When I’m preparing stock for my stall, I like to have something to suit every age and every wallet.
Certainly the poseable porcelain figures, with all their clothes hand stitched and their tiny accessories and (often) new wigs all hand made, come out relatively expensive. Likewise the room cases, which can take me weeks to create. These items are not really suitable for children either, being fragile, with some sharp edges and a plethora of what health & safety people refer to as Small Parts.
That’s why I make sure some lines are child-friendly and always have a range of items for under £5.
The cheapest (and of course the best sellers) are the DIY miniature books. For a mere 50p, customers can buy an A4 sheet containing a ready-to-make printed book, with full detailed instructions. All they will need are scissors, a glue stick and considerable patience! One enterprising lady at a sale just before Christmas bought one of these for each of her dinner guests instead of crackers, so that they’d spend a happy hour making them and each have a tiny memento to take home. Construction needs a steady hand, so I hope not too much wine had flowed during the meal! These are also popular pocket money purchases for children.
For those who have less time and patience, there’s a range of ready made books, from tiny blank-paged notebooks and pencils to thicker, fully illustrated printed volumes. The text of each book appears in this blog, in case the print is too difficult to read.
Here, for information, is a list of the books currently in print with links to their blog posts:
- The Alarming Clock (available as a DIY book for 50p or a ready-made volume for £2.50)
- Grimoire (ready-made book with each page carefully ‘aged’ for £4.50)
- Molly – by Herself (DIY book for 50p)
- The Magical Mechanical Bird (DIY book for 50p)
- The Vital Chapter (The text is printed in blue towards the end of the linked post. The ready-made book costs £3.50)
- Journal (this ready-made book contains a few pages of her Ladyship’s notes. The rest is blank and it costs just £2.50. The journal entries are based on the linked story, and the Case of the Withdrawing Room is also still available for sale at £48)
- Heart of Glass (a ready-made book which was serialised here – Part 1 and here -part 2. It costs £3.50)
- Diary of a Tinkerer (My personal favourite! A ready-made book which costs £3.50 and was serialised in four parts at these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.) Note: Young Henry was last heard of piloting an airship somewhere, although an older and wiser version of himself – such things are possible with time-space anomalies – resides with me and is not for sale! His original engine room, however, is still available at £58.
Happy reading, and should purchasers still wish to try reading the original volumes, we do have a few Illuminating Manuscript Readers, with magnifying lens and bright lamp for £14. (It’s pictured here on a centimetre square grid, to give an idea of scale.)
All the above items are also available for mail order, with postage and packing extra. Please use the contact form at the end of the HOME page on this website for any enquiries.
Finally my furnace was burning away merrily and Inferna the Twisted Firestarter was safely ensconced in her cage (with a large DO NOT FEED sign in case anyone felt tempted to give in to her endless wheedling and eyelash fluttering).
I must confess that much to my chagrin, I am reduced to relying on the kind lady’s charity, since my own – not inconsiderable – fortune remains locked in my own time. Even if I had managed to bring some with me on my time-travelling adventure, it would doubtless have suffered the same fate as myself and been reduced to one twelfth of its natural size, rendering it quite useless in my present surroundings. The dear lady is quite phlegmatic about the expenses, however. She insists that the total cost of building my engine room has been less than five pounds. That seems quite a large sum to me, but she insists it is a paltry amount in her age.
I began work at once. Within a few hours my engine was chugging merrily and the machinery was in perfect working order.
Yesterday my enterprising assistant was able to help me to construct the furnace for the steam generator. True, in her dimension it is a small box coated with some strange, shiny substance, but for my present scale (one twelfth of my accustomed size) it provides a sturdy and robust firebox, particularly as much of it is lined with copper.
“It’s a battery tea light,” she continued, as if all should then become clear to me.
Should you wish to become better acquainted with Henry, do visit him at the Steampunk Dolls’ House. He’d enjoy the company. 
The good lady looked only mildly taken aback when I informed her that I would need an engine room – at 1/12 scale, naturally – in order to generate enough steam power to re-calibrate and start the Machine. She rummaged in a cupboard and produced a small valise of suitable dimensions (although quite UNsuitable design). Once I had persuaded her to redecorate it in a more suitable manner, though, I decided it would do very well.
“About that size and shape,” I said.
Steampunk - Shrunk! 