Dear Gorilla Glue People:

Please send me free stuff! 

Thanks, 

#1 Top Banana.

How to make a postwar/mid-century stove

My stove is a loose replica of the old Roper oven ranges. Since this project is about using what you have on hand or can acquire easily (something that is getting easier and easier), I couldn’t do an exact replica. Whatever. I like it better this way. I won’t go on and on and on about every step but I’ll explain it so that if someone wanted to do something similar they could have a snowball’s chance of getting it right. 

Hey, how about if I do it lesson plan-style?? 

Objective: Artist will (AW) construct a postwar/mid-century dollhouse stove using found materials. 

Materials used:

Philosophy promo recipe box (seen in previous photos)

3.5-4.5 inch wooden rectangle

metallic buttons

vintage hopelessly broken watch

chrome drawer pull

small wooden button-like handles

plastic buttons for 

silver paint

white paint

paint brushes

Gorilla glue

Fabric for dishtowel

P1 (in other words, procedure step one): 

Use white paint (acrylic art supply paint, house paint, spray paint meant for plastic) to cover the recipe box. Be careful to dab up any runs in paint. 

P2: Find four similar buttons to use as burners. Metallic or black buttons work best.

P3: Locate a ladies watch face. It’s best to find one that doesn’t work because jewelry stores can’t/won’t fix them and it’s always better to repurpose something rather than throw it away. If the metal is brass or gold tone, paint it silver with acrylic paint. If it’s silver/chrome/stainless steel, well, you’ve saved yourself a step.

P4: Paint the wooden rectangle white and get ready to assemble. I tried using the pocket clip from a pen to use as an oven handle and I suppose this would work in a pinch but I decided to use a chrome drawer pull that I found in my tool box. Gorilla Glue the wooden rectangle and the drawer pull thusly. 

P5: Glue the watch face to the wooden rectangle and measure out the center otherwise it’s going to be visibly crooked. Glue the burners down. The reason I did mine off-center is because the photos that I saw online of the Roper stove showed that their burners were positioned just like this.

P6: Add a dishtowel and you’re good to go! I still need to add knobs but the ones I bought at Michael’s Crafts were too big and will look goofy. I’m going back for smaller ones when I have the time. 

A (Assessment): Post photo to blog and to Facebook and gauge comments. 

Turn on the Bright Lights

These photos show what the dollhouse looks like with the faux plaster, white paint, and white lights. The lights around the columns effectively draw the eye away from the Leaning Tower of Barbie. They also make a lovely ambient atmosphere and most times I’ll turn out the other lights and leave the white lights on. I’m not going to lie….wrapping long strings of lights around those columns without winding the wrong way took a lot of concentration and more than a few grrrrs. After several tries, it worked out in the end.

Oh, and I forgot. In some of the rooms you'll see tile. I went to both Home Depot and Lowe's and bought squares of tile and used them in various rooms. Actually, I need to go back for more. 

How to make a soup can without really trying

I know I could have thought of a more imaginative title but it certainly beats the obvious---"Soup is Good Food." This mini-project can be credited to Candra as well. I know the pics are transposed but the "cans" are actually desiccants from vitamin bottles. I also decided to use the pouches and turn them into pasta containers. I painted them with white acrylic and painted the top and bottom with silver paint to simulate a metal can. 

Since my fine motor skills are not what they used to be, I could only duplicate a Campbell's soup can in graphic/color only. Obviously the top half is painted red. The can has the famous gold medallion as well as the gold graphics along the bottom. Maybe I can ask one of my tattoo artist friends to paint "Campbell's" on the cans.

I had a larger "can" and decided to duplicate the stewed tomatoes can from Trader Joe's. Step one was to paint it with cerulean blue to match the TJ's can. The top and bottom were also painted silver.

 

First, I painted the red tomatoes. After the red tomatoes, I painted the green leaves. I tried a couple of times to paint "Unsalted" on the dollhouse can and managed to scratch out a decent one using a micro tip Sharpie pen.

This mini-project isn't final. I'm still looking for more potential cans of food.