1/12 faraway tree dollshouse

Well I've been visiting family this last week, but fortunately have a bit of down time to add to the blog!!
Anyway, the framing out of the tree continues. This has proven to be quite tricky working out the floors and ceilings and trying to think in  3 dimension. One of the problems with this project is its more a work of sculpture than proper woodwork, the framework is necessary to give the shape and strength to the tree but it will all ultimately be hidden behind foam and plaster. With this in mind you can get by with quite rough wood working skills!
After determining the dimensions of the rooms floors are cut as well and a ceiling to correspond to each floor, these are then traced round to make the top and bottom for the opening sections. The floors and ceilings are screwed and glued in place. Once this was complete I added some battens of plywood to the rear of the tree. This will help to give a but more rigidity and provide a rough guide when it comes to adding the foam.

 This gives an overall view, the white pipe is going to be used for a conduit to pass the wiring through for lighting.

  This shows the detail of one of the joins where a branch will be. These all have to be removable, so as with the main join between the base and the top, I will use a piece of 2x1 at the end of the branch to act as a plug, the end of the branch will be defined by one of the plywood discs, the other will define it at the tree itself.

building the faraway tree in 1/12 scale

Continuing on, more cutting of plywood for floors and ceilings, also cutting out pieces for the top and bottom of each opening section. These follow the profile of the floor and ceiling. The first picture shows the floor piece and the base piece for the opening section.

 This shows the basic skeleton of the tree, it stands six feet tall. The piece of grey foam is there so I could show how the tree joins together at this point. Sorry, about the lack of order in the pictures!

1/12 fantasy tree house

Here the base part of the tree has got the floor and ceiling in place for the first room.

The chap taking it easy is one of my ooak hobbit dolls.

1/12 faraway tree dolls house construction

Step 3

I have cut some more pieces, the floor and ceiling for the bottom room, some strengthening pieces and the end pieces where the tree will join. I have also cut pieces of pine to strengthen the joins.

 This picture shows how the top and base will join together, using 2x1 pine pegs that will be attached to the top part and will locate in the base.

 Here is the rear of the tree base showing the first strengthening piece.

faraway tree dolls house construction

Step two

Gathering together the materials. I have put a lot of thought into this project, but ultimately there comes a point where you have to stop thinking and start building!! The previous tree dolls houses I built, used a large diameter cardboard tube at its heart then various blocks of polystyrene, then expanding foam, papier mache and plaster. This allows a great degree of sculpting and getting texture just as I want.
However after I started cutting the plywood to make the basic framework it has become apparent that using cardboard tubes isn't really going to be suitable. The tree is going to stand 8 feet tall, it needs enough strength to not only be self supporting but to also be able to handle being taken apart and transported then reassembled. So with this in mind the tree will be made using more plywood and without cardboard tubes. This does make it trickier to plan the rooms out and to make the opening sections to get into the rooms, but should result ultimately in a dolls house that will stand the test of time.
So, here are the first cuts!

The plywood is 3mm in 8 x4 sheets

And cuts are made using an electric jigsaw. At this point I have drawn out roughly where the rooms are going to be and have marked out were the join will be between the main part and the base. As you can see my work is being well supervised!!

here I have cut out the base plate, base section and main section. I have also cut out the room areas. These sections will get reinforced with 2x1 pine strips and joined with screws.

building the far away tree in 1/12th scale

A few months ago, i made a 1/12 scale dolls house that I made to look like a hollowed out tree stump. This attracted lots of interest and one particular message that I received went something along these lines; " I really like your house and was wondering, could you make it bigger, in fact could you make me the faraway tree."
My first thoughts, what's a faraway tree? I messaged the enquirer back and them started searching Google!
For those who don't know the faraway tree is from a book by Enid Blighton which tells of the adventures of three children who discover a magical enormous tree when they move to the country. It is pure fairytale with pixies and fairies and other interesting characters who all live in the tree. After much messaging back and forth I had the commission and what a commission!! Its fair to say that I never expected such an exciting project! Anyway I am going to blog about its construction here. Just to be clear from the outset this is an interpretation of the tree and will have extras that are not in the story and omissions where necessary.

The first step.

It all begins with a drawing or rather, a set of sketches and ideas. Unlike a house which is easy to plan, the tree is an organic structure and as such a strict plan would take far to much time to draw out. So I drew up some sketches to help convey the idea to the client, then from here I will carry out the basic construction using plywood to get the "bones" of the tree. I then will use a mixture of materials and media to create the tree and breathe life into it.

 I made many sketches and had scraps of paper all other place with scribblings and thoughts about construction, etc. Here are a couple just to show some of those thoughts.

Welcome to my blog. I make and sell handcrafted miniatures and models in various scales and also sculpt figures and make one of a kind dolls. In the interest of trying to promote my work I am increasing my online presence. Currently my models are available to buy on eBay, but I hope to have a web sight soon. In the mean time I am happy to talk about any commission work, particularly in 1/12th scale. This is a garden shed that I have built from scratch including all the miniature items pictured. The shed had a working hurricane lantern powered by a 9 volt battery. The Suffolk latch works and I made it from multiple pieces of aluminium. The shed itself is constructed using wood I salvaged from a 1950s desk.