Day 156-157-Ingredients For A House

How does one begin...

..the foundation for a house that is at once humble  in its exhibition

And yet rich in history and traditions?

What Will One Need....

... to build walls that tell a million tales

and place them side by side silently deafening ones?

When is the day ..

.. if indeed there is such a day 

that I may master even the shadows to shed light 

and blind the world with brilliance?

I hope this cheesy introduction makes a good advertisement for the products that I have used to build The Rolla's House. 

I am sure it comes as no surprise to you that I have only used household items seeing that Singapore does not have dollhouse shops unlike other civilised country. In the picture are some very commonplace household items that are often not very good for their real uses but make wonderful materials for my  dollhouses. Here is a list of the items with place of purchase, in no particular order:

"Plaster" wallpaper (Malay Village), S$1,00 wrapping paper with henna motifs, (Tang's), "wood" laminate drawer lining (S$2 shop at Daiso), plastic table cover and  impractical coasters that look like mini blinds (peanuts at Mustapha), already spray painted sand paper (a few cents at hardware shops), and last but not least,  bamboo table mat (picked from rubbish bin when out running).  

First a little diversion. This is my operation table. As you can see (or maybe not),  my village house is lying on its "face" which is actually its "porch". I don't really know how I am going to do it with the other 3 bigger houses. The Ikea lamp though nifty is not recommended because it is too hot. Back to the household items.

I have posted earlier about how the tribal women in Orissa often decorate their homes with rice paste paintings. This wrapping paper which I found quite by accident was ideal for its colour combination and the motifs. I didn't like the gloss though so I "decorated" the murals with paint and sand paper. Wood slats were simulated by painting laminate drawer linings, for the ceiling of this room to match the floor upstairs. I also used the bamboo table mat for the floor of this room (see previous pic). 

I had started work on this house since late morning Friday. I eventually went to bed at 5am and then started  again at 10am this morning right after my run.  I stopped when I realised at 6 pm that I hadn't  showered after my run!

I needed a mud look for the room. So I used the "plaster" wallpaper and painted it muddy peach, if there is such a colour. I used sand paper for the floor after spray painting it "terracotta" .

The bulk of my work went into the "mud relief" decorations on the walls. The women in my village house, like their counterparts in Kutch embellished their homes with very elaborate decorations using mud, clay  and mirrors. I have posted about them when I wrote "Planning Rolla's Bungha" in July last year. For the decorations, I cut out little patterns from the plastic table cover and created my own designs. It took me probably about 6 hours to finish the work around this window  and by the time I took this picture,  I must have looked like  the hunchback of Notre-Dame.

This doorway was done on Saturday by which time, I have acquired so much practice that  I could fashion "peacocks" out of circles and squares.  I know you won't recognise them but they are at the top of the doorway. The Javanese from Indonesia believe that peacocks are  the guardians at the gate of heaven which may be the reason why they are often depicted in this manner by women in Kutch. It is not obvious in the photographs but some of the silver from the plastic table cover shines through and look like embedded mirrors.

Broken wood slats blind made from coasters. I seriously doubt you can balance a glass on this, even when they were coasters and not broken Venetians. Its ability to protect is also suspect as water will seep through. They should really sell these as miniature blinds in dollhouse stores and priced them100 times more.

Even the flowers are household items. They are real dried flowers sitting in Indian beads. Only the 2 tiny cups are real [sic]. They are from the Tree of Life dining set gifted by Rosanna. I thought they look like they belong on the window ledge and so I dirtied them a little and placed them there, that being the last thing  I did for the house, until tomorrow that is.

I wonder if my Rollas will think this too shabby. I think they are expecting a spanking new house.