Dany's DIY Minis: TUTORIAL : how to make 1:12th scale miniature bowls for your dollhouse projects

Hello

Today I'm gonna show you how to make your own little bowls for your dollhouse projects.

These can be used in many different ways and are fairly easy to make

To get started, here's a list of all the materials you'll need

* For the molds, try to find some chocolates that match the kind of bowl you want to make

(the one’s I used are from the brand TOFFIFEE)

* Quail egg containers work just fine too

* Craft Plaster

* Water

* Disposable Plastic Cup

* Wooden Stirrer

* Plastic tea spoon

* Disposable Rubber Gloves

* Old newspaper or kitchen paper towels to protect your work table

* Paintbrush

* Measuring Cup (optional)

* Different Acrylic paints of your choice

* Dotting tool

* Acrylic water based clear glossy varnish

* Beads, Pearls or Rhinestones for decoration purposes

* Small Water Decals (Nailart decals are the correct size)

OPTIONAL : for an easier demolding, I’m using a special sort of vaseline from Gédéo, available at Amazon

STEP 1

Put on your disposable rubber gloves. Mix your plaster with water according to the manufacturer’s instructions on the package.

I also add some white acrylic paint, because the plaster always looks kind of grey,

but that’s optional of course.

The mixture should not be too runny, but still easy to stir

STEP 2

Protect your work table with an old newspaper or some kitchen paper towels

If you wanna make sure your bowls come out of the mold easily, now would be a good time to apply some of the “easy demolding vaseline” from Gedeo. Apply with a paint brush, one coat to the inside if the mold where the plaster will be poured in and one coat to the downside of the second mold, the one that’s going to be pressed on top

Use an old tablespoon (or a plastic one, whatever you have) and fill the mixture into your molds, making sure they’re only half full (a bit less than half full would even be better)

Take a second mold and press it on top of the 1st one, pushing it slowly all the way down.
Don’t worry about the plaster coming out on the sides, that’s perfectly normal.

SET ASIDE AND LET DRY OVER NIGHT !!

STEP 3

Now comes the moment of truth : demolding your bowls !!

Don’t worry, some will definitely break, that’s ok …. just be gentle while doing this, remember not to push too hard, because the plaster isn’t very thick and easily breakable.

It might seem like a bit of a fiddly job the 1st time, so keep calm :-)

The upper borders of your bowls will look like this, which is perfectly normal (this is a picture I made when I 1st made these bowls, after some practice, it'll get better and the borders will be much more straight when they come out of the mold)

STEP 4

Take a piece of fine sandpaper, place it on your worktable and sand off the rough edges until your upper border looks smooth and straight

Again, don’t push too hard while holding the bowls and moving them over the sandpaper

As you can see, once the borders are sanded, they look neat and straight

STEP 5

Now comes the fun part : get out your colors and start painting (Inside and outside of course

As you can see I painted mine in all sorts of different colors, which is fun and that way, you can use them in many different miniature scenes

For decoration, I’m using a dotting tool to add eithers dots and/or fine lines, since I find this easier than doing it with a painbrush, but you may wanna try both methods and see which one’s the best for you

Once the paint has dried (I’m usually applying 2 coats) you can add more details to your bowls using mini pearls, rhinestones or whatever you have in your stash