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She wanted a dollhouse, and a family friend volunteered
to build it. Decorating and outfitting the house was
an outlet for Ruth’s creativity, and she began
designing miniature furniture, using various clever
techniques. Many of her furnishings were made from
common objects–like a modern headboard fashioned
from the bottom of a cassette tape box, with a strip
of balsa wood painted black for an interior shelf. Or
ice cream parlor chairs made from champagne cork wires.
She also developed a technique for making “antique”cabinet
pieces from heavy cardboard decorated with flat lace
strips and then painted.
At the time, she and Nancy Baggett had
been writing magazine articles together, and they decided
to see if they could sell a book on making dollhouse
furniture. Their proposal sold to A. S. Barnes,and they
began working on DOLLHOUSE
FURNITURE YOU CAN MAKE, (ISBN: 0498019942, A. S.
Barnes, 1977), with Nancy’s husband, Charlie Baggett,
photographing the pieces for them. That was before the
invention of word processors, and typing and proofreading
the manuscript was a time-consuming process, since it
was full of measurements for fabric and cardboard construction
materials.
The team went on to sell DOLLHOUSE LAMPS
AND CHANDELIERS (ISBN: 0875881491, Hobby House Press,
1979). After Nancy moved with her husband to Germany
for a four-year tour of duty, Ruth wrote DOLLHOUSE KITCHEN
AND DINING ROOM ACCESSORIES (ISBN: 0875881505, Hobby
House Press, 1979) by herself.
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