For August, I could have kept working on July’s POM, but it’s really been too hot. Quilts take lots of ironing, and I couldn’t face it. So I decided to start the Rolife miniature kit I bought in the spring of 2025 instead.
I bought the kit as a way to ease into a new miniature project. It’s called Sam’s Study but the signs that come with it suggest it’s actually a bookstore. I prefer to think of it as a private library. However, I can’t just follow the directions. That would be boring. I need to give it my own twist.
For years, I’ve wanted to do a Howl’s Moving Castle (HMC) project. I am particularly drawn to the fantastical bedroom Howl has in the the movie, and was considering making a miniature of it. However, experience has taught me that ambitious miniatures can end up large. Howl’s bedroom is definitely a big project, both in terms of time and the “miniature” it would produce.
My solution is to combine the two projects. I will make Howl a personal library that could be at one end of his possibly enormous bedroom using the kit as my base. While I will use as much of the kit as I can, I’m most looking forward to making all the weird and colorful magical objects.
The scale of the kit is supposed to be a 1:18. While that might have been the goal, the books and bookshelves look more like 1:12. Since the few things I have already made for an HMC project are also 1:12 scale, I’ve chosen 1:12 for my project. This will mean discarding some of the furniture that is 1:18, but I’m okay with that.
As eager as I was to get started, it took me a couple of weeks just to get oriented. I’m waiting to build the furniture until after my copy of The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle comes in so I use the illustrations for inspiration. In the meantime, I’ve been making books and potion bottles. The bottles were particularly fun and I expect that I now have more than I’ll be able to use.
Even with a kit to help, I can tell this project is going to take way longer than a month. Insisting on making it my own is slowing me way down, because I have to decide what to keep, what to leave out, and what to modify. Still, I’m hoping to get at least one bookshelf built before the month is out. Wish me luck.
Good luck, kit. Looks like a challenge for a FEW months?
Astute observation! This could take me a year easily. It’s astonishing how long it takes to make something small… It’s like miniature quilts. Your brain believes it will be faster but it’s still a ton of work.
Your projects look like a lot of fun.