

| March 2010 |
| Welcome to our visitors and congratulations on finding your way here. Hello again to all our members. |
| Welcome to our 11th venture of sharing news and skills. |
| Don't forget to bookmark this page and visit often |
| We hope you have enjoyed this month’s edition of GSOLFOT MINI NEWS. If you have an article to submit for future editions please contact the editor: spwatson@ntlworld.com |
| We have just completed another of our legendary “Makes”. How do these work? The Oz announces that there will be one and we all sign up without knowing what it will be – oh yes – we are a very different kind of club. So – what was it? The challenge was to design a shield for your partner reflecting his/her mini habits and club name. Wonderful results! You can see them here http://www.gsolfot.com/Specials.html and http://www.gsolfot.com/Specials2.html The winner was Margie with her beautiful interpretation for Emma Rule. |
| Welcome to all our readers and our new members. Christy Blackburn of Texas and Cheryl Hite (AKA “Batty” – for increasingly obvious reasons!) of New York and Diane Corbin from New Zealand found their way over the draw bridge and are joining in with gusto |
| It is a rare event but we have a space for a new member, please apply to Noni The Oz GSOLFOT |
| This month we have for you – molds! And mache! And a sweet little purse. And some mushrooms……..we do variety here! More members around the globe have provided information about where they live and you can read about them below |
| HOW TO MAKE A FLEXIBLE MOLD BOX FOR USE WITH PLASTER OR RUBBER MOLD MATERIAL By Jacqui Marlin, Goddess of Chaos see more of Jacqui's work here X |
| WHERE SOCKEES LAY THEIR HEADS |
| We are sharing our local places with our readers. This is where some of us are when we are not in The Towers |
| Next issue………to be announced as your editor, Sally, is packing her bags in April and setting off Down Under again! Take care all you who dwell in the southern hemisphere! I will be taking notes! |
| I base painted the bottom part with black paint making sure all the indentions were well covered. Next I painted the bottom part with Pot O'Gold Patio Paint (nicest gold I have found, I think; very shiny). I gave it a nice heavy coat but not too heavy as I didn't want to fill in the indentions. After that was dry and I did the back in the same manner, I put a satin sealer coat (water base craft varnish like artists use) on it. When the bottom was dry, I painted the top and handle with the Pot O'Gold paint. I think it ended up with two coats to cover everything. When this was all dry, I painted just the top part of the purse and while the paint was wet I poured very fine gold glitter over it, turned it over and poured the glitter on the back. Set aside to dry very well and there ya are! |
| Millie Henschel “blinged” a plain metal purse to make it fit for a princess |

| If you will be making many molds of various sizes you should use plastic 5-6 inches wide and about 1 1/2” or so taller than you will need for your finished mold. You can always adjust these smaller but you can’t really make them larger |
| Bend the plastic into an L shape with approximately 1 1/2” on one side of the L. The measurements on these are not critical as long as there is enough to accommodate your clamps. It is fairly easy to make a gadget to bend the plastic but if you only plan to do this once have your plastics shop do it for you. Or if you use a square container (as in the photograph below) you won’t have to do anything. |

| A bending gadget is an electric wire between some thin strips of wood forming a channel that is protected from heat. The wire must be electrified and the plastic laid over the channel and heated until it is soft enough to bend. |
| Now that you have 4 L shaped plastic pieces and 1 flat base you are finished. |
| Using the mold box: Clamp one piece of plastic to the base. Clamp the next plastic to the base at right angles to the first one. Decide how big your master is and how much mold material will be needed around it and clamp a third side to the base. If it is square just clamp the last piece but if it will have different dimensions decide the size of the last side. |

| Completely seal the inside side and bottom seams with modeling clay to prevent leakage. The clay should be re-usable |
| Coat the inside of the container with mold release or PAM. Be sure it is well coated because the rubber will stick to it otherwise |


| Place the bottom of your master on the floor of the box and anchor it well. Pour your mold material in and let it set. Be sure it is completely cured before taking it out. If you have used enough release the box should be easy to take apart by releasing the clamps |
| The simplest way to make this a 2 part mold for small, simple objects is to slice the rubber almost all the way thru leaving just enough for a hinge. If the mold will be very complex and needing 2 or 3 parts I would suggest finding some instruction on line as it is beyond the scope of this article. |
| Coat the inside of your rubber mold with release and pour in your casting material – most likely resin. |
| Its HORRID stuff to work with, I used syringes as the ratio was 1 drop to 100, and you really cant use things again, so disposable cups, wooden stirring sticks etc are needed. Lastly you need to sand/wet and dry the pieces at the end to make them perfect for the scene you have, labels, decals, paint, varnish, loads of different ways to finish, all trial and error. I hope this helps someone as I worked for weeks learning by trial and error and maybe it may save someone else the time :) |

| I live in a rural upcoming urban area called St. John, Indiana. Although our area has been built up in the last 13 years we've lived here, we still have deer, raccoon and coyote sightings. We have all the conveniences of a metropolitan area. The biggest interest would be that we are about 35 miles from the downtown area of the city of Chicago, lovingly called the 2nd city. |
| It is a bustling city with many tall buildings, the most famous being the Sears towers, now called the Willis building, but it will always be Sears to me! |


| I was born and raised on the southeast side of Chicago; we were about 12 blocks from the beach, Lake Michigan. This area was heavily filled with industry. Several steel mills (at least 2 on each side of the Cape Cod house I grew up in), and one Oil Refinery, where my Dad worked for 34 years as a Rigger. (Those steel mills are all gone now). Getting back to the city highlights, we have several wonderful museums, the Museum of Science & Industry (my favorite, so many unusual finds and interesting things to see including the Colleen Moore Dollhouse Castle)! We have the planetarium, the aquarium, the Natural History Museum, (where the mummies live, love them)! And now the new Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue, houses the Art Institute, where the Thorne Rooms reside! This is not to be missed when visiting Chicago for any miniaturist. They are to die for! Further up from South Michigan Avenue, over the bridge to North Michigan Avenue, you will find the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Towers, and the Old Water Tower saved from the 1871 Chicago Fire! |
| Your now on the Gold Coast (where shopping is not to be missed)!!! Water Tower place is a shopping experience with so many interesting shops to get anything from soup to nuts! So many restaurants, too many to list, but Uno's and Gino's East is the best for original Chicago pan pizza! And the finishing touch would be the beautiful breathtaking view of Lake Michigan, especially (in the summer with all the boats)! In the Hancock building, not to be missed, is the 95th Floor restaurant, (yes, that's a lot of floors up there in the clouds), you can get a beautiful panoramic view of Lake Michigan and the City! Mayor Daley would be so proud of me! |

| Montreal is located in the southwest of the province of Quebec. The official language of the province is French with 56% of the population speaking French at home, followed by 19% speaking English at home. The port of Montreal is at one end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which stretches from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean |

| The city has a very rich and exciting history with many historical buildings above and below ground. The Iroquois established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal. Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga in 1535, claiming the the Saint Lawrence Valley for France. In 1611 Samuel de Champlain established a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal. In 1639, Seigniorial title to the Island of Montreal was obtained to establish a Roman Catholic mission for evangelizing natives. Ville-Marie became a centre for the fur trade and a base for further French exploration of north America. It remained a French colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to Great Britain. Montreal's climate is classified as humid continental; the summers are warm, very often hot and humid and smoggy with a high of 26C. The heat index frequently makes it warmer than the actual temperature. Our winters are very cold, windy and snowy. The wind chill makes it feel much colder than it actually is -6C to -15C. Spring and fall are usually mild. Our precipitation (rain and snow) is around 38" a year. |
| Because Montreal is so multicultural there are many things to see and do depending on what interests you. There is an International Jazz Festival every summer as well as Juste pour Rire (comedic festival). There is both French and English theatre, movies, schooling etc. Most Montrealiers speak both English and French or at least understand both. I have visited many places but Montreal feels like home in spite of some of the aggravations and problems. But what city doesn't have them? |
| Bienvenue a Quebec. Welcome to Montreal. See Tantie's work here X |
| The Island I live on is called Johns Island. It's not out in the ocean much but separated from the mainland by a river which is part of the ICU (Intercostal Waterway) that runs North and South. Johns Island is part of a group of Islands called The Sea Islands located just South of Charleston, South Carolina. The Island itself is about 75 square miles, a rather good size place. |


| The Stono River separates it from its neighbor to the North, James Island, and the Bohicket River separates it from its neighbor to the South, Wadmalaw Island. We have two resort area Islands (Kiawah and Seabrook) separated from Johns Island by the Kiawah River and many small creeks. I live just off the Stono River on Abbapoola Creek. They're usually called Tidal Creeks because when the tide's out the creek bed can be nothing but mud (pluffmud). The part I live on, however, is deep water all the way out. (A note of interest here: when we went on one of our famous GSOLFOT trips, the QEII picked up as many as she could en route. She got stuck on one of the curves of the Abbapoola and had to be airlifted out which was a great embarrassment to me. Not that it wasn't fun.) |
| There're many famous sites to see in Charleston, lovely old homes, carriage rides, guided tours, lovely old preserved plantations in the outlying areas and in the middle of the harbor, Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began. Charleston thrives on the tourists that visit. Johns Island has only one main attraction: The Angel Oak, said to be 1400 years old. Apparently this is debatable so who knows her age. We have a most wonderful mini shop in the area. ”Memories” is 5000 sq feet of lots of fun stuff. It's located at 1670 Folly Road on James Island. I work there part-time (Fridays and Saturdays), and it's a real pick-me-up just to go in and "smell the miniatures" and certainly keeps my mini enthusiasm revved up. Y'all come visit now, ya heah? The winter weather here is quite cold at times but tolerable. But be prepared to bake (really bake) in the summertime even as you quickly move between air conditioned spaces. We always have threats of hurricanes but the South Carolina coast dips inward a bit here, and those storms sweeping up from Florida tend to sweep right on by us without a direct hit. The ones we have to be aware of are those coming straight in from the coast of Africa. Actually this is a rather nice area with large moss draped oak trees, lots of flowers (Azaleas, Magnolias, and many more too numerous for a non-plant person such as myself to name). This is a huge tomato growing area that gets quite busy during tomato season. The wildlife is plentiful, but unfortunately is being pushed out of their natural habitats because of the massive development. We have an abundance of alligators that have been known to push back and bite. We have lots of deer, many different kinds of birds and a black panther has even been sighted in the area where I live (not by me, though). And naturally the wildlife I'm most fond of, Raccoons and Possums, are plentiful. I've been lucky to have a few of these as friends over the years since we raised and released abandoned ones at one time. Most loving little creatures. |
| And that's my home, folks. See Granny's work here X |