Victorian Diorama Doll Display for The Grandville Public Library
These pictures are part of a display I did at the Grandville Public Library for December 2010.
The display was in a 10 foot long case in the hallway. I divided it into three "floors," 7 rooms total, and an outdoor scene. One of the things that made it difficult is that the shelves are only 8 1/2 inches deep so I couldn't arrange the furniture as I would have in a normal 1:6 scale room, yet I had to make the rooms look natural. I did this by building a "case" to work in at home- 40 inches by 8 1/2 inches, as that was to be the approximate size of each room. I then set up each room, arranging the furniture until I had the look I wanted, then packed it into the box I would move it in before going on to the next room. I wish I had counted how many hundreds of pieces I used in this diorama.
I probably put 40-50 hours into this. I had the help of my friend Mary and my daughter Katie, who did most of the wallpaper, just as she did in the Big Dollhouse.
This house was one of the most difficult things I ever had to photograph because I had no control over the lighting. The library has florescent lights, which gives everything a greenish cast which is quite unattractive. The top floor rooms were only inches from the light in the case making them terribly overexposed. I hope you can get some feel for how it looks. I was really happy with how it turned out, even thought it didn't photograph as well as I would have liked.
The display was in a 10 foot long case in the hallway. I divided it into three "floors," 7 rooms total, and an outdoor scene. One of the things that made it difficult is that the shelves are only 8 1/2 inches deep so I couldn't arrange the furniture as I would have in a normal 1:6 scale room, yet I had to make the rooms look natural. I did this by building a "case" to work in at home- 40 inches by 8 1/2 inches, as that was to be the approximate size of each room. I then set up each room, arranging the furniture until I had the look I wanted, then packed it into the box I would move it in before going on to the next room. I wish I had counted how many hundreds of pieces I used in this diorama.
I probably put 40-50 hours into this. I had the help of my friend Mary and my daughter Katie, who did most of the wallpaper, just as she did in the Big Dollhouse.
This house was one of the most difficult things I ever had to photograph because I had no control over the lighting. The library has florescent lights, which gives everything a greenish cast which is quite unattractive. The top floor rooms were only inches from the light in the case making them terribly overexposed. I hope you can get some feel for how it looks. I was really happy with how it turned out, even thought it didn't photograph as well as I would have liked.
This is a view of the three floors on the left side of the case. This includes the bathroom, dining room and kitchen:
This is the living room:
The Raggedy Ann was something I had been looking for for a long time. Those I had been finding were generally too large and were poorly made. When I was in Chicago to visit the Wu convention with my friend Mary, we stopped at a doll shop and there we found a number of treasures including this perfect little Raggedy Ann.
The elephant pull toy is actually a vintage piece made of lead! (I remember the days when you could buy lead soldiers for kids to play with!)
The elephant pull toy is actually a vintage piece made of lead! (I remember the days when you could buy lead soldiers for kids to play with!)
This is the library:
This is the Victorian kitchen:
This is the nursery. The bed and the little doll are the only things in the display that DON'T belong to me. They belong to my best friend Mary. When I didn't have any beds that quite worked, she brought over an old vintage bed that had been hand carved by her mother. The paint was a little discolored from years of being stored in basements, but I recognized a treasure when I saw one, so we cleaned it up and went to the fabric store where we bought lace and material for sheets and the pink blanket. Mary spent quite a bit of time putting it all together, but we loved the results. The little crocheted coverlet is mine. The dog, Nana, watches over the children in the nursery.
I especially love the teddy bear wallpaper I used in this room.
I especially love the teddy bear wallpaper I used in this room.
This is how the display looked as a whole. Tthere were a few things added or changed after this picture was taken, including some additions to the outdoor scene, but this gives you a pretty good idea of how it looked.



















