For the craftsman who is a competent solderer and likes to work with metals, wire or thin brass strips 1/16 in- square can be bent and fastened into realistic outdoor and sun deck furniture. Detail A in Figure 4.11 shows a simple metal side chair consisting of two fairly long bent pieces soldered together at two points and separated by a short length in front. The spaces marked X and Y between the dotted lines are filled with thin, grooved sections of wood which are covered with colorful fabrics, before being pressed into place between the tapering metal sides. Before this is done, however, the brass should be painted black to represent wrought iron, or any desired color.

Fig. 4.11. Outdoor metal furniture.

Wire from coat hangers, usually about 13 gauge, can be bent and soldered into the comfortable outdoor chaise longue pictured in B. Again two long sections make up the frame proper, with two separators soldered between the semi-horizontal part, and one in the sloping back, to support f-in. thick rubber cushions, suitably covered. Bright wire can be left untreated, or coated with colorless lacquer to represent aluminum; black wire can be painted silver, green, or red, as preferred.

A simple metal outdoor table can be assembled from a short metal camera film spool, topped by a can top of about 3 in. diameter. If the spool is much in excess of 2 21/2 in. long, it can be hacked off and the cut end soldered to the underside of the can top. Detail C of Figure 4. 11 shows a sturdy circular table assembled from a cutdown orange or lemon juice can, a pint size friction can top, and a metal umbrella made from the friction top of a gallon can, cut and soldered as in D After the metal "umbrella" is painted in bright colors, it is soldered to a 7-in. length of heavy wire, or forced upon a like length of 1/8-in. dowel. Prior to soldering the table top to the bent tabs of its pedestal can, the latter is filled with melted paraffin or plaster of Paris. Before either of these two mediums have become too hard, the umbrella handle is forced down in its upright position, through a hole punched in the center of the table top.

Miscellaneous

Odds and ends destined for the trash basket often prove to be treasure trove when contriving small pieces of furniture or accessories for a doll house. Striking examples are the uses to which mirrors from discarded compacts can be put. Attached to the walls in the modern manner with small L-hooks as in A (Figure 4.12), the round types are ideal over vanities or chests of drawers in bedrooms, and the rectangular type will confer a feeling of added spaciousness to the living or dining room. Again, corks of the proper sizes and shapes can be painted to represent flaring lampshades; an impressively fluted type makes use of corrugated plastic caps from a bottled toilet preparation. As illustrated in B, a small cork on a chromium plated nail driven into a wooden button mold base makes one of a pair of effective low lamps for the vanity or bedside tables. As further illustrated, longer nails can be passed through hexagonal sections of (leadless) pencils, or through successive layers of beads, into bases cut in any desired shape from bits of thin wood. Dowel sections, plugged spools, and rectangles of thin wood scraps are easy to assemble into modern table lamps. For alabaster, use a length of dried macaroni, or carve soap or balsa wood as intricately as desired.

Fig. 4.13. Furniture and accessories from odds and ends.

Detail C shows an orthodox standing or "piano" lamp made from a fairly wide cork "shade" impaled by a 5-in. length of strong wire soldered into a heavy metal washer base; or a lollipop stick can be glued into a hole in a short dowel length which has been forced through the hole in the washer. The modern bridge lamp type uses a smaller cork at the end of a gracefully bent wire.

Scraps of balsa wood from Big Brother's model-making projects are fine for shaping up into pieces with irregular outlines such as the vanity pictured in D. It can be covered with cretonne or organdie, with a kidney-shaped piece of celluloid over the top to represent plate glass. Hassocks can be cut from balsa or rubber erasers and covered with matching fabric.

A scrap of any sort of wood of the dimensions shown in E will make a satisfactory bedside commode or night table. Mounted on a recessed base 1/4 in. thick, it can be painted or stained to match the rest of the bedroom set, with its door represented by inked lines. In the same manner a television set can be cut from any suitable block of wood 21/2 in. high, or be made up from cigar box wood. Its width will be determined by its complexity, that is, whether it includes radio and a record changer in the same unit. The TV screen is a piece of white paper covered with cellophane, and will look more realistic if recessed. Escutcheon pins will make effective selector and volume control knobs.

And there are an infinite number of other possibilities, such as miniature wastebaskets made from celluloid thimbles glued open end up in bored out disks of veneer, small colored scenes under cellophane framed in gilded cardboard or by stained and mitered scraps of cigar box wood, or tiny pieces of thin wood glued together and painted to represent three-dimensional books for open shelving, and the like. After the possibilities of the ten-cent-stores have been exhausted, stores may be discovered which sell small favors in the form of tiny replicas of bric-a-brac, telephones, radiators, brooms, microscopic desk sets, vacuum cleaners, and other astonishingly exact miniature facsimiles. And so, good hunting.