The Best Dollhouse Miniature Tutorials – I Took A Class From Jessica Dance And Here’s The Review!

In the world of dollhouse miniature tutorials, there is a lot out there on the internet, and I wrote about several of them already.

This time I decided to take a class from Domestika and the fantastic teacher is called Jessica Dance.

Today I am going to discuss in-depth who she is and what the class is about.

Updated 10/08/2013

But first: who is Jessica Dance and her dollhouse miniature tutorial?

Jessica Dance is an artist, designer, and coach, who has worked on many commissions for big brands.

Her main thing is craftsmanship and thus she loves making things by hand and has ‘the eye’ for detail in her work!

She started out in the fashion industry but it turned out she wasn’t really interested in fashion :-).

So she decided to get more into making props and started by making things with paper and cardboard, basically because these materials were cheaper to use when starting out.

Can’t wait to check out this dollhouse furniture tutorial? Click here!

Then she realized that lots of people were doing the same thing and that it was very competitive in prices. When people contacted her in her freelance journey, she got a lot of messages asking “How cheap can you do this”? Annoying, right?

That was the time that she taught herself to knit and make 3D objects by using cardboard as a foundation and then knitting around the structure.

So she kept on doing this while starting to collaborate with photographers to get her hard work more visible to a bigger audience.

Instead of using cardboard, at some point, she started to use styrofoam forms, which is a kind of polystyrene. Doing this, she finally started to get commission work for making puppets and models for commercials, etc.

And that’s where things really took off for her in the model-making world :-).

That process continued and she learned how to use other materials, like balsa wood and Kapa-line foam.

Doing all these things over time and experimenting is how Jessica Dance created her own style.

Her motto is: it doesn’t really matter how much time you spend on projects, because you evolve and learn from them over time, even when things go completely wrong! And that is exactly how I feel it!

Check out free dollhouse furniture tutorials from everyday materials on my Youtube channel!

Influences of Jessica Dance and her dollhouse miniatures.

From a young age, Jessica was a huge fan of Wallace & Gromit. And by using Fimo clay, she really started to like making model figurines from this particular clay.

In her adult life, animation like Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has inspired her more about how detailed model making can be.

Check out the 6 best dollhouse miniature courses here.

Another thing that influenced Jessica was “The Borrowers”, where there were little people and everything else was giant.

While now she is doing the opposite: she herself is a “giant”, and she is making little things 🙂

There are other people that influenced her, but I am not giving everything away that I saw in the tutorial that I have seen myself, that wouldn’t be fair now, would it? 😉

Can’t wait to check out this dollhouse furniture tutorial? Click here!

What Will You Be Doing In One Of These Dollhouse Miniature Tutorials?

In this course, Jessica Dance will teach you how to make your own miniature room box, step by step, and quite some dollhouse furniture. This contains:

• First, she will explain to you all the materials that you need, which is a real mix of things. Most of these, I already had in my home, but still needed to buy a few things.
  
  
• Next, Jessica shows you how to create your own “mood boards” using Pinterest.
  
  
• Then, she will be teaching you everything you need to know about scale and show you how to make a building plan.
  
  ( This particular project is on a scale of 1:10, which is not the usual scale in the miniature world, but that doesn’t matter, you can still craft the room on a scale of 1:12, for example).
  
  
• Next on the agenda is measuring out and cutting all the materials to create all the walls, windows and floors.
  
  
• Then, we will assemble everything and glue it all together.
  
  
• Jessica has all the templates that you need to go on with this project and create all the miniature furniture that she shows in the tutorial. (and I can assure you it is really thorough!)
  
  She creates a mid-century long chair, a Corona chair, and a coffee table.
  
  
• Lastly, you will be creating some accessories, which will bring the space to life some more and add some personality to the miniature room.
  Including a starburst clock, and some miniature books to add to the little coffee table.
  

When you have learned all the skills from this online tutorial, then you will hopefully know how to make your own designs and craft your personal miniatures.

The picture below shows you the result of this particular course:

Can’t wait to check out this dollhouse furniture tutorial? Click here!

My personal opinion and review on this dollhouse miniatures tutorial.

What I like about this course though, but didn’t like as well, as I watched this all the way is:

The Good.

1. This could be a very good tutorial for beginners who want to start a miniature project but have no clue how to begin.
   
   
2. The idea of using Pinterest to make building plans and measure things out was something I wouldn’t have thought of using at all!
   
   
3. Even if you are a little more advanced in the mini world, this tutorial can get you more insights and a fresh reminder of how-to-do things. It did for me anyways!
   
   
4. This course itself is quite affordable
   
   
5. The video clips are very expanded, very well filmed, and of high quality
   
   
6. You learn how to do things step by step and with very clear instructions.
   
   
7. You can pause a video anytime you want or go back to a previous step and watch it endlessly, anytime you want.
   
   
8. In the end, you should be able now to make a room box and miniature furniture all by yourself!
   
   
9. This course has English audio and English subtitles (other languages for subtitles are available)
   

The Bad.

It is quite hard to find any negative points about this particular course because honestly, I couldn’t do it better myself haha!

I actually had to go look elsewhere to have a look at other people’s reviews on Trustpilot and such. Here’s what I found:

1. I kind of agree with a review saying that the artist itself talks a lot about herself, what the influences are, etc. That is time that could be invested in explaining something else in the particular project or crafting something extra. He has a point!
   

Other than this, there are actually no negative points on this particular course from Jessica Dance, in my opinion.

If you want to see an expanded review of Domestika itself, please check out my other blog post on the matter.

Can’t wait to check out this dollhouse furniture tutorial? Click here!

My Final Conclusion

I have watched this entire miniature tutorial for you and I still have access to it, so if you have any more questions about this artist or tutorial, feel free to ask below in the comment section!

Or you could follow my social media pages, join my Facebook group or watch my own miniature tutorials now on my Youtube channel. Please share this blog post with your friends!

I wish you happy crafting!

Kind regards,

Lizzy

Have a look at the general review on (English) Domestika courses company here.

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