Dollhouse Miniature Hairbrush and Mirror Set

 

Watch the video here.

Today's project started out because of a challenge I received from a very good friend. This friend although not a miniaturist watches all of my videos. They challenged me to create a hairbrush and hand mirror using polymer clay. I decided I couldn't leave this challenge unanswered so here we are today.

I did have to do several test bakes this morning to try out different ideas I had for what to use as the bristles of the hairbrush. For the purpose of today's video I decided it would be best to use the prickly part of some Velcro. It seemed to bake up just fine and gave a nice spread of 'bristles” to our hairbrush even though they are a bit on the short side.

For the body of both the brush and mirror I decided to go with a dark blue so I could use the set in the Beachside Bungalow. I did want to mix my colored clay with an equal amount of translucent clay so the finished pieces would have a more realistic look to them. I was afraid the colored clay on its own would look very dense and heavy, while this has more the look of a plastic brush set.

While I am happy with how these turned out, if I were to make them again I would change a few things. I am planning to do another set that is not made of clay in the future.

The first step was to make the two handles for our pieces. I find it is best to make these and at least partially bake them off before adding them to the main parts. That way the handles stay nice and straight and in whatever shape I decided to make them. These only baked for about 5 minutes, just enough to firm the clay up they didn't need to be completely cured at this point.

Once the handles are baked I made the hairbrush first. So I formed the body of the brush and attached the handle to it using some TLS (Translucent Liquid Scupley)

Now onto the mirror. For it I formed my basic shape (I went with an almost square shape) and added the handle the same way as for the brush and baked both pieces for 10 minutes.

Now it was time to add the Velcro “bristles” to the hairbrush with some TLS.

I then used the shiny side of some aluminum foil for the reflective mirror, also added with TLS. Bake for 10 minutes again.

Next I added a small snake of clay to the mirror to frame the mirror, using TLS again to glue it together and baked it once more.

Then all that was needed was a thin coat of Satin Mod Podge to give the pieces a nice finished look.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.