THE PERIPATETIC MINIATURIST: Cynthia Howe's German Christmas Market Stall

This is a 1 inch scale German Christmas Stall from Cynthia Howe kit I finally got around to completing. It sat forlorn in a box for a year before I got around to it.

Unlike many Cynthia Howe kits, this one was not entirely laser cut. In fact, the structure uses 1/8" to 1/4" plywood cut on a table saw. Staining all the wood pieces saves a lot of time in painting and touch ups, but wood stain has terrible noxious fumes and it takes almost a day to dry completely. The all wood look also replicates real life market stalls seen in Germany---look it up on a web search.

In addition to gluing, we had to add some nails, too, but not too many. The basic structure was pretty easy.

Wiring and HIDING the light wires kept me up at night. That, and figuring what my market stall should be filled with, since I opted out of buying CH's line of laser cut creches, ornaments etc.

Here is the front view. I found the angels in my stash of "stuff". The laser cut "brass" ornaments are from CH, but cut from cardstock, so I colored with Krylon gold leaf paint pen to simulate "brass".

I got so tired of brown, I painted the roof green using Home Depot's colored wood "stain", which they mix up special for you, except you have to buy a quart of as a MINIMUM, so I will likely never ever use the rest.

My 8-year old son helped me add "snow" (Snow Tex) to the roof. All the random dabs are his.

Here it is all lighted up. I decided my market stall sells antique style toys, paper kits from Ann Vanture of Paper Minis.

These are toys from Ann's Vintage Toys subscription. On of the monthly kits is 20 antique toy dollhouses in a village, so I used that as my Xmas village instead of buying CH's line of Putz glitter houses. There's also a carousel, Cinderella toy theatre, dolls around the world, a toy castle, a Goldilocks and Three Bears toy theatre, Victorian style dollhouse, and a can holding pinwheels and old fashioned spinning toys.