Wee Gnome Cottage

Ive been trawling through pictures on the computer, trying to find images of things Ive been making the past while. I stumbled across this Wee Cottage I made for my pal Kris for Christmas this year [how Ive forgotten about it in such a short period of time scares me a bit]. She and I went to York back in November and we got these darling little rubber gnomes from a place called Give a Dog a Bone, a great little gift shop full of weird and wonderful merchandise. We also nipped over to the insanely gorgeous dollhouse shop, Miniature Scene, that completely hypnotized us with 1:12 scale versions of daily items.



So, she bought some items for her homeless gnome, and it was then and there that I decided I was going to build her little guy a cottage to stay in. I constructed the house from this heavy cardboard we get at the library when books are delivered [working in the library has its advantages], and some felt. The window is made from plastic packaging of an eraser set [it's as though it was meant to be a gnome cottage window].



I'm obviously obsessed with York and it's well preserved Medieval/Tutor architecture. I incorporated the 'beams' into the gnome's house. I think they make a cozy atmosphere. I took a lot of inspiration from a place in York called Barley Hall, a medieval townhouse situated down a long, narrow snickleway. Below is the courtyard, with an alleyway passing underneath the building, and a view of one of the rooms inside the house.







This is inside the gnome cottage. I made the roof fexlible so she can flap it up and place the little dude inside. Hopefully Kris will take a pic of her gnome inhabiting the cottage, and I'll get it posted up here.