Dollhouse Miniature Witching Hour Witch Cooking Stove and Side Counter with Witchy Foods

Hello all, long time no see huh?  So sorry, I've been so very busy!  We've been working big time on our old farmhouse, and it hasn't left much time for mini making.  I'll slowly be getting back into minis as I can.  The kids are home from school right now, which also makes it tough to work.  Someone always needs Mom lol.

I started this little witch stove and side counter ages ago, and it's been done for quite some time.  I literally haven't had time to list it until now.  Here's what I did:   I took a stove and grungied it up to make it look more witchy, attached a side counter for more surface preparation area, tiled it and added the background scrolly circle panels to the back of the stove. Then came the fun part, the foods and accessories! A canister of living death draught, witchy "filled" bottles with deadly tags, a grungy clock that says "witching hour", a large kettle with bubbly green icky eyeball potion that has bubbled over the edge, a book of spells and potions with a vintage witch image on the front, a sauteing pan of buttery frog legs, a smaller kettle containing a boiling crow breast with magically pouring blue potion bottle (Hey, she is making some crow pie on the side counter after all :) an icky knife, a small old fashioned lamp, a bottle of flour, A standing recipe for crow pie with a decorative crow on top, a cutting board with a rolled out pie crust top and flour on it with a cute little toadstool rolling pin, and a half-finished crow pie which contains the called for crow breast meat, slices of boiled egg, and meaty gravy. It's so cute in person! Inside the stove on one side is the log fire, the other side has a baking roast with carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, and a bone in roast. Inside the side drawer of the counter are cooking utensils and a pot lid. A little gungy green checked towel completes the look.

The whole thing measures roughly 5 and half inches wide, just under five inches tall, and just over 2 1/2 inches deep.

Here's some rather bad photos, I didn't realize that after sitting so long it would have a bit of dust on it.  I'll of course clean it all up if anyone wants it.

I wish I had time to reshoot the photos but I honestly don't have any time for anything right now.  I can't even stay on here and chat, I have to go to town right now for more building supplies :(

Hugs everyone, I hope you have the BEST summer and may you all have nice vacations!

Ok, kids back in school and time to work finally :)

My little mess makers-ahem, I mean kids have just gone back to school, yay!  I love 'em, and yet somehow though parting is such sweet sorrow I'm sure I can think of something to take up my newly freed time.  Like working on minis again :)  I might go stark ravin' mad from the drastic change of peace and quiet in this house after all the noise and confusion of the kids being home, but then I should be for this project I'm finally getting back to!  It is a mad tea party after all, hehe.  I've barely been able to get to it, or anything else in miniature.  But hopefully now (barring my parents popping in at all times now that they are retired) I can get some work done.  Whew!

Now during what little free time I've had that wasn't taken up by everything else, I've been making pieces for the table top.  Little cakes, rolls, lemons, teacups, teapots and dishes of all kinds have to be completely handmade from clay and then painstakingly painted in the tiniest patterns that are really just killing me :)  Ugh wow, painting such tiny things is really difficult for me.  I wish I were better at it.  But I'm trucking along as well as I can.  I have froze and refroze all different angles of that tea table in the Tim Burton movie version of Alice and I can tell you one thing-the table changes!  What's on it in different scenes I mean.  There is no recreating it perfectly because different shots have different items in the exact same places!  The table placement changes and items completely disappear in some shots.  Not quite sure why that is but it's one of those crazy movie mess-ups I guess.  If you watch a movie carefully there's always something awry in every movie.  My husband can usually spot a mess up but I generally miss them.  But on closer inspection of this one there sure are some different place settings in front of the same characters :)

Anywho, no matter.  I'm trying to make the neatest things off the table and I have quite a few left to make.  Each piece has such intricate paint work and sculpting that they are just taking me awhile.  Like I said, it's a struggle for me but I'm doing the best I can.  Mess ups are scrubbed off and repainted until I'm satisfied.  These pictures are going to be of the same thing over and again but it's all I have done right now.  If you watch the movie (if anyone owns it) you'll see key parts of the table copied in miniature as close as I could get them to the originals.  The pottery and dishes are quite pretty in the movie and I'm making the ones that I love best or that really stand out to me.  And I have yet to make so many of them, who knows when I'll get this thing done!  I must have been "mad" to even try it :)  And of course I can't just buy the dishes because they won't look like the ones in the movie and that will never please me :)  They all have to be made to look like the ones in the movie or I'll never be happy with it.

Here's what I have so far:

Like I said, so much still to fill in on that table top.  That must be done before I start making the characters for the seats.  And I keep staring at that gorgeous broken down windmill in the background on that movie and thinking I might have to make that to go with this in the end.  I simply love the scenery in that movie, it was so haunting, dark, fantastical, and gothic.  Simply magical!  Still even though it's been awhile since it came out I still marvel at the scenery they created for Underland when I see it.  It was so beautifully done.  The decaying elegance of it was pretty incredible.  

This is my last Alice in Wonderland piece unless I make an occasional talking rose.  I'm ready to move on to new subjects but I really needed to make this one and get it out of my system.  I've always loved this scene since I was a little girl before this version of the movie came out.  It's so funny, so preposterous that it's charming.  So I'll finish this up and then I have a few other projects I'll be getting on to as soon as I can.

Stay tuned :)  

           

Miniature Sweeney Todd Mrs. Lovett's Pie Oven done

Again, my pictures are not even remotely turning out right now.   Winter time :(  I don't take the time to set them up properly because hey...I'm freezing!  One of many problems.  For some reason my camera seems to be popping out all of the lightly washed colors I used on the surface of the black oven to add depth and character.  So the silvery wash over the back is not this apparent in person, it looks much subtler.  Also the rusty areas where I added a dabble of antique copper is really jumping out in these pictures and looks a lot less bright and "stand outish" in person.  No idea why but the colors in it are appearing overly dramatic compared to how it looks in hand.  In person they all meld together and make it look old, worn, industrial, and rustic.  On here it just seems to look way worse :(  Anyways, here are the icky pictures I got:

You know one of these days I need a new camera. 

Here's a rather bad scene from the movie showing the oven briefly but first you might want to go shut off my blog's music player.  There's a stop button on the player:

Wow is that a ghastly scene!  Nothing like a woman getting tossed into a fire to send chills through you :o  I couldn't find another video showing the oven so that's the best I could do :(

I started with nothing but a metal pipe and some clay, and turned it into this :) It was pretty tough to do, being my first time of making something like this. But I think it worked out just fine.  This is wired to light up by 9 volt battery that's hidden inside a coal box in the back of the oven. The inside "fire" LED lights flash on and off in orange and red peeking from beneath a coal fire base with flickering "flames" shooting up out of the coal. Six gruesome bloody meat pies are baking on the metal rack inside and the blood is dripping on down into the fire. Don't take a bite, you may just find a finger inside! The outside has two separate independently swinging hinged doors that open and close as you like them. Slat cut-outs on the bottom of the door show the lights flickering through when the flames are lit. The coal box behind has a hinged lid that lifts which allows you to plug in the battery thus turning on the LED light unit.

Just under 9 inches tall, 5 1/2 inches deep at the base thanks to the coal box in back that was used to hide the battery pack and wires. 1/12 scale.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91317661/reserved-custom-order-please-dont-buy

*Updated, now available for sale-The Worst Pies in London in miniature, completed :)

The sale of this item fell through and it is now available for purchase in my Etsy store with extended 3 week layway available:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/84909278/dollhouse-miniature-sweeney-todd-mrs

It was a long hard battle, but I toughed it out and finally finished my Mrs. Lovett's Pie Making Counter based on the movie Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton.  These pictures that I'll post somewhere along the way are horrible and I shot them in my photocube at night so they are the worst they could possibly be.  I'll change out all the pictures tomorrow morning to show a true view of all the details on this piece.  There isn't a piece on or in this that hasn't either been completely hand-made or refinished by me.  Right down to the hand-made knife and the tiny bug in front.  Size comparison on the bug?  I could fit four of them on my pinkie fingernail which is short right now.  It's VERY small and it was a beast to make!  This counter is 1/12 scale, but built slightly taller than an average 1/12 scale counter as per the one in the movie.  It's designed so that the person making the pies wouldn't have to bend over as much to make them, thus causing strain on the back during prolonged work hours :) 

I found a rather bad clip from the movie of Mrs. Lovett making pies, but first you'll want to go turn off my blog's music player.  There is a clickable button on the player that shuts it off.  Here's the video:

   
And this ridiculous nastiness is what I was trying to convey in this piece.  I wanted to stay as true to the movie counter as possible.  That included bugs and filth :)  It's totally gross!  And for some reason this tickled my funny bone, the sheer grime and awfulness of the pies being made with bugs all over everything.  Without it, it's not the London of that particular time period for the people living in the lower class areas.  And without the gross aspect of the counter, bugs, rats, blood-to me it's not "Sweeney Todd" enough.  It had to be dirty.  I worked hard to make this thing look filthy-it's not as easy to do as it sounds!  Because it isn't dirty, I built it by hand from new wood and flawless trim and shiny new white clay :)  To get it looking like that was a chore and a half!  It took me a full week to build it myself.  The clay tile work took another four days.  No one but me would be crazy enough to start this thing from scratch and build it like I did.  I still can't believe I did it!  And I have to say this is one of my favorite pieces I have ever made and I feel a real sense of accomplishment when I look at how well it turned out.  The sign on it wasn't on there but I felt the need to put one on.  It explains the miniature to those who wouldn't know who might look at it and be confused as to why someone would try to make something look filthy and gross and buggy.  I mean there's even the bug splat from her hitting the roach with her rolling pin!  Yucky!  Now the answer is just a Google away to anyone curious enough to look :)
I guess I should just post the pictures and quit running on and on huh?  Ok please check back in tomorrow to see better photos!

Here you can see Mrs. Lovett's gin bottle, bucket of human meat, buggy flour barrel, rat-infested cornmeal and there's lovely bucket of human bones which you can't see in this picture.  Also not seen, another rat, blood splats on the floor of the counter, etc.  Inside the basket are various vegetables that are dirty.  Another fun fact about this is that I used glow in the dark clay extensively and this thing lights up at night like it has been sprayed with luminol (I think that's the name of the blood detecting spray used by the police at crime scenes) which is quite fitting for this miniature!  It looks cool in the dark too :) 

Like I said, there will be 100 percent better photos tomorrow that will really show the quality of the work and all the gory details :)  Please come back when I have better pictures available!  These make me sad :(

Updated with new pictures here:

   

A little more progress on my miniature Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Counter

It's slow going, but I'm getting somewhere finally.  I've had a constant stream of activity at my house and people in and out so my time for working has been limited at the moment.  Retired parents and kids in and out have made a difference on my progress.  It will be done sometime!  Anyways I thought I'd show you all what I do have done.  The process of tiling the whole thing tile by tile has been rough!  Man it takes along time!  But I still don't think there would have been a better way to get the look I achieved without doing it this way.  There would have been no good way to get the weathered dirtiness of the counter without putting the time in on it that I have.  And as you can see from the back of the counter picture I'm not done yet.  And those tiles haven't been distressed to look old and dirty enough yet.  And the arrangement of things on this is not the way it will be, I'll refer to the movie to get that right.  And the pies are not made yet of course.  I still have to make the dirty vegetables for the basket, a dirty kitchen hand towel, the pies, a barrel of buggy cornmeal, the bugs that go all over the whole thing, the rolled out floured pie crust, a bowl of broken open eggs, etc.  I have my work cut out for me.  There's still plenty to do.  But I think what I have so far is very accurate to the movie and I'm happy with it.  I'll be a lot happier in the end of course when it's done.  I like the little fingers and eyes in the bowl of runny meat for the pie filling :)  My fingers turned out well, and they are so tiny!  Do you guys think the bucket of intestines and meat cuts should go underneath the counter or on top of it?  I really did a good job on them, they are really gross in person and realistic!  There are even little red veins running over the surface of the intestines :)  And I took a lot of time on the finish of the bucket as well as the barrels to get them looking aged and just right.  There will be more stuff in this, I just need time to make it all!  I want it full and gross :)  I might even make a little mouse to stick under the counter just for good measure, as though he's been in the cornmeal or something.  Matter of fact I think I'll have him in the cornmeal!  Sticking out of the barrel.  That barrel isn't in the photo because I haven't got the cornmeal in it yet.  Here's what I have so far:

         

Still busy, working on Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Counter

I don't have any pictures yet, but I am working on the counter.  I had to take a few days to do yard work.  We have 32 trees in our yard and they drop massive amounts of leaves.  Getting them all up takes some time.  I also had a ton of orders to pack and ship, there seemed to be a lot of sales at one time and packing them all up took me a day and a trip to the post office.   

I decided to have my husband help me open up the back of the pie counter so I could fill it as well, and put in a shelf.  It seemed less impressive the way it was, with only the top to decorate.  It didn't seem realistic that it wouldn't be open in the back with storage space.  So today I worked on getting that looking right, and making the shelf for the inside.  Turns out it's not easy painting a faux "filth" paint job :)  I think I did quite well though in the end.  I will post pictures as soon as I get the counter tiled, which is very time-consuming and tedious.  Probably why I'm stalling on doing that part of it.  I'm making the tiles by hand from clay, which is a blended off-white tile made of various clays that really give that authentic grimy look to the piece.  I'm trying very hard to stay true to the original counter in the movie in every way possible.  That means it looks filthy (but isn't) and there will be cracked tiles and discolored tiles mired with all things gross :)  I've also been making and painting accessories for both the top and inside of the cabinet that I'm very proud of.  There will be a large dirty rectangular basket full of various things like potatoes and carrots in various states of decay.  Distressing the basket was quite a job of layers, both paint and wood stain and finally polyurethane to seal it all in.  It looks old and dirty now.  I have several wood pieces I had to work on and distress to look old and yucky.  They have a tudor look to them with a layer of blackening and grime.  A metal banded bucket for instance, will hold entrails :)  I also have two very old looking small barrels that hold flour and cornmeal.  They will have bugs of course.  Metal ale mugs have been dirtied and darkened as well, like the dirty one Mrs. Lovett pours something out of and then fills with ale for Sweeney when he first enters her pie shop.  I've done a very good job of refinishing metal pots to look like aged, crusty old copper pots that will hold meats with icky parts sticking out.  There is also a realistically blackened copper kettle going underneath the counter.  There will be a stack of dirty white plates with the same pattern found in the movie.  I made a copper water pitcher exactly like the one on the counter in the movie and I think it turned out very well.  I'm still waiting on some of my bowls for the counter top to come in, they must be held up somewhere.  I have the large cutting board for the top made as well, and there will be rolled out pie crust on it and a rolling pin that I have yet to make.  This is a large project full of things that must be hand-made so it all takes time.  The pies themselves will be last, and I plan on doing them to the best of my ability.  Oh and also the bowls of meat, eggs, etc.  Stay tuned and bear with me on the time it's taking me.  This one isn't easy and I'm trying really hard to stay accurate to the one in the movie which isn't easy at all!  It should be quite interesting when it's done, I can tell you that :)

Just about to get started on my Miniature Mrs. Lovett's Pie Counter and a couple new things

First of all, welcome to my dear new followers!  Thanks for joining in to see what Sherry and I have coming up in the future!  We appreciate every comment and just adore talking to you all!  If you haven't joined Sherry's blog (19th Day Co-Creator Sherry who happens to be my beloved Mother-in-Law) you should go join her blog because she has some amazing skills!  I happen to think she makes some of the best birds in the business!  She's also very good at dressing some of my creations such as the white rabbit from alice in wonderland, the headless horseman, and alice in wonderland herself :)  Her blog is located here:  http://19thdayminiaturessherrys.blogspot.com/ 

What have I been doing the past couple of days?  First I made a ghost sculpture from polymer that I think would be neat in a haunted house scene or a Halloween graveyard:

which is available in my store now for the very reasonable price of $30.00.  I did it just for fun and it wasn't a big intense project :)  Apparently I like Halloween so much I can't stop making little bits of this or that in celebration of the season.

Then I had a custom order for another Honeydukes Chocolate Frog display so I got that done:

Sorry about the multiple shots but you all know I like messing around with photography and props :)

I think this turned out very good.  I did make the backboard sign a little bigger this time because I felt the last one was too short and didn't really say "display" as well as it should have.  It was still cute but I felt the back sign needed to be slightly taller.  That's the only change and it's not a major one.

Last night I decided to make a hanging sign out of this wooden ornament I had.  So I did :)  It's OOAK because I don't have another wooden ornament to use to make another, so when it's gone it's gone for good.  It had a hideous painted Christmas tree on it that I sanded off and then I refinished the piece into what you now see before you. The rustic wooden feel of the piece lent itself well to this particular Harry Potter place of business :) I felt it could really do the pub proud. It is meant to be glued directly onto the side of your miniature building-which is quite easy with an inexpensive glue gun that can be purchased at any hobby store or discount store. Not comfortable using one? A nice big glob of super glue will also do the trick, but you'll have to hold it in place as it dries! Matter of fact if you do use a glue gun I would advise going around the base with some super glue anyway to really hold it on after the hot glue dries. Oh you know, you'll figure it out :) It measures roughly 3 1/2 inces wide and 3 1/4 inches tall.  I tried to capture some of the look of the real sign at Universal Studios in Florida.  It's not exact by any means, but I think it works very well.  

I'm going to be making a Honeydukes Sign as well, which hopefully will look like the real one as close as I can get it with what I have on hand.

Also, tonight I begin my Mrs. Lovett's pie counter.  I had to wait on my husband to help me because he bought me a new scroll saw that's quite large and scary.  Two nights of fishing and running aside, I think I might have him pinned down tonight into helping me learn how to use it safely :)  This way I don't lose a finger or two trying to figure it out!  Although fingers really do fit into the grand scheme of the miniature I'll be making :)  But I was hoping to use some fingers in it that weren't actually mine :)  Hehe!  Ok enough goofing around.  Here's my bowls I picked up for it so far:  

I bought two that look very similar to this real bowl and look just as antique and primitive and they were the only ones I could find on all of ebay and etsy like this bowl:

but they only have one solid blue band around the rim.  And then I bought these that looked aged as well and slightly icky-looking:

because again, they looked old and used.  Remember everything must be a little gross :)  I also picked up a different bowl that will hold eggs and a wire whisk for beating them.  I'm making a rolling pin because I couldn't find one similar enough to hers in the movie.  I have so much to do but at least you get the idea :)  Of course these will be the worst pies in London :)

Also I should mention this might already be sold, not quite sure.  It depends on if she likes how it turns out :)

Alrighty then everyone, have a lovely day and keep on collecting!

 

   

 

 

Dollhouse Miniature Marie Antoinette Set done, and other new items

I've been having a bit of trouble at home with our renovations to our house, so mini making has been on the back burner :(  Why is it when you tear into an old house that you find more issues than you ever thought you would?  Anyway, sleep has been hard to come by and things got a little crazy.  We've gotten some help from family and friends now and are finally getting a little peace.  Heck last night I even got some sleep!  I did finally get my Marie set done though, and a couple other things listed that were quicker to do:

Eeek, you can see my shirt and jacket in the mirror :)  I was a little iffy about the face on the wig stand, but I figure anyone who might not like it could easily paint it plain white with craft paint and it would look like a faceless mannequin head stand.  Everything else is pretty I think.  This is a totally girly set.

Also, this is OOAK.  It won't be made EVER again lol.  

Available here in my store:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83066580/dollhouse-miniature-112-scale-marie

Here's neat little thing, a witch vanity table:

A pretty little witch's vanity, for your dollhouse! I personally think not all witches are hideous old crones! I mean really, they start out young at some point don't they? Just picture a young Bellatrix Lestrange getting ready to go out and there you have it, her setting at a vanity table like this one getting ready! There's even a beautiful box of poisons on the table! What else? Sex-ay

little black gloves that have recently done some dirty work, a vanity tray with bottles and a single rose from an admirer, a book on palm reading for the girl "in the know", a mirrored compact with powder puff, a gorgeous little facial mirror on stand with a crescent moon and a little lady witch laying back on it. Like I said, this is for a girl who knows not only how to cast a spell (and not just with a wand :), but also knows her way around a good curse or hex!

And then a necklace I just made and listed (not a miniature, a regular necklace to be worn):

Both of these can be found here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/tarayvonne?ref=si_shop

Yay, life is getting a little back to normal for me now :)