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!