A few updates as of 3-11 :)

Hi!  Long time since I blogged so I thought I'd pop in and say howdy do?  My in-laws are here, and we're having a good time.  Sherry has been attempting to teach me to knit with various results :o  Such as...once it looked like a two year old got a hold of some knitting needles and tangled a big mess so I yanked that apart, and then I got it somewhat right and then took it apart anyway again because it wasn't perfect still.  Ah well.  I'll get it eventually!  Meanwhile I decided I had better do some work on the rabbit hole for my long suffering client who has been waiting quite awhile for me to get in gear and make something of it.  So I've made a few things.  And while I was doing that my ten year old daughter picked up my knitting needles and with a few lessons started to show her Mother what a bumbling idiot she is!  She made me look like a dunce :)  Within a half an hour she had knitted a basic stitch over and over quite perfectly.  Here she is learning (A little too quickly in my opinion):

Disregard the piles of stuff laying everywhere, I have guests right now :)

Oh and after I started to complain about the unfairness of her perfect stitches and fast learning skills, my kids decided to heckle and mock me:

Oh look at them...can't you just feel the love at my house?  Little monsters :)

Here's what I did to the rabbit hole while she was busy showing me up on knitting:

Ok there's still glue drying that you can see in here but you get the general idea.

And two projects that I'll be starting after this is over:

I picked up two basic chipboard houses that I'm planning on decorating in two completely different themes.  These houses are only 11 1/2 inches tall.  

 

I'm planning on one of them being very natural and quite fairyish, with a tree growing up through the center and out the top of the house.  The inside will have branches with small mossy landings with different household things on it such as a fairy tub, a bed, etc.  I have some different papers that I thought of adding in some how or where, but I'm not sure if they'll all work out.  Here's a couple of them I'm considering and a charm that will be wall mounted with a small spray of greenery to hide the bail:

As for the second house it will be very different.  Inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft

who heavily influenced American writer Stephen King as can be read here:

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html

and inspires many etsy artists such as this one:

Located for sale here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87720763/cthulhu-hp-lovecraft-prop-coffin-box

and this one:

located for sale here:

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/82161033/forest-demon-necronomicon-fragment

to sort of show you what style I'm going with on this one.  It'll be sort of haunted house/steampunk/mad scientist/monster house style :)  I have an assortment of neat old looking papers I'll be using in this one:

This is going to be so much fun :)  There will be weird science tables, sculpted creatures in glass tubes, old cabinets full of creepy ingredients and books, and the outside will look like a dilapidated haunted house.  But first I'll be completing the rabbit hole. 

     

*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 :)

Update-now SOLD-Our miniature version of the Headless Horseman is done :)

This item is now sold to someone in my area, it is no longer available.

Updated-new pictures:

Yesterday's post:

I only have to add a little hair around the hooves and this guy is finished :)  I would have had it done but the light was fading outside and I wanted to snap some pictures before I lost the opportunity to shoot them outside.  Sherry got him all dressed, I made his sword and put him on the horse with his flaming pumpkin head in his hand.  He's glued in, reins in hand.  I added some scenery to the base, just a little because I didn't want it to distract from the Horseman and his horse Goblin.  I added a little blood here and there, because this is the Hessian Horseman who collects heads until his own is returned :)  Of course there would be blood.  Tonight I'll be finishing him up by adding a little hair around the hooves of the horse and then he'll be listed tomorrow.  This was our big Halloween project and finishing it marks the end of our Halloween crafting.  I have some custom orders to do, but I want to finish up my Marie Antoinette set first.  I have some lovely ideas for it.  But for now, here's Sherry and I's version of the Headless Horseman (and yes it's lot of pictures but some are better than others or offer a better look at one thing or another):

I'm not going to blog this after I add the hair because the difference won't be enough to worry about.  This will be listed tomorrow sometime at the price of $275.00.  It's 9 1/2 inches tall, around 7 1/2 inches wide at the base.  It's a 1/12 scale horse and rider.  Also I forgot to mention that there is glow in the dark paint used here and there all over this set so there is some glow to it when the lights are off.  Key parts of the horse like the eyes, nostrils, hooves, etc. are glow painted.  And the horseman's neck is made of glow in the dark clay that really glows well :) 

   

Updated with new pictures-The miniature Goblin Horse, steed of the Headless Horseman nearly complete

Sherry and I have worked diligently on Goblin, the Headless Horseman's horse for just under five days now.  Except for the hair around his feet and a few random small blood droplets, he's done :)  The glue around his feet is still drying so it looks wet in these photos.  We have worked seamlessly as a team, working on all parts of him and his riding tack (saddle, bridle, chest harness) to design him and his look and carry out our plans for him.  I also have the horseman sculpted as well as the jack o lantern head as well but they are not done yet.  He has to be fully dressed.  So far he has only his cowboy boots and naked booty to show off, so he's not fit to be seen yet :)

Sherry built from scratch this beautiful saddle out of leather and metal filigree pieces.  It turned out really gorgeous :)  We designed the look as a team and how it should be put together and decorated but she made it herself.  Since this was her first saddle, you can imagine how proud she was over how well it turned out!  Quite an accomplishment all on it's own for her.

No that's not our horse, hehe, that's my Christmas nativity scene's donkey :)  He made a good holder for the saddle while we worked on Goblin.

Well done Sherry!

And as for Goblin, he's quite lovely himself!  The saddle looked very nice on him.  I think for this being our first horse, we did very well (not to pat ourselves on the back, but you know!)

Here's our spooky boy!

Ok I know that's a ton of pictures but we're proud and must show him off!

The base will be very well done before the end with many kinds of moss, grasses, dirt, etc. and of course the horse will have his headless rider about to throw his flaming pumpkin head :)  We're being very careful to do a good job and it should be quite nice in the end.  We love him already :) 

Updated pictures of the Marie Antoinette set that is now painted and ready for decorated:

And I just made this 9" x 8" pumpkin patch last night for anyone who might need one:

Available here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/82943083/miniature-dollhouse-miniature-halloween