YUGUE: the servants bells

As anyone who has watched Downton Abbey knows, the servants 'downstairs' are summoned to the family's rooms by using servant bells. I have seen some dolls house servant bells for sale but I've never been satisfied with the quality of them, so I decided to make my own - all fourteen of them!

The first stage was research. I've collected many photos of bells in stately homes I've visited, and I also trawled the net for close ups so I could try to understand the workings of them.

The next stage was to find the raw materials to use. You can find tiny bells on sale online, often used in mini Christmas decorations. But for the other workings I resorted to brass stationary fasteners, and ear screw clips purchased from bead shops. 

I meticulously cut the legs off the stationary fasteners, and the decorative screw heads off the ear screws; then I bent the stationary fastener legs using pliers. Two bent legs were then stuck onto the ear screw using super glue.

The round metal 'spring' with the bell on it is also a one leg of a large stationary brass fastener. I cut this off from the fastener head with scissors, and then bent it round a large straw to get a rough circular shape. Then I stuck the bell on with superglue again.

The final construction stage was to stick the spring to the decorative base structure, again with superglue.

Then I'll need to make the room labels, stick the bells onto a stained wooden back plate.