Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sherry's gone a little Witchy! Custom-Ordered Witch Hats

A lady ordered some witch hats from Sherry and I just have to show you guys her goodies :)  Now this Lady who ordered the hats has a cool website full of amazing buildings she's been building and filling herself!  You must go take a look at her wonderful Harry Potter buildings!  She's done the most amazing Hagrid's Hut ever!  So many others it's amazing and her buildings have been featured in several magazines as well!  They're that good :)  Here's her website:  http://www.salssite.com/
and you must click into it to see her great buildings! 

Now back to her custom witchy hats from 19th Day Miniatures Co-Creator Sherry (my Mom in Law)  who's blog is here:  http://19thdayminiaturessherrys.blogspot.com/
She's made some lovely hats out of quality top grain leather.  One of which is left from the order and available for sale in our etsy store:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/71138621/dollhouse-miniature-haute-couture-witch
and here's a picture of the only one left:




And here are pictures of the ones that were sold to the lady from the above website:

one side

the other side

And another:
And another:



and another:


Please contact Sherry via her blog:  http://19thdayminiaturessherrys.blogspot.com/
if you'd like to custom order a leather witch hat!

Update, now SOLD-Another Alice in Wonderland Talking Rose, ~Love

"He drew a circle that shut me out, but love and I had the wit to win. We drew a circle that took him in." ~Part of a quote by Charles Edwin.


I based this rose on this quote, I've always liked it. I think the message is a good one, work hard to show someone love and they won't be able to help themselves from someday loving you back. Love is love's reward :)

This little garden rose stands 2 and 3/4 inches tall, and has a larger face size than other roses I've done so far. I wanted to make a ground-planted rose that had some presence in a miniature garden setting. If you add this little darling in to your miniature garden, she will be noticed :)

She's so cute, her tendril vines look as though they are arms forming a circle above her head. She stands for love come full circle, just like the quote.

1/12 scale adult miniature, not for children as these roses are delicate sculptures and could be broken with rough handling.



Available for sale in my etsy store:



Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Update, now SOLD-Newborn baby Spring, Alice in Wonderland Talking Rose

I just wanted to show you guys one of three new roses coming to my store for general sale.  I'll post a new one tomorrow but this little guy is in my store right now. 

Spring is my inspiration for this tiny sculpture which stands 1 and 3/4 an inch tall. This darling baby boy flower is stretching his little tendrils in the dawning light, after a nice sleep in his hand-sculpted pot. Spring is about rebirth, of pale green shoots poking out of the earth and new flowers bursting forth. So for this little guy I used a pale, spring time green for his body, and it looks as though his little body is wrapped in a blanket of green. All except his little arms which are held up above his head into little curled tendrils as though he is stretching :)



Now my pictures are not too good, being that they were taken inside.  He's so cute in person, much better in person!

Available here in my etsy store:

I'll post the picture of the little girl ground-planted rose tomorrow after I finish her up :) 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Updated-Steampunk Adventurer's Table is completed, and back up for sale!

My client who was to buy this set has backed out of the deal due to family commitments, so the Steampunk Adventurer's Table is available once more :)  And it's all done as well.  I had it named previously the steampunk airship pilot's table but I felt this narrowed the scope a little too much.  I think this would belong to someone who traveled through all means, anywhere :)  Anyway, here it is without further ado:




Everything is handmade on it :)  I love this one very much!

Available here in my store:

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Steampunk Airship Pilot's Miniature Table

A friend of mine got me interested in Steampunk style, and the neo-victorian gadgetry look has me enthralled.  I'm a little late coming to this style, it seems everyone has done some sort of steampunk item.  That's ok, better late than never :)  I'm not finished, and I think this item quite possibly is sold already.  Also ok because I highly doubt this will be the last item I do in this theme.  It's just funky and flat out cool!  Yay steampunk!  Now figuring out how to build from the ground up something steampunk is quite wild.  It's not all that easy quite frankly.  It takes some imagination to figure out how to make something look viable and real, as if it might actually do something if you were to turn it on.  Especially in miniature, not too easy!  I've fiddled around with my project for about 3 days now.  It's coming together well, but it's not done.  I want to add more pieces to it because it's not full enough.  I'll explain as I post the pictures.  That would be the best way to convey what I want from it in the end. 
Ok my pictures never do anything I make justice first of all.  And like I said, so far from done right now.  I started with a light-colored table and darkened the finish.  A lot of victorian furniture was dark.  I redid an arm chair to match, adding gold details to it for it to fit the steampunk style better.  One thing steampunk isn't is plain.  The materials common in the style are wood, metal, leather, glass, etc.  Old fashioned machinery housed in wood casing.  So I recovered the damask seat in some nice leather.  It looks more masculine and fits the style.
I saw a necklace made to look like an old airship/dirigible/zeppelin and fell in love with it from this wonderful etsy shop:
.  Problem is, too bulky and awkward to wear.  But I thought it would make a great miniature so build it I did :)  I named The Futurepast Zeppelin Airship and put it on a plaque that I aged quite effectively with paints and stains.  I got the name from my favorite chapstick seller:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/59933003/on-sale-futurepast-spiced-raspberries
who also makes a killer mad hatter chapstick that tastes and smells out of this world in her other etsy store:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/59397073/a-hatter-madly-sugar-mango-flavor-orange
Ok enough about chapstick.  I know, I am an addict.  I hang my head in shame :)  Haha, jokes aside, back to my project:

the airship is not finished, I plan on hanging some netting over the back end that will hopefully drape over the side of the table and look cool :)  Maybe some ropes and also some billowed leather fins might look cool on the back end sides.  Who knows what I'll add.  But it's not elaborate enough for me yet.  And like I said, so much more going on this.  I just ordered some curly feathers to make nice feather quill pens to put in the empty wooden vase.  Plus I need to make a boss inkwell all tricked out as well.  A variety of beautiful old maps are piled around the table.  So hard to see them right there.  Oh I guess I could add the pictures on of them.


Aren't they beautiful?

There is a shot of the oil lamp I built from scratch that needs a good cleaning before I sent this table off :)  Yikes, smudgy!  I think I may add some red bling crystals to the base too.  I also built the little drawer unit beside the oil lamp and distressed the crap out of it to make it look old. 

Here we have the slightly unfinished table top time traveler machine I built.  Wow fuzzy picture but you get the idea.  So much better and more detailed in person.  Here at the house, it looks fabulous.  I took an old watch and tore it to pieces.  I used the face and distressed it with several different paints then sealed it with clear coat.  Then I took polymer clay and made a set of billows the same size and shape as the watch face.  I added them on underneath the watch face.  Then I added the back piece of the watch to the bottom so there would be something metal under there.  Bling crystals in a nice amber tone were added to the watch face.  I wanted to keep it to metallic color scheme so nothing would stand out as fake-looking or too bright.  I made a double layered wooden base and stained it honey-colored to keep it from blending into the dark table top.  the front plaque isn't finished yet.  I plan to make it more elaborate.  The guts of the watch a repainted from solid stainless steel to various metal colors to age the look of it.  I added copper wires twirled into spirals for a more techy look.  A few more bling crystals and beads as well, you can never have enough bling :)  I added cloth-covered tubing because they didn't have clear plastic back then as far as I know :)  It looked older.  And a tiny dollhouse light bulb on top adds mechanical interest to the top post.  In person, it looks as though this thing could really do something.  Here in this picture?  Not so much :)  Well anyway, thanks for having a look and hopefully it was somewhat entertaining!  I'll post updates as I finish it up.             

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Red Queen Cabinet, all done...and Steampunk Style Miniatures

Thank Heavens, the Cabinet is done!  Sheesh I never had much time for it :(  Little bit here and there as I could, and now it's complete :)  I'm very happy with it.  Without further introduction:

a tiny jewel box I made from scratch :)

"I need a pig here!  I love a warm pig belly for my aching feet."
These boots are painted exactly as I saw them in that scene on Alice in Wonderland.

Why leave the back undecorated?  All the bells and whistles on this cabinet :)

Yay!  I'm proud of this one :)  I love it!

Sherry's working on two custom trees for clients and I've been entreated by another from Italy to remake the Harry Potter chest set.  Another has begged for two Wonderland Roses.  I had closed down the custom order shop for awhile so I could make some things I had planned but alas I may not get to.  I've decided the best way to handle it is to work on projects I want to work on alongside those that are ordered.  Or else I may never lay my hands on those I'm itching to make.  For example, I'm really wanting to make a witchy tea cart and I even have the tea cart :)  And more so I wanted to work on something steampunk style.  Is anyone out there familiar with steampunk style?  It's a neo-victorian style of gadgetry that I'm loving at the moment.  I wanted to make a work table filled with gadgets and trinkets and all manner of steampunk things.  Here's a rather bad picture of the table I've darkened with stain and finished to look weathered and unique.  Better pictures as I progress will be forthcoming.  

And I saw a necklace made similar to this and fell in love with it, but could not wear it do to the size-it's just too bulky.  But I thought it could be made into a great miniature scene so I made it.  It's a Zeppelin, or Dirigible.  An old fashioned airship.  And it's not done yet.  I plan to add more to it.


Parts I bought to make into things for the table.  I'm not sure if I should put the Zeppelin on the table as though it is being built or if I should make a floor stand for it.  It might be cool to have it standing on the side so that I can add a little ship-type thing to the bottom of it.  I think I will.  I'll post updates as I work on it :)
  

Friday, March 11, 2011

A Family Visit, and Project Progress

Well hello all, I haven't blogged for awhile and thought I'd check in with my online buddies and let you all know what's going on :)  19th Day Minis Co-Creator Sherry is here at my house, clear from Arizona.  She is my Mom in law :)  Anyways, there hasn't been a lot of time for mini making.  But we have done a little.  Like a little work on Sherry's haunted roombox.  It's far from finished, all the fine details are not in there and the ghost doll is not dressed yet.  Matter of fact we need three to four more dolls for the dining scene.  The premise of the scene is that there is a ghostly feast going on, none of the people know they have passed on.  They are going through the motions of life without the slightest hint that they are no longer among the living.  I wanted all the pieces to be quite elegant and stately in design and we have a long way to go.  But at least it's started.  We're waiting on many more of the room pieces to come in the mail, but this is what we have so far.  Pardon the naked little lady seated at the table.  She will have some clothing before it's all over in the form of a lovely lace dress all in white.  And we have a pretty real crystal chandelier ordered and on the way.  So much more coming that will be pretty elegant.  The pictures are bad due to nighttime photo taking but you'll get an idea of what's going on:


We have a lighting fireplace log set on the way to go in the fireplace.  The fireplace will have lit logs in it.  The fireplace, artwork, and corner pillar stand are from a wonderful artist on ebay by the name of Jim Coates.  Search him and you'll find his lovely miniatures.

The white corner pillar stand will have a tall rose arrangement on it made by Sherry.
The artwork above the buffet will have lighted wall scones on either side.  More will be added to the top of the buffet, it will be decorated before it's all over.
An assortment of fancy little foods sits out of place on the table right now.  Of course there will be more things like napkins and plates, etc.  Nothing is in place, just sat out for this photo.  Like I said, waiting on so many more parts to come in.  But we won't be finishing this up until Sherry's next visit in September.  So here it sits until then.  I won't be able to show you the scene again until then.  But this is a quickie peak at what we did manage to get done.  Pretty good actually, considering it was just an empty box with no wallpaper or flooring or anything at all :) 

Here are some of the laces we're using to make her dress:

The long pleated will be the skirt, obviously.  We have to slip her in a form-fitting white sheath before we put the lace dress on her.  The fancier lace roll has a part on it that would make a great bodice.  We're planning on using that.  She'll have long bell sleeves to cover the ball-joints in her arms.  The skirt will cover the ones on her legs.  I'll be ordering four more dolls before it's all over.  There will be two couples and a man serving them standing at the head of the table where the couples are seated.

Now for my long neglected Red Queen cabinet.  I have done a tad more to it, but I have so little time right now.  I keep at it when I can though.  Here's what I have done at this point.  It will be much fuller when finished of course:

Of course, the pictures are terrible.  Yikes, night time pictures :(  There is a very pretty tray of perfume bottles in red queen style.  Two very ornately painted picture frames which are dismally awful in the pictures.  I can't even express how much better this looks in person.  I'll have to take this outside and get better pictures in natural light.  I have no idea why but the pictures are ten times better when I do that.  Check back tomorrow for the better pictures that will be forthcoming by tomorrow night. 

Pictured in the frames are the Red Queen's beloved Jubjub Bird and Jabber-baby-wocky :)  These being the biggest reason she has her power in the first place, of course she'd treasure them.  Thanks to my sick sense of humor, I thought it would be just like Iracebeth of Crims to have that thieving frog beheaded and then have the poor little guy stuffed, staring for posterity at the tarts he's not allowed to have, haha!  So I sculpted his head and neck and dressed him in his smart red jacket and white shirt complete with black bow tie.  He stares ever more at a glass dome covering the delicious squimberry tarts he coveted enough to steal from the Red Queen-which eventually cost him his head.  The crown Iracebeth stole from her sister sits on a velvet pillow.  Behind it sits Iracebeth's favorite study subject, Dominion Over Living Things.  This is a leather bound copy of the book that I hand-crafted.  It looks pretty good in person.  
Here's the hat I was trying to copy (sort of) from the movie scene where the Hatter was trying different hats on the red queen.  I did embellish it more than on the movie because I felt it was too plain for my cabinet.  I wanted wow factor.  The materials are black leather, black tulle, red feathers, a red velvet and sheer material ruffle around the brim, a red rose, etc.


So much more to do, but you all can see where I'm headed hopefully.