New blog. New site. Click here

Please go there and read it. I will adore you for it.
Even more if you leave a comment.

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.

The Heart of the Miniature MATTER.

"Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it. William Ellery Channing

I want to introduce you to a long gone miniaturist who obviously was obsessed with perfection. At least that is what shows up in his work.

His name is Frank Matter and he passed away in 1977.  During his lifetime he made the most incredible miniatures. Everyday things, copied exactly, working, and of course, without the use of computer graphics. 

I first read about Frank in the old Nutshell News. I lot of his items were in the collection of John and Ellen Blauer. In that article was a description of a fountain pen made exactly like a real fountain pen. Rubber bladder and all. Can you even imagine?

Anyway, I was aware that Adell Venus collected miniatures as far back as the 1950's. (she was a customer of mine, became my friend and also told me she had that fountain pen so I knew she had a lot of Frank's things)  I was luck enough to get just a very FEW things of Frank's from Adell's auction and below is one.

Looks like a very nice bathroom scale, right? But, guess what? When you press on it the dial actually moves. So a dollhouse inhabitant might very well check her weight each morning. (The scale is metal)

I managed to learn a good bit about Frank from Bill Robertson who happens to be an incredible miniature artisan himself. Just have a peek see at some of his amazing work .

One of his stories about Frank involves "the world's smallest pipe" that Frank advertised in magazines. Luckily I got one out of Adell's collection. He sold things in those gelatin capsules and I am probably the first person to touch this pipe when I removed it for photographing. Pretty sure Adell left things as she got them and just put them away. It is in point of fact a working pipe.

   
According to Bill, the Kansas City Museum  has a large collection of Frank Matter's creations. I have not yet been but if you get there make sure you get to see these miniature miracles. (And if you have seen them, tell me about them in the comments. Please.)

Here are a few other bits I managed to acquire.

 Just as an FYI, remember that Frank was working long before computers and printers and these tiny bars of soap are HAND PAINTED. Same goes for the cigarettes.

 You do tend to see lots of sewing things about all over in miniatures. But none so perfect. Looks like to me Frank used ivorine or celluloid to make the thread cards.

The little thread storage piece turns to let the spools out. Clever.

 There is much more to Frank Matter. These tiny little scraps that I am so lucky to own are just a minuscule example of what he was capable of.  He worked in wood, silver, paint, ivory, and included furniture, games, musical instruments, toys, clocks and more.  He also made a 1:48 scale house and created nearly every item in the house, including working clocks, paintings and a tiny silver tea service. 

There is very little about Frank anywhere on the 'net and I am happy to bring him to your attention. 

So what do ya think?

Making Minis with Idris Elba

 

 PSYCH !!!!

Sorry for that, but in a way, kinda true. I watch/listen to Netflix while working and my latest was watching/listening to the British drama series, Luther  While I worked Idris was right there with me. So I wasn't lying actually.

Here's what came out:

 

 I put together this Paleontologist's paraphernalia. Cute little Mastodon skeleton model right? Books, fossils too. If you'd like to own it here ya go.

 While I am not an animal maker, I do give it a shot now and again. This sculpted Afgan Hound is furred with Alpaca fibers. This was a hit and miss project that took more than several episodes of Luther.

I have done one of these before and this one is a bit different. The original is one of my most popular pins on Pinterest. So, another one.

I got this industrial barrel in an auction lot of stuff I wanted and this was extraneous to my needs. I thought it needed some toxic waste.

And some bird houses. Don't like the roof on the first one, so have since ripped it off. But now I have run out of Idris... 

Most of this will be on my Ebay.

Signed up for my Newsletter?  Do and you will get a nice surprise. For free.

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.  

Shopping at the Philly Show

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures. Khalil Gibran

I must say I do enjoy when other bloggers share their show findings and purchases, so thought I might try that out here. 

I attended the Philadelphia miniature show last weekend, (which is actually in New Jersey in a very tricky to get to hotel), just for the day on Saturday. In missing the preview I lost out on my most desired items. I won't mention them here because, well, I lost out. I will say there were only 2 dealers who I wanted to catch and those 2 were just about sold out by the time I got there. 

The show is not at all what it used to be, sadly. I suppose partially due to the economy and of course, the internet.  So many top drawer artisans missing. Lots of smaller scales available too. Not for me, but popular when you start running out of room, but for now, tables that I could skip. (Here is a better review of the show 
By Susan Grimshaw)

Anyway, to business. I came away with a lot less than I did back in the day, but as mentioned, missing artisans and the internet (which is now a juicy place to acquire miniatures, a gift horse, so to speak, if you will).

 Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.


I cannot control myself when it comes to animals and it looks like I did it again in one form or another. 

I have a pug collection and could not resist this one by Sarah Hendry carried by Karon Cunningham

Pug by Sarah Hendry

 I found this little monkey and the tiny mice at Kathi Kuti .  Made by Kathi the monkey will go in my toy shop. He is just about 1.5 inches high. I also have a monkey collection. (I once raised a monkey for Helping Hands, an organization that trains and places monkey helpers for the disabled).  The mice are porcelain and can go anywhere and I do like mice. I also had some pet rats at one time. 

I had a really good look at Henny Staring-Egberts table and while she has some widely expensive pieces some are less than one hundred dollars and her work is exceptional. And I walked away with these gorgeous pieces and that tiny dog just .75 of an inch high. (yes, again with an animal)

I did also buy some inexpensive bits and pieces for future projects that need transformation of some sort. Birds and animals for repainting and some kits because I wanted to see how kits are made and packaged. Maybe I'll make some one of these days.

So if you attended the Philly show, what did you get?  Tell me below.