Soldering Projects and Design Updates

Hello Everyone!

Its been a productive few weeks since my last post. In my last post I left off saying how I am going to have the house Laser Cut as well as the brass work. Since then, I decided to take things a bit further.... After getting some quotes back from some laser cutting placer here in Los Angeles, I realized that maybe I should look into an investment opportunity here and just purchase my own laser cutter. (The cost I was being quoted for the cutting was about half of the cost of a decent laser cutter) SO, with the help of family, I am currently in the process of purchasing my own Laser Cutter/Engraver!  I cannot even begin to tell you guys how excited I am! I have so many ideas of things to create that I feel like I am going to have to rent a bigger apartment!  From furniture to architectural details to a whole line of houses that I can easily reproduce with the click of a button! The possibilities are really endless.

Aside from the laser cutting, The brass etching was going to be just as expensive so I decided to experiment with soldering. I had never soldered anything before but it was something I always wanted to learn. I headed to my local hobby shop and picked up everything I would need including a bunch of brass rods and wire to start practicing! I watched a couple of youtube videos and tutorials on soldering and dove right in! There was a lot of trial and error and a lot of burnt fingertips along the way, but slowly I was starting to get the hang of it! After a week of practicing and making small things using jewelry findings and wire, I felt like I was confident enough to start making things for Casa California.

I decided to start with the Juliet Balconies in the front of the house. I always loved Juliet Balconies in their useless beauty.  On a trip to Barcelona a few years back all I remember of the buildings there is all the Juliet Balconies draped with plants and flowers and I knew I wanted that in my house.

THE JULIET BALCONIES

ABOVE: You can see the different types of brass I used....For the spiral wire, I ordered a few feet of twisted brass square wire used for bracelet making, the center design was a brass jewelry finding,  and the spindles are 3/64" brass tubing with 2mm brass beads glued on. 

ABOVE: I finished the balconies off with a 1/8" Flat wire as the railing, the spiral supports below and the actual flooring of the balconies.  After they were done, I sanded a few rough edges and threw them in the dishwasher to remove any flux and dust and prep for painting. 

ABOVE: I finished the balconies off with a few coats of Rustoleum Matte Black paint to give it that true iron look.  I plan on going over them again before installation with a rust colored paint to make them look old and weathered.  After finishing these, I can honestly say I am OBSESSED with soldering! Its instantly gratifying and totally worth the burnt fingertips.  My next piece will be the large balcony off the master bedroom. This one will be about 7 inches wide and 2.5 inches deep.

CASA CALIFORNIA DESIGN UPDATES

Since my last post, I had the chance to re-build the house in Google SketchUp using the exact measurements and wall thicknesses. This also gave me the chance to see the whole house in 3D and see if I needed to make any changes.  

ABOVE: The bare house. This is a model of all the Laser Cut Pieces Assembled. 

ABOVE (X2): Two angles of the front of the house with roof and more architectural details added. Still need to add the doors and windows to this model. The Juliet balconies will go on those two doorways to the left of the main entrance on the second floor. The initial changes since my last post include making a few windows bigger, making the stone Churrigueresque style entry slightly smaller, making the living-room/bedroom wing about 6 inched wider. and turning the old breakfast nook into a full sized breakfast room. The finished house will now be 67 inches wide, 27 inches deep and about 30 inches tall and have almost 3000 square inches of interior space spread over 12 rooms. 

ABOVE: Close-up shot of the front facade. You can see some of the tile detail on the stairway inside. 

ABOVE: A 360 Degree video of the house.  (I apologize for the quality) Here you can see the full layout of the house and all of the rooms. 

I hope you guys enjoy these updates and also this lovely fall weather!! For those celebrating Halloween, have a happy holiday and be safe and have fun!! Much Love!!

Chris Toledo

Designing Casa California

DESIGNING

Hello Everyone! Ive been making some huge technical progress on Casa California! Since I first started planning this house so many years ago, I always wondered how I would make it. I knew I wanted the walls to be at least 3/4 inch thick and I wanted arches and ironwork throughout the house, but I always wondered how I would achieve all of this.  After hours of research and sourcing, I realized the answer was clear.... LASERS!  Ive seen many dollhouses and dollhouse details all done with laser cutters, so I knew with this technique I would be able to get the best results.  Luckily, graphic design is one of my day jobs, so creating the necessary files would'nt be that difficult.

I began planning the layout of each individual wall and decided I wanted the walls to be 3 layers of 1/4 inch MDF. (Mainly because 1/4 inch is the maximum depth the laser cutters can cut at the place I sourced)  I also knew that having layered walls would give me the opportunity to run wiring throughout the walls as well. For the ironwork throughout the house, I wanted to use the same idea but since most laser cutters cannot cut brass, I decided to look into Photo Etching.  I also knew that with this technique, If I ever wanted to reproduce this house, It would be a piece of cake.

Surprisingly, planning out the walls and ironwork only took a few days. (I was expecting it to take way longer!) All in all, the house will be cut from approx 160 sq ft of 1/4 inch MDF and the ironwork will be cut out of 1.5mm brass sheeting.

THATS ALOT OF MDF!

THE PLANS

Made in Adobe Illustrator, Here you can see all 20 [2ftx4ft] sheets of 1/4 inch MDF with the puzzle that is this house laid out. Each assembled wall will interlock with the floors and walls next to it to create one solid, incredibly heavy structure. 

IRONWORK

In the image above, you can see all the ironwork for the house including the arched stained glass windows for the living room. (Colored pink for reference) Aside from having intricate ironwork throughout the house, I wanted the living room window to have and old Spanish leaded glass look. The idea came from a beautiful Spanish Colonial home that was a few doors down from me growing up. To personalize the house even more, I added my family crest to the center of the stained glass.  This will all be photo etched onto brass sheeting, then painted black and aged. 

A moc-up of the finished window with my family crest. 

To achieve this, I plan on painting a sheet of plexiglass to simulate the glass and sandwich it in between two layers of the photo etched brass. 

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and I thank you for following my adventure!

xx

Chris

Previous Work

Before I move along with this build-blog, I want to share with you my current almost complete project. This house is called Windsor Place (Named after a street here in Los Angeles in the 1920s neighborhood of Handcock Park), and is a 1920s era Tudor House.

Windsor Place was built using a Glencroft Kit by Greenleaf for the bare bones, but was completely redone with custom detailing including resizing of all windows and doors, addition of a front porch, addition of a new Kitchen wing, and a custom stone exterior.

DOWNSTAIRS: LIVING ROOM AND DINING ROOM

(click images to enlarge)

UPSTAIRS: BEDROOM

(click images to enlarge)

UPSTAIRS: BATHROOM

(click images to enlarge)

Thanks so much for checking out my work!

xx

Chris

Introductions...

ABOUT ME
Born in 1986, in Los Angeles... I have always been a fan of the Arts. Whether it be painting, sculpting, wood working, or photography; I wanted to do it all. My obsession with miniatures began when I came across a book about Miniatures in my middle school library. It was called "Dollhouse Miniatures" and featured a huge selection of Thorne Rooms and many other artist made miniature creations. I was instantly obsessed. My first house was a Duracraft Log Cabin that me and my dad assembled together, followed by a Duracraft Farmhouse.

After taking almost 2 decades off to do some growing up, I recently decided to get back into the craft and fully take it by storm!



CASA CALIFORNIA
Growing up in Los Angeles, I was constantly surrounded by this amazing 1920s architecture. The 1920s was a roaring age in Los Angeles as the Hollywood scene took over and an incredible boom in luxury homes took place. These homes were inspired by the very theatrics that paid for them.  One of the styles of architecture that was burn in this era was the Spanish Colonial Revival.

As an avid miniaturist, I noticed that you don't see this style of dollhouse almost.... ever.  In a field dominated by Victorians, I knew I wanted to do something different and completely from scratch. The initial idea for the house started when I was a kid.  After my farmhouse, I started playing around with plaster of paris and making walls to experiment. Now, as an adult, and with the many modern advances there have been since the 90s, I was able to turn all my ideas and inspiration into a 3D model of the house on Google Sketchup.  I present to you, the rendering of Casa California:

FRONT FACADE

FRONT RIGHT

INTERIOR

INTERIOR: CLOSE-UP

In this blog, I plan on sharing everything from this adventure Im about to embark on. From tips and tutorials, to random updates. I truly thank you for joining me on this journey!

xx

Chris