My First Polymer Clay Mini

I decided to try something new. I've been following quite a few blogs from some very talented dollhouse miniature artists and decided to give it a try. My first attempt was with a needle felted cat. I wasn't too impressed with the outcome and my fingers got poked more than usual. I had seen some really wonderful flocked animals and experimented with it a bit on this little one. This first problem was the scale. Bull terriers are usually about 20 inches tall at the shoulder. So I made my armature 1 3/4 inches tall at the shoulder, not taking into account the bulk of the clay. So my little bully ended up being 1/3 too large for 1:12 scale and 1/3 too small for 1:6 scale. So I decided he's either a miniature bull terrier for Play Scale or a bull terrier puppy.

It was alot of fun and a real learning experience. I have to say that it gave me a greater appreciation for miniature artists and their skill. I'm working on a fox next. We'll see how this one goes.

Carrot Top & Sassy

Here are my latest two. Their auctions begin tonight at 6:45 Pm PST. They both have a reserve price of $135.00 and a Buy It Now of $224.00.

Happy Earth Day

Wilbur & his Peanut

Here's new one for this week's auction. His little tail took quite a bit of time to needle felt and trim. It's warmed up a bit and the fine alpaca fibers were clinging to everything. I think I swallowed enough wool to have had my yearly supply of fiber.  He stands at 4 1/2 inches tall and his Apoxie Sculpt peanut is not removable.  Wilbur's auction starts tonight at 6:45 pm PST. He has a reserve price of $135.00 and a "Buy It Now" of  $224.00.

Reynard, the Red Fox

I just finished this little red fox this morning. He stands at 5 inches tall ears included. I did something a little different with this one. His fur is light brown baby alpaca that has been hand-dyed with onion skins. The onion skins gave his fur a nice orangish gold color.

Cold Porcelain and a New Feltie

Well here it is Sunday again and listing time. I just finished this little burro a couple of days ago and made her a garland of morning glories using a recently learned sculpting medium. I found out about cold porcelain quite by accident.   I was looking at some miniature art by Loredana Tonetti that I thought was just the sweetest work I'd ever seen and noticed that she said she used cold porcelain. I googled "cold porcelain" to see just what the heck this stuff is.  I found out that it's made from some very simple household items and it seemed a lot like a play-dough recipe I used to make for my kids.  Here's a link to the recipe I used and some recently learned sculpting  tips. 

• Cornstarch helps Apoxie Sculpt from sticking to you work surface.
• It works better than water for smoothing your Apoxie Sculpt, too.
• When looking for Cold Porcelain recipes, always use ones with some type of oil to prevent your work from cracking.
• Cold porcelain shrinks quite a bit. So sculpt your pieces at least 20 % larger than you want the finished piece.
• Soak your dishes imediately after making this stuff. It's really hard to remove once it's dried.
• Magic markers work great for adding color to small amounts of cold pocelain. But don't use your best markers. I ruined a couple. I used gouache to color a lot of it.

As for little Belle, she goes up for auction tonight at the usual time. Her reserve price is $135.00 and her Buy It Now price is $224.00.  She stands 6 inches at the shoulder and has Apoxie Sculpt hooves.  She was one of my more time consuming pieces, taking nearly 7 days to complete. I hope you all like her.

I've been kind of a flake

I'd like to offer my apologies to all of you who have given my blog an award and have not heard back from me. I've had at least 4 or 5 in the recent months that I put on the back burner thinking that I would get around to accepting them sooner or later. They kind of snowballed on me.  So again, my apologies. I didn't mean to ignore anyone. I'm just super super busy.  I don't know when or how I can get around to answering all of them.  So if it's ok with you, I'd like to start with a clean slate and will  try to answer any future ones.
Thanks again for thinking of me!

Inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

Spring reminds me of mushrooms and I wanted to do one. But then came the question as to what creature to put with it. I had already done a little mouse peaking out from under one last year. The next idea was the caterpillar in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" . I didn't want my caterpiller to be like the illustrations in the book  or like the ones from Tim Burton's movie. So I read the section where Alice first meets the caterpillar and made mine from that reading.   My little guy is 3 inches tall just as in the book. I took some liberty by puting a fez on him. It just seemed to go. His little hookah is made from a black stone chess piece and some very expensive beads. I went to the bead store to find the right ones and ended up only being satisfied with the sterling silver filled and gold plated ones. You would think that a caterpillar would be a fairly simple creature to create. But he was rather complex. He was hand dyed and shaded and his legs were seperately attached and his front legs were sculpted from Apoxie Sculpt. The worst part was sculpting his face. I wanted him to be insect like but have human charateristics. A realistic catterpillar would've been pretty creepy.  I used to think they were kind of cute as a kid and kept tomato caterpillars for pets. But I don't think the general public would think so. I hope you all like him ~Robin

P.S. His eBay auction starts this Tuesday at 6:45 pm PST with the usual reserve price of $135.00 and the Buy It Now of $224.00

Wren, the Sleepy Little Mouse

Here's Wren, I finished her a couple of days ago using some new baby lllama wool that I ordered. She has an incredibly soft feel.  I think my favorite wool for the outer coat has to be baby llama for it's natural colors and silky feel. Baby alpaca runs a close second.
Little Wren's ebay auction will start this Tuesday at 6:45 pm PST and will be a five day auction ending on Sunday, April 11. Her reserve price will be $135.00 and her Buy IT Now will be $224.00
Thanks for looking and as in the previous post, Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone