A Year in Miniature

Today is the beginning of a year long project to make a 1:12 scale miniature town. Only the more I think about it, the word "town" is not appropriate for the world I'm about to create, it would be more proper to call it "the land of____?" like L. Frank Baum did with his 14 book series on the Land of Oz.

This plan has been growing, evolving, and changing direction almost as fast as I can think or fantasize about it. It just became "the land of_____?" this morning. This time the plan will stick, because I have made the commitment with a deadline of a year from today, and including all of the various ideas into one "Land of____" is perfect for me.

I was very late to find out about dollhouse miniatures. If it weren't for eBay, it may never have happened, and I would have missed so much! Many good friends I've met along the way, a growing imagination, and new skills of my own with learning to work in 1:12 scale.

While I have always loved anything tiny, growing up, we all played with Barbie and similar 1:6 scale dolls. As an adult, I did still enjoy playing with Barbie in the way of making wardrobes of clothing for her/similar fashion dolls, and once made myself a project of altering the dolls themselves for the adult women in my family. I made each sister and my mom a doll that resembled them, then a wardrobe to go with it. This is how I found my way to the "Dolls and Miniatures" category on eBay in the beginning.... I was interested in making altered 1:6 dolls as artwork to sell.

That idea passed when I found the life-like fairy and artdoll sculpture made from polymer clays. Especially the work of Julie Mansgergh/faerielady on eBay. Her dolls/sculpts are so life-like, you might even convince yourself you saw them breathing! After I saw these artdolls, I just had to learn how to make them myself. I took a year to learn how, the requisite "make 100 dolls before you try and sell one", but still, it was not to be. My dolls didn't ever get a following, and I still have a few that will now live in my "Land of____?" too :)

While hanging out in the "Dolls and Miniatures" category on eBay so much in my fairy/doll making days, I discovered the 1:12 scale miniatures. It was like a heaven-on-earth time of finding so many perfect replicas of anything you could think of in one inch scale! My first project was going to be a display piece, a miniature version of the real life shop of Mostly Art, down to the last detail.

I purchased a lot that had two basic dollhouse kits still in the boxes. I thought I could combine elements of the two small houses into an empty structure resembling the store when it had been empty, then go from there. After trying to figure out the basic floor plan for a while, (why are 1:12 dollhouses not really to scale, but so much smaller than they should be?), I could see this wouldn't work. I would have had to compromise too much on the design. If it couldn't be a true replica, I didn't want to do it.

Time went on, I still wanted to make some kind of house or roombox, and tried with one of the kits later. I blogged about it here , where you can see it didn't work out either. That was when I realized what I really want to do is PLAY! I don't want my dollhouses or roomboxes to be a display-only piece, I want the whole thing... "it's a lifestyle" to quote a very good friend of mine. I want my dolls to be characters, with personalities that will let me know what kind of dwelling they will live in, what kind of job they might have, what kind of place they may hang out in...

So this year's project, making the "Land of_____" will start with the dolls. I have an assortment of dolls of different kinds/types that are in 1:12 scale. Some are from Heidi Ott, a few proper Porcelain dolls, miniature Barbies, the sculpts I made, two sculpts from another artist (they already have their own dwelling/structure), and a lion/man who I believe will be someone like Harvey, the rabbit/pooka.

Most of these dolls and characters are in need of clothing and/or alteration. So that's where I'm deciding to start this journey... pictures to follow

One Tiny Pumpkin on Great Vine!

This year's Pumpkin vine had a rough beginning. I had decided to get an earlier start this year, but then the first tiny plants froze. The second set of seeds seemed to take forever to come up, then they didn't really do much of anything until August. We now have a Great vine going in all directions!



The leaves are huge again this year, and the vines are pushing their way through the wild flowers and tall grasses we let grow however they wanted to this Summer. The results were really fun for the cats with so much "jungle", and the only controlled areas are the square areas with Lettuce, and the other patch for the Tomato vines.

Here's the lone Pumpkin... at least I think it's the only one, I haven't discovered any others yet. There are many more beautiful flower blossoms early in the morning. I took the pictures in the afternoon when the blossoms had mostly closed for the day.

Certified Handmade and CDHM Feature

It's been so long since I posted any news here! I got the Certified Handmade Artisan seal on ArtFire, and a feature in the CDHM iMag for June.

In my ArtFire Studio, the Handmade Seal is on the left hand side page. I'll try to add a picture of it here too.



The CDHM iMag is called The Miniature Way, I am not sure how to show any of it here, so am just linking to the different pages.


The feature on CDHM is linked from the home page of the site on the right hand side of the page this month. That will change in July, so I'll link the actual article Here too. (the picture is an old one from a vacation, I had been swimming, so my hair is usually a little better than that)

I keep a gallery on CDHM to show current ArtFire listings and some of my past work all of the time, so if you'd ever like to see what's going on with my miniature pottery, it will show previews with the new listings. My CDHM Gallery and I still like to use flickr for pictures too.

Nothing much else is new right now, I'm enjoying the Summer "out and about" more than being online like I do so much during the bad weather months. I will try to post more often in the future though.

♥

Some Miniature Pottery Work in Progress

Today I decided to show a few pictures on the process of making miniature pottery items. The first picture is of some of my frequently used tools and some pieces in their first stage of "raw" clay blanks and the begining sculpting.

Next is glazing day. I decide how I want to glaze each piece first, then make a page with drawings and which glaze is going to be used, which order of the different color glaze coats, or other particulars. This way, I have a record of what I did when something turns out fantastic, or the other way too, if it wasn't so good, I know not to repeat the same glaze combination.

This third picture is a mix of pieces. Some are still in their bisque stage (after the first firing but before the glaze), and some are now finished.

The last picture is some upcycling going on. These rabbits were made in Peru as beads. I am altering them to make them into miniature sculpture rabbits in honor of the Year of the Rabbit. Just a fun idea, it amuses me :)

Fresh Start with Creative Breakroom

As many discussion forum people know, we've all felt scattered, uneasy, and even homeless since the Etsy Discussion Forums closed down. At first, we all had a great alternative board called UEF (unofficial etsy forums), and it was a great new community growing to almost 3000 members in just a couple of months! It disappeared (lots of drama) a few days ago, and the founders of the UEF board created a fabulous new place that is open to every seller from every venue (buyers too of course!) to gather in a break room setting.

This new board is called Creative Breakroom, and it is very fitting for what it is. I'm really excited about how something so good can come from the "bad" of losing our original home board. Especially with the welcoming of people from all venues to come together in a new community setting! ♥




Hope to see you there!