Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Not Your Grandmother's Miniatures !

Gargoyle Bed
Gargoyle Dresser ~ On ebay til 3/4/12



 I expect most miniature collectors don't exactly delight in these altered doll house furniture pieces.  Yet they do attract a select bunch who favor haunted houses and other dark fantasy settings.  God bless 'em. (My peeps.)

I love doing this kind of modification to miniature furniture. It's also a great technique to dress up interiors by adding gargoyles (or angels or animals) to the walls and doorways of miniature constructions.

Each addition is sculpted out of Creative Paperclay™and painted with acrylics. 

Dressed Gargoyle Bed ~ With Mice Infestation.  How about sleeping in that?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Gone To The Dogs

oh yes i did
I have always admired animal artists - especially those who create in miniature. And as an animal lover I have collected many, many 1:12 scale animals over many years from many artists. Seems like everyone loves animals in their settings. Especially cats and dogs. But other than carving tiny animals out of wood for my Noah's ark sets - of which I did hundreds, I never thought to try realistic, "living" animals. Not until an animal artist going under the name of Paizley Pawz created an easy to follow tutorial on making a realistic looking sheep covered with wool with the base a Schleich plastic sheep. I tried it, liked the process and was very pleased with the results.
Sweet, right?
This is a great project to try your hand at furring an animal and I suggest you hop right over to PaizleyPawz and get the tut.


Recently, on an auction site, there was a sculpted Great Dane that was suspiciously like one done by the late Ann Maselli. Ann was a wonderful artist who worked in miniature and inspired many - including me - with her how to articles in the old Nutshell News where she did a vast assortment of all manner of miniature scenes. She was for sure a mentor for many. And her work is, thankfully, still out on the web for all to see.

So this became the perfect challenge for me. I would try and sculpt a Great Dane similar to Ann's and then post it as a tribute to her. I was not sure I could pull it off, but I think I did a pretty fair job. Not bad for a first attempt.

Stay tuned for the finished Great Dane !!