Miniature #22 – Constructed 05/2024
Fun Facts
Creameries traditionally have roots in dairy processing and offer a range of dairy products, including ice cream, with a focus on artisanal production methods. Ice cream shops are more focused on the retail aspect of selling ice cream and related frozen desserts, often with a wide variety of flavors and serving methods. Ice cream parlors are places that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and frozen yogurt.
In 1874, Philadelphia became the hub of ice cream manufacture in the United States. The ice cream soda was also invented there.
The ice cream cone, portable and self-contained, originated at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.
The oldest ice cream shop on Cape Cod, “Four Seas” began serving homemade ice cream in 1934, in Centerville. The shop is the most famous on Cape Cod and all across America.
The name “Four Seas” comes from a line in a poem by Mable E. Phinney: “We face four seas,” referring to the four bodies of water surrounding Cape Cod: the Atlantic Ocean, Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Bay, and Nantucket Sound.
Description
With the popularity of ice cream on Cape Cod, there was no doubt that Capetown needed a creamery. It is fitting that Capetown Creamery was completed in May, in time for Memorial Day, the official “opening” of Cape Cod for the summer’s tourist season.
A custom color mix of soft pastel tones was required for each of the 6 acrylic paint colors. This was the first miniature where I used 6 different colors, and the first time I custom mixed all of them. Credit to my editor, Cynthia, for suggesting rainbow colors.
To achieve the clean paint lines I wanted, I calculated and painted all the wood needed to build the creamery building, the 9 interior shelves, the awning, and picnic tables, BEFORE actually starting construction. This process added time but resulted in perfectly matched colors and no wasted wood. It was a challenging undertaking, but the end result speaks for itself.
The creamery sits on a 12″x12″ plywood base. The overall piece stands at 9.5″ high and the time invested to design and build was approximately 55 hrs.
Materials Used
The exterior of the creamery was constructed with pre-painted, rainbow colored popsicle sticks attached horizontally to a 2mm thick plywood frame. The awning was made from pre-painted, rainbow colored, craft sticks and attached with square wooden dowels, painted with white acrylic.
The picnic tables were made from popsicle sticks and painted with the same rainbow colored acrylic paint.
The interior walls, ceiling, and shelves, lined with ice cream treats, are all painted to match the rainbow color scheme. ‘Glass’ windows, made from plastic sheeting, were added in an open position for serving customers.
The plywood base was divided into 3 sections: the cement slab on which the creamery sits (painted with gray acrylic), a wooden boardwalk across the shop’s front order window (stained a Golden Oak color), and the sand of the beach (made from a mix of Vallejo gray & desert sands).
The roof and roof sign were made from 2mm craft plywood with square wooden dowels to add character and support. The decal on the front was affixed to the plywood before construction of the sign. The decal on the back was affixed after construction.
The custom signage decals were provided by www.threeinchesunder.com.
