideas how to go about it.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

My slightly wonky version of the real thing with a large amount of artistic license thrown in for good measure