NEWSLETTER Winter 2014/15 News from ELF Miniatures First of all Season s Greetings from Elizabeth and Kate! We have had a busy few months and have lots of new products to show for it. We re delighted to launch several new items in response to customer requests; please see below for more details. If you have an idea for something for your modern house, please ask if we can make it Elizabeth is very resourceful! New items from the ELF Store We re delighted to introduce a couple of new items at more affordable prices than the products currently stocked. A green wheelie bin is now available for just 6.20, while we have a satellite dish for 7.80. We also have a four-oven Aga-style stove in cream for just 9.90. It is non-opening but represents real value for money. And check out our smaller Aga-style stoves in red or green at only 7.90. We have always looked for good quality but economic options for your dolls houses this kitchen set provides an affordable solution at 21.95. It includes all the basics: fridge/freezer, sink unit and oven, and, as they are freestanding, they can be laid out as you prefer.
We ve added some smaller items to our product range as well. These digital kitchen scales are 4.30. A delightful toy trolley is 2.80 (not including the contents). We ve added some more vases to our selection. This gorgeous cranberry coloured jug is 4.90, while the Ikebana-style vase is only 1.25. Please look under China, glass and tableware in the Accessories section of the menu to see our full range of decorative vases and jugs. Finally we now have a red Ball chair alongside the black one, for 19.80. Please ask if there is anything you would like that we don t already stock. We can t guarantee to find it for you, but we ll try! New items from Elizabeth A number of new items have come from customer requests... A client came clutching a photo to the Cranmore Park Dolls House Fair on November 16 th and just two days later Elizabeth had designed this bathroom unit kit! Available with or without the bidet, the kit includes the vanity bowl, toilet, towel ring and loo roll holder and a choice of tap. Starting from 17.35 for the unit without bidet up to 32.30 for the unit with bidet and the more expensive modern chrome tap, this unit is a great way of giving your bathroom a modern look for a very reasonable price.
Another customer asked Elizabeth to make some children s play equipment - a swing and a sandpit. The sandpit is available to buy from the website, as a kit in wood ( 6.50) or ready-made in coloured acrylic ( 8.50). At present the swing is only available as a special request so please email if you would like to buy one. One of our clients asked for a self-contained "kitchen-in-acupboard". Ours has two fixed doors at the bottom, while the top doors open to reveal a steel worktop with sink and two-burner hob. There is a wrap-around steel splashback with extraction grille over the hob and hanging rail over the sink area. Above are two open shelves. The right hand door has a rack for storing condiments and cook s ingredients, while the left hand door has a handy white board and marker. The unit is available in two versions. One has 12v LEDs and can be wired to your existing 12v lighting system ( 95). However, the other, shown in the photos, has a 3V LED, run from two AA batteries concealed in the base (the battery holder is supplied, but you will need 2 x AA batteries, which are not supplied) ( 105). This makes the unit perfect for any room without a lighting supply, and also means that the unit is totally portable, and can be moved anywhere in the room, or indeed from house to house! With a lightwood frame, the unit has side panels and doors in white, and aluminium "D" shaped handles. Finally, one of our clients wanted a rollover sofa but didn t have enough space so we now have the rollover chair! You could use it with a rollover sofa or have one as a statement piece. At 35.00 these are made of real leather.
We ve now included all these items in our standard range but Elizabeth also makes one-off items such as this beautiful retro kitchen cabinet, based on the client s full sized cabinet which she had up-cycled. Elizabeth s reproduction is just visible in the photo on the left and in more detail below. She made the film and the handles as well as the cabinet! Now you have seen what Elizabeth can do to fulfil our clients dreams, please remember to come to us with your ideas for the modern doll s house! Having acquired the means to make the pattern on the doors for the cabinet above, Elizabeth has made several other patterned items including kitchen splash-backs and retro tables. Here is a retro kitchen table and a coffee table, both for 12.00. We have a wide range of splashbacks ( 6.50 each) and you can send us your own patterns ( 9.50) as well. Here are a couple of examples.
We ve called it the Bridge sideboard. It s a very simple design with endless possibilities. Available as a four door or two door/drawers kit, you can make this as a classic or as zany as you wish! Shown here in white with a walnut top, you could choose a wood effect film or even paint the doors in four different colours, à la Mondrian. The four drawer kit is non-opening and costs 9.50, while the two door/drawer kit can be purchased with nonopening drawers for 9.50 or opening drawers for 12.50. We also have the special edition Mondrian sideboard available as a kit, supplied with the four different coloured pieces of film. At Miniatura in September we exhibited a new display kitchen. Using EAZY kits as the basis for the kitchen but including bespoke items and new items for sale, it attracted many admirers. We featured the minimalist wall clock and modular hob in the last Newsletter. The kitchen also incorporates a new pop-up socket bar, shown here with a blender, and kitchen tap with hose, both now available for sale.
Featuring this month 1/16 th scale 1/16 th or 1/18 th (also known as 3/4 ) scale was a popular option for dolls houses in the past, by makers such as Triang and Lundby, and many of our clients are renovating their childhood dolls houses in this scale, wanting to create a modern look. Houses are still being manufactured in this scale by Brinca Dada, Lundby and others, some with very modern designs. As anyone knows who is working in this scale, finding what you want can be more challenging than in 1/12 th scale. ELF Miniatures offers kitchens, bathrooms and more in this scale, both made by Elizabeth and using selected items from the Lundby range. When we can find them, we also offer second-hand 1/16 th items for sale. To find the 1/16 th range, scroll down the menu on the left hand side of the website to Other Scales and then select 1/16 th (Brinca Dada, Lundby, Triang). Click on that, then scroll down again and you will see various sub-sections, such as 1:16 kitchens, 1:16 bathrooms. Looking at kitchens first of all, ELF offers its own ready-built kitchens, Lundby kitchens and ELF kitchen kits. Currently ELF has two off-the-shelf kitchen designs. The one on the left is available in lightwood finish for 95; the high gloss finish seen here is 125. These can also be made with kits, and the Compact kitchen kit is available in 1/16 th. The green kitchen is made from the 1/16 th version of the EAZY kits range, called Simply Sixteenth. The chairs are no longer available from ELF Miniatures but all the other components of this kitchen, including the accessories seen on the worktop, are available. Simply Sixteenth enables you to design a bespoke fitted kitchen; remember Elizabeth is always available for help and advice in planning.
The Lundby kitchen provides a more economic alternative and comes with all the accessories shown. You can buy the complete kitchen as shown for 58 or the two pieces separately for 29.95 each. In the 1/16 th bathroom, the key issue is the toilet! If you have been working in this scale for any time, you will know that toilets are difficult to come by. One way around this is to create a separate room for the toilet with a false wall and a door, possibly part open, indicating that there is a toilet behind the door (although in reality there isn t). Having a toilet in a separate room was often the case in older houses. A more modern interpretation of this idea is to use a modesty screen and a rough outline model of a toilet. However, we do stock Lundby bathroom sets that include toilets here are two of them and another one can be seen in the photo below. Here we have added an ELF gloss white acrylic bath (tub) to a Lundby vanity and toilet set to make a complete bathroom. ELF also makes the loo roll holder and loo brush. An ELF minimalist shower kit or a walk-in shower kit are available in this scale:
We also stock Lundby bath and shower sets, complete with the accessories shown. If you put the loo in a separate room or behind a modesty screen (see above) you could go for one of ELF s vibrant acrylic vanity and bath sets like this, also available in other colours. We sell taps and vanity bowls separately if you want to make your own vanity units. We have several items for the living rooms and office, and we are currently developing a range of bedroom furniture. From sofas in real leather to display shelves to a desk... ELF s very popular white sculpted sideboard is now available in 1/16 th scale.
...not forgetting TV and TV table, console table in white or clear acrylic, and various coffee tables. To show you a complete look from the 1/16 th range, here is a living room furnished with vibrant white furniture and accessorised from the ELF store, including the TV and laptop made by ELF. Finally dining sets and dining tables are available. The green chairs are available as a set of two with a square table or set of four with an oval table, as shown here:
Just as we do in other scales, we make custom-built items at the request of our clients. Perhaps the most unusual request was for a park bench! In case you are wondering, yes, we do supply the scooters and also motorbikes in this scale. The motorbikes at 3.70 each are a real bargain! We have several other accessories from teabags to wheelie bins see the 1:16 Accessories section in the 1/16 th section for the full range. If you would like to have your house or project featured in a future edition of the ELF Newsletter, please email us at elfminiatures@hotmail.co.uk