Throwback Thursday: Let's Ride Silverbuckle stables

My life is complete. It crushed me when my fancy new computer couldn't run the disk. (that was like 10 years ago). But now? I found it on steam and it brings me joy.

  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1587860/Lets_Ride_Silver_Buckle_Stables/

If you've never played. You get a farm and a horse(s).

And you can take care of your horse in the barn. Wash and brush it. Get it food and water. Give it treats.

You can take it on trail rides around your farm.

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And you can go to horse shows and compete in western games like barrel racing. To win buckles and more horses/ different saddles.

It was super fun. Much easier now that I'm an adult but I spent quite a few hours replaying it.

Everything and the Kitchen Sink

 Why must I make things harder for myself? If I would just go down to classic scale I'd have all the wonderful doll furniture at my fingertips. But I just like traditional models better so therefore everything must be 1:9 scale instead. I've found for small things like food and dishes you can bend the rules, the scales are close enough small things look okay. Not the case with furniture... So now that I've made tables and desks that got me thinking I wanted a kitchen for my not even constructed dollhouse. Because reasons. Anyway I've been working on cabinets and got those pretty close to done so I felt it was time to have a kitchen sink too.

The faucet swivels and everything. I bought some miniature hinges and drawer knobs so once I get these painted up I can assemble them. I even designed in indents for the knobs to go in. The mark of high quality dollhouse pieces is functionality so the cabinets must have doors and drawers that open and close! Eventually these stls will make it onto thingiverse once I get them finished! Also, while I don't have many listings on my etsy shop, it is open and I am taking custom orders so if something you want isn't listed, just ask! 😁

Painting 3D prints

 The table I posted last week was a 3D print that I painted to make look even cooler. Painting 3D prints is relatively easy and requires a few supplies! It's a great way to rescue a print that may be a bit wonky.

Primer: I use rustoleum sand-able primer. I'm biased though...

Sand paper: to sand down any rough spots.

Paint: Once primed you can use acrylics or continue with spray paints. It really depends on the finish you want.

Painting with acrylics:

The table and chairs started out in a bit of rough shape. They were all rejects. The chairs were missing their crossbar between the legs because it broke out while removing support. The table had a massive bit of stinging right through the top. I sanded the top down a bunch until it felt smooth.

Then I gave everything a healthy coat of primer. Sanded, then primed again. 

(Here's one of the places I might of changed my process. The chairs turned out to be an absolute pain to paint especially since I wanted to two-tone them. Ideally I would have spray painted on an appropriate color for the backs and legs to make life easier.) Instead I painstakingly painted on 3 coats of white acrylic paint before giving up because it just wouldn't hide well and putting the light blue paint on top.

To make the wood look I used light coats of various brown acrylics (raw sienna, yellow ochre, burnt umber) to create depth of color and by keeping my brush strokes going in the same direction it mimicked a wood grain. I finished it off with a coat of polyurethane in clear satin.

The blue was some leftover rustoluem chalked in serenity blue (my favorite color of the ones we made). 

The doughnuts and plates came from hobby lobby. The cups and coffee pot were bought from factory direct crafts online. Luckily it seems like a lot of 1:12 food stuff can pass for 1:9 scale.

Breakfast

We're on Thingiverse!

I've uploaded a few of my designs, when I have the motivation I might add more. I'm not sure when I will have the motivation to make more stuff but fortunately, if you have access to a 3D printer, you can get your fix of handcraftedbykari goodies! Everything is for non-commercial use which I hope everyone will respect. You can visit my page via this link: https://www.thingiverse.com/handcraftedbykari/designs

I've been very productive during my little break, I finally finished the lapghan I was working on!

And a picture of Soup to make everyone's day better!

Burn-out

 Over the pandemic when absolutely everything was closed my studio became my shelter. I could shut everything going on in the world down and happily work on creating new props. I made tiny furniture because I was sick of looking at all of my same-old stuff. I made a sleigh for christmas, I'd always wanted to work on a vehicle! But now, everything is open, I've had all the shots and as I want to go back out into the world I find myself feeling tired. Spending every weekend packing up orders. The non-stop hum of my 3d printer. The never ending lists of prints on my to-do board. Every new order would put a smile on my face, I enjoyed boxing them up for their new home and making my packaging look fancy. Now while I am extremely grateful, I find that the burn-out is catching up. I don't think I'm the only person in the hobby experiencing this, I think it's pretty common for anyone doing one thing for a long time to need a break. So I'm going to be taking one. Because burn-out and mental health are important. Recognizing that something is not making you happy even if it once did. I'm going to work on a few me projects. I'm going to crochet a bit. I'm going to relax without to-do lists or due-dates. This is not me saying I will be radio silent, I'll probably still update this blog (as infrequently as ever) and post on my instagram. As my favorite soap maker on youtube would say, "Do something fun for yourself today." Like setting up your doll in a comfy chair with a cat. Or figuring out how to make a fireplace to make it even cozier.

DIY Arm Chair

 If you follow my Instagram, you may notice I'm on a bit of a furniture kick. I don't ask why, I just go with it. So I found this really great tutorial for making armchairs. I figured why not try it for my 1:9 dolls?

So here's the link to the youtube: https://youtu.be/R7EAc9g5NSE . The creator kindly has a link to here pattern in the description. You'll need to rescale it to 1:9 if you want it for breyer dolls.

I cut my pattern out. The print was kinda wonky, cutting some parts of the chair in half but I'm sure it will be fine. Also I only have reallllly thick foam. So here we go!

Funny story so before Anthony and I started dating, my roommate was trying to wing-woman. He asked her what he could get to woo me... He brought me glue sticks 😂. Totally worked too! Anyway, I glued my template down on the foam then cut out the pieces. From my saddle making, I cut the C piece then cut B from it so they would match. 

Then assemble it. The cat approves.

It looked a little big... 

So I had to disassemble and cut it down. (I'll have to redo my pattern scaling if I make another one.) It definitely looks much better! 

I didn't have batting so I used fleece for this one. It's not as good at smoothing out but this part was done during the ice storm so I wasn't going anywhere to get some.

I did my back a bit differently. I traced out the back of the chair, then flipped it to either side so that I could cut out 1 continuous piece for the entire back. Just make sure to give yourself 1/2 inch for folding over.

I actually just paneled the insides too. 

I made the bottom cushion by making a piece of foam that fits onto the seat, then putting a little bit of fiber fill. I covered the fiber fill with fleece and then fabric. 

I glued the cushion on and I've ordered some nice legs to complete the chair. Until then, I guess it's just going to be a bit short!