It’s too hot to sand, I need to buy balsa wood and fix some windows before I progress further and I have hit a roadblock in my layout planning. Plus I am recovering from the bounties of bombay basil and cosmopolitans I partook in last night.
Fortunately it is not too hot to think. Well not too hot as long as the fan is on and I am drip feeding myself cola. So I am back to pondering the way of the dollhouse.
Given most of the items I am seeing on sites are for collectors and/or are not suitable for children; for now, let’s leave aside the dollhouse as toy.
As mentioned previously, if you trawl through ebay and dollhouse sellers’ sites, you will see a preponderance of Classic US, Georgian, Edwardian, Tudor and other Period architecture, structural components, furniture and etc.
So there appears to be a predominant wish to create reflections (or rather interpretations) of previous periods of domestic life.
Interpretations of previous periods is more correct given these reflections are filtered through our own experiences of (current) domestic life and are themselves pasteurised and prettified. How many accessories and plans are there for Victorian tenements and slums?
So this action of creating an interpretation of a previous period is an action of creating an ideal (or idyll) of domestic life in stately and upperclass homes in the Edwardian, Georgian and etc periods.
It’s an escapist fantasy of a house populated with rooms and concepts which don’t exist in real life – not in this current time, nor probably even in that far off time period we seek to replicate.
And these are no small homes either – they are stately and or upperclass homes. How many of us could afford something similar in terms of size, money or lifestyle in real life? Very few, I imagine.
So, for now, we’ll call this action of creating idyllic reflections of domestic life “escapism”, for now. It’s kind of a blunt terms and it’s not that there’s anything wrong with that, okay?
As they say, whatever floats your boat.
However, what really interests me is if this act of creation and interpretation is the creation of an idyllic domestic reality and an act of escapism from humdrum/difficult/whatever you want to call it reality…why on earth are there minature washing machines, ironing boards, cleaning products darning boxes and vacuum cleaners?
Have a 1:12 size stain, we'll fix it!
Seriously – if I want to escape from reality, I don’t want to take the fact that there’s ironing and washing to be done with me.
Don't you have chores to be doing?
That’s…not escapism.
What day is bin day in 1:12 world?
Who wants to be reminded there is vacuuming to be done and bins to be put out in their idyllic world?
Who wants to be reminded there is vacuuming to be done and bins to be put out in their idyllic world?
Little women?
/ducks