Scratch Building a House from Simple Materials
Christine Lea Frisoni is a talented French miniaturist whose book shares her journey to create miniature French interiors and exteriors, built with simple construction and using easily found materials. Well written, with clear diagrams and lots of photos, her book shows miniaturists how to build a basic frame from plywood, then use 1mm thick bristol board to add detailing to the exterior.
She details a number of techniques for making French style windows and doors from basswood or lime wood, and includes information on making tile and parquet floors, staircases, and detailed wood and panel finishes for the interiors. The basic house construction shown will complete a two story, four room chateau and she shows several possible exteriors and interiors that could be adapted for the same back opening house. Cristine Lea -Frisoni has a website Un Jour a la Campagne, One day in the Country, which shows a lot of her work in progress, and includes many photos from her book. The website has a translator at the top to translate it from French to English, although you may prefer to translate it using other web software.
You can also view a sample tutorial on making a Louis XVI Bergère Chair on a corresponding website. If you can follow these sample instructions in French, you will have no problem with similar projects from the book.
Wonderful Lived in Interiors
For lovers of a shabby chic, well lived in French style, this book contains chapters on creating a beamed ceiling kitchen, an entrance hall, several styles of shops or services (veterinarian, florist,laundry), various bathrooms, a formal living room/salon, or a more informal family room, bedrooms and a nursery. The wall treatments include various methods of panelling, mostly done with bristol board and simple wood moldings.
Instructions for furniture include Louis XVI chairs and sofas, Provencal kitchen chairs, screens for bedrooms or salons, detailed curtains, bedroom dressers, wire work beds and washing tables, kitchen tables, brass beds, working lights and chandeliers, kitchen furniture, mantelpieces, and several flowers for a florist shop or decorations.
The furnishings are all constructed of easily found materials. Most of the chairs and sofas are built from parts cut from bristol board, layered and decorated with gesso details. Only the legs are wood, and they are usually simply cut from manufactured stair rails or commercially available wood turnings.Like most European instruction books for miniatures, the details are simply created from widely available materials. There are no assumptions in this book that the reader owns a wide variety of power tools or has access to a dedicated work space. Instructions for simple round wire lighting are included in the construction stages.
Is the Language a Barrier?
Most readers with a background in working in miniature will find the instructions easy to follow, regardless of how well they read French. Materials, lists, diagrams and photos make it fairly easy to understand the main construction details. A dictionary is handy for specialist terms, but as most materials are simple, a lot of translation is not required. Of course, if you are able to read French you will find the instructions much easier to follow. If you have no understanding of French you will need to be comfortable working with a good French/English dictionary to use this book completely.
Who Will Be Interested in This Book?
Anyone who wants to recreate French details in a dolls house or shop will enjoy this book. The techniques, although simple, are very effective if done with care. A true gently worn French style can be achieved. The book even includes a page of color references so you can match paints to the traditional faded colors shown in the various rooms. It is an excellent reference for scratch building details in a French dollhouse style.
Hopefully the publishers will consider translating this work into English, but true Francophiles will enjoy the challenge of brushing up their French while building some lovely projects.
Price In North America, the book is available through French Canadian Sources for around $38, not including shipping. (Amazon.ca in French or Chapters/Indigo Books French division) It is also available through Amazon.fr.
Le Grand Livre De La Maison Miniature, published by Fleurus Books www.editionsfleurus.com Paris, France, October 2008 ISBN 978-2-215-09359-6
