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. 
   

 
 

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Some work on the Alice in Wonderland Red Queen Cabinet


I'm working when I can on my Red Queen cabinet.  I just made the tiniest hand-made red bird I've ever seen :)  She's cute.  It's a little difficult to get a lot of detail on something that small but I tried.

Here's the nearly completed birdcage, just waiting to get her glued in place:

Can you see the pretty bowl of cherries in there for her to eat?

Here's a really sucky picture of the cage all put together except the red heart finials I have a make for the tips of the cage:
I hate trying to take pictures at night!  They never turn out good.  Just look at the pictures above this one of the cage, they look so much better.  Oh well.  You get the idea anyway.

Next I decided to make a very fancy hat stand for the red queen's hat I'm about to make:
You can't tell by the icky picture but it has fancy bling around the middle and top of the hat post.  The top and mid-section are actually pearl.  It's so pretty in person but of course there's no telling that on here :(

I'm starting the red queen hat based on this picture which is truly terrible because I tried to take it off the paused tv screen.  I looked and looked for a video or picture of this scene online to no avail.  So here's my craptacular picture of the tv screen on which I'm basing my version of the hat on Red Queen's head:

Here's the fabrics I'm using, the base of the hat being a supple black suede leather.

It will be similar to the picture, but my own version of it based on the materials I have available.  I'll post updates as soon as I have it done.

As for the background of my mythical creature scene, my husband liked the castle so well that he convinced me to get that one.  I guess I'll figure it out when it gets here.  I'm sure I can make it work :)



Saturday, February 19, 2011

Some personal projects we're doing for ourselves ;)

I showed you my darling little fairy Hubbs got me for Valentine's Day and told you guys about the nature/mythical fantasy scene I'm putting in a prominent place in my home.  I have two other things picked out that will go in it some time by two fantastic artists.  One being my fairy maker here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/redwyvernstudio
Who sculpted this:
I'm also going to get at some point this from her as well:

which is a hand-sculpted customizable unicorn that you can change poses, colors, hair styles, everything to what you would like.  More examples:

Love the dappled color on this one!

I have to give props to a girl that can sculpt this well!  Check out her store by clicking the link above.  Custom work is welcome there. 
Next I'll tell you about Sherry's upcoming project.  I planned to make her and her husband a haunted dining hall scene roombox.  Roomboxes can be purchased here:  http://www.dollhouseminiatures.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=99&products_id=2434
which are so nice because they are a precut kit that you assemble yourself (very easy, wood glue and a few tiny nails) and has a plexiglass front to keep dust out and keep your minis safe. 

I bought a variety of beautiful artisan foods for the table, roast duck, a garnished ham, wine bottles and glasses, a tray of shrimp and cocktail sauce, oysters on the half-shell on ice, a fancy chocolate cake.  All sorts of things.  I bought some Bespaq furniture as well as this gorgeous and slightly haunted-looking fireplace and artwork set:

Beautiful and still somehow creepy :)

Next I ordered a custom ball jointed doll from talented seller a friend told me about whose dolls are haunting in their own right.  Beautiful and slightly strange, they really are something special.  Here is the custom ghost doll I ordered and as you can see she needs some clothes :o




She will have clothes after we get her some.  But you can see the quality of the work.  The artist's name is Sarah Moninger and you can order from her here at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Sarangelo
Her stuff sells as soon as she lists it so it always shows nothing in her store.  Like I said, I had to custom order this doll.  But you can view more of her work on her sold items list:
to get an idea of what all she makes. 

Anywho, I'll post updates as we work on this stuff.  None of it will be for sale but you can order your own items through the sellers I posted above should you like anything enough to do so :) 

Sherry is also working on a really funny mini that will be for sale.  She bought a harpsichord on ebay and set out to decorate it.  Apparently she's made cousin It from the Addams family sitting on the bench and Thing (the disjointed hand creature) will be on the keys.  Isn't that funny?  I can't wait to see it!

Visist Sherry's blog here to see what she's been working on!





 

  

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A gift for a friend, and new items

I finished up my gift for a mini-collecting friend of mine as a housewarming gift for her.  She collects a variety of movie-themed items and this one is for her Coraline collection (here's a photo of what it was based on):


If you see the movie this scene has a black box of these beetles and I couldn't find a picture of it other than to pause the movie while I worked.  Here's what I came up with and it's as close as I could get it.

I've just listed some new creations of Sherry's in the store, by the way.  Really awesome stuff :)

Monday, February 14, 2011

New cabinet hell, and my Valentine's present from Hubby :)

Ok so you guys all know I'm taking a break from minis in order to do some renovations.  I have just one word for you...Ick.  Hubbs has decided to handle all of the work ourselves and let me tell you it's so not fun. 

Cafe brown composite granite sink


This is mainly to show Sherry what we picked out :)  You guys probably don't care all that much :)  Hi Mom!  What do you think?


Oh and here's what my hubby got me for Valentine's day.  This is a fairy sculpture done by Kate Sjoberg of Red Wyvern Studio.  She does amazing horse/unicorn sculptures as well.
Here's my darling little fairy my honey got me:









She's 1/12 scale and so pretty!  I'm doing a nature/mythical creature scene on a shelf in my house that people walk by regularly.  After I get the scene set up with moss, rocks, stream, etc. I'm glassing it in.
 
You can check out Kate's work here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/redwyvernstudio