Hanging light-fittings

Before I start, it’s really difficult to find light-fittings for 1/6th (ish) scale rooms, and it’s taken me years to come up with a collection that works.

What was even more difficult was locating a hook to hang them from the ceiling. Yes, that was the worst part! I tried all sorts of hooks including magnetic ones, but non were what I wanted, a hook with a screw thread and bolt, in brass…but tiny.

Countless Internet searches later, I found this:

https://www.johnwardle.co.uk/german-clock-weight-hook-male-638-p.asp

A German clock weight hook (male). It’s a bit too thick as a hook, but it’s the closest I’ve ever found. They also sell female versions too, which was great for other projects, although they have a closed loop and not a hook.

The advantage of having a hook is that I can remove the item for cleaning as and when needed, and I don’t have to add a clumsy transition from chain to ceiling. It also looks really lovely, and works perfectly, Thanks John Wardle!

The next step was to find a celling rose. Without that, the hook looked pretty rubbish:

I found the answer on Etsy. I was looking for carved panels for a panelled room and wanted oak. But again, finding the right scale has proven to be difficult. Also, avoiding cheap, mass-produced items was a problem, especially as most seemed to be flowery. I’m not against flowers, but many were very twee, and I don’t do twee.

I came across https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Kozakworkshop, who do panels—but also appliques like rosettes. All of it is hand carved, and stunning work. Of course, they are not designed as for dollhouses, so some are too large or too deep, but the quality of design is wonderful. They also do carvings of animals and a lot of religious icons.

So, I bought more than enough rosettes for the rooms. As they are intended to be stuck on something as a decoration, they are solid in the middle, meaning I had to drill all eight of them with a large enough hole to get the screw thread through. Some had to be adapted slightly to create a flat space.

I then added a brass washer to the part where the hook would sit, just to add a bit of extra strength.

The hook itself has a thread that was too short to go through the cardboard and wood, so I added an extender in steel.

As, naturally, this them made it too long, I had to use a series of washers to get tension when I tightened the nut. But this was something I could live with, and it would need a washer to make sure it didn’t fall through the hole I was going to punch in the ceiling.