Happy Miniature Christmas!

Really late with this Christmas post, and nearly everything that I wanted to do, hasn't been done. I didn't think that little decorations would take so much time to make, so no mince pies or turkey, not even time for the presents under the tree, yet again! And then I had to remove the cat hair from the tree and garland. Hoovers do not remove cat hair, so it was cellotape and tweezers for that job. I will not be leaving those lying around, EVER AGAIN, MINNIE (the name of that cat). So this is a work in progress for next year, I think I will have to make the festive items throughout next year, starting from the beginning of 2014.

Anyway, do come in, though it is a little sparse...don't stay too long, as there is LITERALLY NOTHING TO EAT OR DRINK.

The front door is a bought one, the door furniture is by Tony Hooper. The miniature wreath base is a keyring fob, covered with tufts of model railway grass, fine chenille yarn and brass ivy leaves, the bow is made with raffia ribbon. The wreath is not actually finished, neither is the door :D 

 The fireplace was an old resin one I had, which I modified by cutting out the old fire basket, and replacing it with a phoenix miniature one. Though it should sit further back than that, which would require cutting a hole in the wall or making a false back.  The hearth is made with Richard Stacey tiles, left over from the kitchen floor. The fender was made with miniature scale dado rail, beads, copper rod and card. Oh, and the needlepoint rug is FINISHED. Without a fringed edge, I haven't worked up the nerve to try doing that yet. 

The mirror frame was made using miniature frame wood, with pieces of brass stamping arranged over it and then painted. The branch is an Alder twig, with the cones removed and brushed lightly with white paint, you can't see the ornaments very well, but they are Swarovski crystals. The garland was made using the same materials as the wreath minus the ivy. The stag is an old sterling silver charm.  The star tree topper is a jewellery finding mounted on a wire spiral. The fire logs......are not very artistically arranged :D I just bunged them in. Shopping list for next year, fire lighting and led nano chips for the tree.

Donkey had some otoplasty done for Christmas, my treat, I ripped his old ears off, and gave him some new finer ones. By pasting the back of some fabric with pva glue, I was able to cut out new ears without the edges fraying, which is how Bears' ears were done. The base of the ear is then glued into a slot on the head.  The skates are pretending to be drying off. I had wanted to hang them somewhere, but at the moment there is nowhere to hang them :D

 The baubles are a mix of beads, filigree, fluted and swarovski. Each bauble has a silver crimp bead superglued on the top with a wire loop to attach the waxed thread loops. Which took forever to do, and when I thought I had made enough the tree was only one third decorated.  The robins I made last year, the snowflakes are lasercut paper from True2Scale. The tinsel is Turrall chenille sparkle in micro. 

The dresser is a bought one, with the doors and drawers customised. The star ornaments on the "nail head" handles are jewellery findings, with no hole beads glued onto them. (The dresser needs feet, the phoenix fridge, isn't finished either...)

The runner is an old ribbon, the design is woven into it, I have been saving it for years....  The candle is a cocktail stick painted and dipped in wax. The twine heart is made from paper covered wire, wrapped with thread. The "bells" are crimp beads on wire. The pine cones are made with paper.  The key is by Tony Hooper. The owl is a sterling silver charm. The bauble garland is made with small filigree beads and miyuki glass beads. The finer chain was one I bought on Ebay last year. The wooden heart, is just that, with a piece of detail from a postage stamp stuck to the front.

The snowdrops are a Georgie Steeds kit. A plate of mince pies or christmas biscuits, would have looked nice and festive beside that pot..just pretend they are there :D

Not much to say here really, except that I hope I have not lost the handle of the fridge, I have just realised, it isn't there :D

"FAKE snowdrops!!!!!!"

Teddies do not drink or eat anyway, but they look great sitting beside empty tea cups and a giant matchstick.

Shake paws :) I don't know why he is smirking..

And that is Christmas here, over......I am really annoyed there were no mince pies!

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year! Thanks everyone for following and for your comments this past year.

1:12 scale Victorian style Ice skates

I realise today is Halloween, but I have been busy getting ready for Christmas. It had crossed my mind to put some sliced fingers on the "ice" though, which would have made a horrible Halloweeny themed horror image or just the scene of a terrible accident! 

The ice skates are the first object of my Christmas display to be finished. They are made with real leather, with a wooden heel, thin card soles and laced up with thread. I made a pair of small fimo feet, to glue the leather over. They also have a tongue at the front and loops on the back.  The metal skates are by Phoenix Model Developments, and they dictate the size of the boot, the sole of these boots are 23mm long which would make these about a UK ladies size 7. A white pair would have been more what I was after, but I only had brown glove leather (p.s. you cannot paint leather, it looks awful, I tried it). The pine cones are made using paper and paint with a fimo base, I used a small flower punch to make the "scales" for those.  

I am also working on decorations, garlands, wreaths and candles, which aren't quite finished yet, but everything is in the final stages, I might just be finished in time for Christmas.

The sky here has been very cloudy with the odd burst of sunlight, so not great for taking photographs, hence the odd lighting, as usual.

The ice is wax and the snow is salt. The clumps of grass poking through are railway modellers field grass.

Terrible lighting.........I will take better photographs when the weather picks up.

Miniature cobbling. The metal skates are by Phoenix Miniatures www.phoenixmodeldevelopments.com/ I had to come up with the pattern for the boots by looking at pictures of real ice skates and shoe patterns, and somehow managed to make it work, though the leather stretches a bit, which helped enormously. I used a beading needle to lace them up, before they were glued onto the fimo foot.  Thankfully, the rest of the table didn't make it into the frame, it is a complete mess beyond the edges of the photograph. Who would have thought you could turn a room upside down making something so small :D

Tiny teddy base sculpt using fimo.  He has since been furred and "earred" and is ready for Christmas, but his eyes have to be painted, and unfortunately, the black paint had dried up....must put the lids back on the tins properly in future!  I think I may have mentioned this before, but I find it easier to make a rough shape of something in fimo, and then refine it after it has been baked, using exacto knives and files. The wires are there just to hold him together. He is fully jointed.

I think he will be called Shrug.