Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Dollhouse Miniature Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Theme Tree complete

All done and listed:



Including hand-sculpted blue plane toy, little girl doll, and charlie in the box toy :)  Not gonna make another one of these ever!  Difficult toys, ugh :)

Available here:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/115624219/ooak-dollhouse-miniature-rudolph-the-red

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Getting closer on my Miniature Rudolph Christmas Tree

All I have left to do is make the Island of Misfit Toys characters.  Then I'm all done with this one :)  Hoping to have it listed in the next two days.  I heard from Sherry that she's making up to 4 new trees herself, the themes being 2 Cinderella trees, one candy tree, and one gemstone encrusted mini tree.  Since she started her store, she's bought a ton of cool gemstones online.  I guess she decided to make a totally gemstone tree for fun.  She said the garland is made from a ton of carats of peridot gemstones and they rest of the tree is covered in all other types of stones.  No idea, but it should be interesting to see it :)  It was a unique idea anyway.  I'll be starting my next tree next week I think.  I'm not sure yet which I plan on doing first between Wizard of Oz and Nightmare before Christmas.  Not sure :)  Here's what I have done with the Rudolph tree, minus the misfit toys.  I've started the Charlie in the Box toy, not sure yet which others I'll make:


Front:
 Charlie in the box will be sitting in the front of the wheel barrow, I know that much.  There will be more toys of course.

Closer look at the bottom:

Back of the tree:
I wish these pictures had turned out more clear.  The detail is really lost no matter what I do.  But you get the idea though.  Now for the toy sculpting :)  Should be challenging to do toys so small.

More of Sherry and I's jewelry:



                                                                 Genuine Mystic Chrysoprase

                                                                     
                                                                      Personalized!





  The store is finally taking off I think, and we'll be adding more and more to it as we go along.  And it'll be mostly genuine gemstone jewelry from here on out.
Store link:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/HauntedMansionJewels?ref=si_shop

Thursday, November 15, 2012

A sneak peak at the miniature Christmas tree I'm working on

I started a new theme tree and I haven't gotten very far along yet but I thought I'd pop in and show you what I have started so far.
Keep in mind this doesn't look like much yet but give me time and it'll be full of goodies:
                                                      And the backside of the tree so far:
                                                          And the front again :)

I have a long way to go yet.  My plans are to make the island of misfit toys characters with clay, to make more tree ornaments, some candy to stick here and there, and wrapped gift boxes for under the tree.  The bottom side that has nothing on it will have packages and "Charlie" in the box-the jack in the box toy who was a misfit because he was named Charlie instead of Jack :)  The gold disks on the tree will have candles in them and there will be bright green ornaments here and there.  And toys all over the tree of course.  It'll be full of stuff before the end.  This is just a basic start of what will be for this tree.  And yes, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer is an actual part of the tree base, he's glued on there.  You can't really see the fabric of the tree skirt but it looks like snow a bit but with a slight pale blue shimmer.  Around it is a snowy white garland trim you can just barely make out in this photo.  I'll be back when I'm done with it, this is the start of three theme trees I'm doing.  The 2nd will be Wizard of Oz because I need to rewatch the movie for inspiration.  How fun is that?  That's what's great about minis, you get to relive being a kid again :)  The third tree will be my own version of The Nightmare Before Christmas Tree but done in the Jack Skellington "Christmas" style instead of the Halloween style Sherry did (which was darling, I just want to do more of a Christmas look myself to change things up a bit).    Think Santa Claus Jack plus a few creepies, plus candy, etc.  Jack in his Santa outfit, shrunken heads on the tree mixed in with candy, bats, Christmas stockings, his dog Zero of course, etc.  A mix of Halloween and Christmas, with the majority leaning towards Christmas.

Stay tuned for updates :)

Monday, November 12, 2012

Dollhouse Miniature Harry Potter Death Eater Cabinet is Complete!

I decided to make this far more elaborate than I thought I would so it's taken longer than I planned.  But I finally finished it last night and I am so happy with how it turned out!  I feel it's my best cabinet ever so far.  This is so much better and more detailed in person, I couldn't get it to photograph well at all and it's really wonderful in person, trust me :) 

Oh and by the way, this is OOAK, I can't make another like this because some vintage parts were used and I don't have more of them!   

It's jam packed full of dark goodies including: a cloudy Foe Glass Mirror as seen in Mad Eye Moody's office in Hogwarts in the movie Goblet of Fire, Mad Eye's eyeball eyepatch as stolen from him by Death Eaters after his death in that same book/movie, a hand-sculpted skull wand display with 5 different miniature wands in the top of it, a real stone creature idol sculpture on metal stand, dark wizard books including one on Horcruxes and on it hangs the necklace locket Horcrux containing a part of Voldemort's soul, a labeled dragon embryo bottle, a beating human heart jar that looks like a real heart, scroll, severed creature head bottle (labeled), the gruesome hand on a pillow that grabs Harry's hand in the movie Chamber of Secrets, potion bottles, dark crystal ball, a steampunk wizard gadget with gears and hoses on a wooden stand that couldn't be photographed well-for some reason it never turned out clear in the photos but it's really cool in person. On top of the cabinet: A gothic caged owl, tall elaborate potion bottles, a very intricate large dragon embryo bottle on a pedestal stand, a large crystal ball in a pewter dragon claw stand, ghostly white-ish mosses. The cabinet itself is really spooky looking with filigree finials across the top with green crystals (for Slytherin) and a large gothic blackened metal skull and crossbones topper in the middle. The cabinet I decided to distress to look ancient and creepy, as though it came right out of Bourgin and Burkes, the dark wizard shop frequented by the Malfoys. I could see this in the home of Bellatrix LeStrange or any other of the Death Eater crew :)

Underneath the cabinet is a hand-sculpted Nagini snake/horcrux as seen in the Potter movies. I had to make her, and she's so much better in person! She's glued underneath the cabinet and is not removable. She's very well done, I took my time on her with the sculpting, texturing of the snake skin and the painting of the pattern. I referred to the movie while making her so she's as close as I could get her. Also, she's very sturdy. I have no doubt she'll be safe during shipping because she's pretty strongly made.

The cabinet is a little over 7 1/2 inches tall, and roughly 5 inches wide due to the moss sticking out on the sides. 1/12 scale dollhouse miniature.

Ok now for the pictures which really don't show how detailed this is and really make it look worse than it is in person :(




                                                     That snake looks so much better in person :(


Ok the foe glass might need a quick swipe with a windex q-tip before I ship it out lol!  It was supposed to be cloudy, but not fingerprinted too :)

          There is a steampunk gadget with gears and all that in the bottom right hand corner of the cabinet that
                                          didn't photograph well.  And it's so cool too!  Sad :(
                                                                         
                                                                          Available here in my store:
                                https://www.etsy.com/listing/114795224/dollhouse-miniature-harry-potter-death

Also, I've been working on Sherry's store and making some jewelry myself as well :)  We've decided to go in another direction in Haunted Mansion Jewels, and go with a more "gemstone" jewelry theme and get away from the costume jewelry so much.  What I've made personally:


                                                 
                                                    These are genuine Druzy Stones




                                                        These are genuine rough Emerald crystals



Some of it isn't listed yet but some is:   http://www.etsy.com/shop/HauntedMansionJewels?ref=usr_faveitems&atr_uid=7202128

Sherry's new stuff:






All available at the above shop link :)

By the way, thanks everyone for the kind comments :)  I love hearing feedback, no matter which way it goes :)

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Deatheater Cabinet, another Harry Potter inspired Dollhouse Miniature

Hi everyone, it's been so long since I've been able to blog.  How are you all doing out there?

I'm busy as usual, had a few custom orders that kept me busy for awhile but I'm back making some new things.  My poor store is so nearly sold out, even the Dumbledore Memory Vial Cabinet sold.  It's like a ghost town in my Etsy store right now.  My washing machine broke and that threw a wrench in my work time lately.  I'm on my second week of waiting for the technician to come and fix it (of course they didn't have the part and had to order it) so I've been packing our laundry to the laundromat, ick! Our local laundromat leaves much to be desired, ugh.  I'm to the point where I think Sears extended warranties are worthless.

Ok enough whining :)  I'll live, lol. I've been working when I can and I'm working on a Deatheater Cabinet.  You know, like the bad wizards on Harry Potter.  Well it could certainly work for any wizard setting too, just a little on the dark side :)  I still have plenty to do, because I want the inside of the cabinet FULL.  I have plans on making the weird skeletal hand on the pillow that grabs Harry's hand in Chamber of Secrets.  A bottle with a real looking heart inside, more books and wizard gadgets, a horcrux locket, Mad Eye Moody's eyeball eyepatch, etc.  All manner of dark wizard goodies :)  What I've already made:  A gothic-style caged owl, tall potion bottles, a large dragon embryo bottle on a stand, a pewter dragon clawed crystal ball, a creepy skull wand display (inside the cabinet so kinda hard to see here), more jars containing severed parts, a dark crystal ball, a foe glass as seen in Mad Eye Moody's office in the movie Goblet of Fire, a black leather Horcrux Book, a pedestaled real stone statuette that looks like a creature of some sort.  And the cabinet itself is really spooktacular :)  Weathered, distressed, blackened, crowned with crystal spires (green for Slytherin of course) and a totally great blackened metal skull and crossbones topper.  And ghostly white mosses around the stuff on top.  And I've added a set of blackened metal gargoyles to the bottom of the cabinet doors as well.  Ok I'll just show you all what I have done so far (keeping in mind I'm far from finished):





 My pictures aren't very good, too bright out right now.  They kinda glared up a little :(  Anyway, you get the idea of where it's headed.  I should be done with it in a couple days and get it listed.  And then I'm onto some theme trees, including a super exciting Wizard of Oz theme tree!!!  I'm really excited about trying that one :)

Thanks for viewing everyone and have a lovely day!