It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

My HALLOWEEN BLOG is up on my website. So if you come here and don't ever go there, Go THERE NOW!

Here's a taste. 

And, I am having a GIVEAWAY

It's on Facebook and it's for a loaded 

Potion Prep Board.

That is all...

Taking myself, my miniatures and my blog and moving.

When your past calls, don't answer, it has nothing new to say. Unknown.

YOU CAN  READ IT HERE.

I have been changing. They way I do business anyway. And market myself. I have been learning a lot about internet marketing and trying to put those lessons into practice. One of them calls for leaving this blog behind. 

Not that this wasn't a great place to connect.

 And I think Blogger is fun to use too. It has just run its course for me. So from now on, I'll be blogging on my website. I hope you'll join me there. If you are on my newsletter list, you will be notified of a new blog. So you might want to subscribe. I am not pushy, salesy and I will never bombard your inbox. If anything, I am a negligent blogger. I have so much more fun creating things. 

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End.

One of the latest will be a new tutorial for making realistic potion bottles. Or any kind of bottles and jars to fill up your pantry whether for a witch or wizard or just a housewife from one of the square states.

  If you think you might want it - sign on to the Newsletter !! and get a head's up once its available.

Other than that, I am gearing up for Halloween with some new treats for sale,  some new projects and orders, of course. Here's a few of the newest.

 And I am going to learn to sculpt a cat. Kerri Pajutee will teach me how. Fingers crossed.

Finally, Fall is beginning to show its face. I am seeing my spider friends again!!
I am finished with the heat and looking forward to what I consider to be the beginning of MY new year. How about you?

I am leaving this one here because there's some good stuff, fun stuff, growth stuff and important stuff. I did move a few of my most popular blogs over but the rest of that - a new beginning. 

I hope you will come with Me To the New BLOG
Got any new beginnings to share? You can still tell me below.

A Day in The Life - A Miniature Life.

"The reinvention of daily life means marching off the edge of our maps." Bob Black

I have a feeling if you are like me, you march off the edge of your map daily.  By that I mean, we start off with one project and by the end of the day are way off the trail.  A long way from where we started.

I wake up thinking about miniatures and pretty much go to bed the same way. This usually entails what I plan for the day and then what I never got to that day.

I was working on some chairs recently that I wanted to reupholster and had all of that spread out on one work table.

 

Choosing fabrics for several pieces had me stumped so I looked for a distraction.Then some tea sets I had ordered caught my eye. These were meant to be made up into magically pouring tea sets like this:

Oh, and there's some finished chairs. Here's another one:

*The customer who won this on eBay said she was disappointed with the "quality of the chair" (Bespaq) because "it's light weight and cheap and small (again, Bespaq) and not worth what I paid for it. "I thought it would be oversized and not so cheap looking" (once again perfectly scaled Bespaq).  I told her to return it for a full refund. Never heard from her again. When this happens I have to think they were trying to either get  a partial refund or a full refund and then get to keep the piece. Not. But I digress and am off the path again, as you can see.

So there are the tea sets:

They are commercial pieces that I bought online or on eBay and the quality varies widely with one set being much too big for 1:12 scale. I have an order for a magical set but couldn't decide which to start with and ended up not starting.

BUT. Someone had inquired about a dormouse in a tea pot and I had just gotten this new modeling compound called Bees Putty from Germany. I sculpted this mouse in the too big tea pot because sometimes too big is just right. And the Bees Putty is pretty neat stuff.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to", said the Cat. Alice  

I looked back at the tea sets, thought the silver tray was too big and thought maybe it should be painted to go with some Italian pottery I had done recently:

 Actually these were another wandering when I came across some turned wooden pots and some larger terracotta pots I got in a lot on eBay. Because I wanted the strawberry planter in the lot.  (Which I broke as soon as it arrived.) I came across them many a time and finally came up with something to do with them while trolling Pinterest.

So the tray got a coat of gesso. Black gesso. I do love the black stuff. 

I never went further with the tray because I got distracted again. I put away the fabric and tea sets - getting pretty crowded on all 3 of my work desks - and decided to clean up the whole lot. I probably don't have to tell you that once you start that 25 other projects present themselves. 
 Please tell my I'm not alone. Post your wanderings below.  

WHY ?

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how"  Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm in a bad mood today so I'm really glad I have miniatures.  Mention just about anything and it will piss me off.  Right now I am thinking about those dismissive people who think miniatures are toys for little girls.  And right now I can see their eyes glaze over. Or roll. And right now I'd like to see their eyes rolling under my desk.

Simon Sinek says, "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it."

I make miniatures (and sell them) because I get up in the morning and can't wait to get into my studio and create something. I love the creative process. I love designing a miniature and going bit by bit through the process taking the twists and turns until something that pleases me comes out.  And thankfully my customers are pleased as well. I love taking a blah piece and transforming it into something beautiful and unique.  I consider what I do making art. And miniatures are my medium.

Right now Halloween is on the way. So right now I am transforming my stash of commercial, yes, commercial, 1:12 scale chairs into something spooky in honor of the season. Which is by the way, one of my favorites.

So inspired by my favorite holiday and my love of creepy things I express myself through my art. How is that any different than any other more 'lofty' art?  No different.

 

I am also discovering new abilities and improving on old ones in trying to wrangle fabrics to lay believably on the tiny chairs, unearthing new mediums for sculpting, improving my sculpting, and maneuvering images in my photo software into images that will work in 1:12 scale and give the impression of 'eerie'.  I have yet to tackle Photoshop but its on my bucket list. 

Am I expert at any of this?  I am not. There are far better sculptors, far, far better upholstery geniuses and far better digital artists.  Will you see my original one of a kind pieces coming and going? You will not.  Am I having fun? You bet your ass.

This is art. It is MY art. And only one aspect of it. It is miniature and you can put it in a doll house. And you don't have to like it. But don't you dare turn your nose up.

So, what do you do and why do you do it?  Do you think miniatures can be considered ART?  Put your thoughts below.

And oh, by the way, if you like this blog, please share it.
And please sign up for my NEWSLETTER

IT"S COMING !!!!

"Eat, drink and be SCARY"

It's coming.  Halloween IS coming.  I know this because the great, fat spiders are busy building great fat webs.  Huge webs.  The Halloween kind of webs that get in your hair when you inadvertently walk into one.  The kind that are so beautiful you want to press them between two pieces of glass and save the creepy forever.

I know I am rushing the season but I can feel  the spooky coming on.  And for a creator of miniatures that spooky and scary gets into the miniature work.  I am busy at work getting ready for the IGMA Show but I am distracted by all the ghostly things that could be made in miniature.

 

So in honor of the harbingers of Halloween and the Day of the Dead, my friends the spiders, I made up this poor mourning mother pushing her poor baby for eternity in it's carriage.  Unable to accept the loss of her child, she died of grief.  But not before she wore herself thin and wretched walking the baby to the ends of the earth.

1:12 scale Mourning Mother

I know this is not for the faint of heart but the idea was suggested to me by one of my sick customers and I love her for the brilliant idea.  If you really hate this let me know and I'll give you her name.

"Halloween wraps fear in innocence, as though it were a slightly sour sweet.  Let terror, then, be turned into a treat..." Nicholas Gordon

Great mourning outfit, don't you think?

And yes, folks.  IT'S A CANDY HOLIDAY.  What's better than that?
And what's your favorite part of Halloween.  Tell me below.

Yes, she is one of a kind.  Thankfully.