Poor Pitiful Tessie...

Lines from the complaint department...

Tessie is very annoyed.  I cornered her and took away her clothes. She did get to keep the hair that she picked out of the pile.

She wants a new hairdo.  I want her to have a new dress.  The other one was getting tattered and torn.

I got into the silk and doll box and found several as yet to be born people... When I first started doing minis, I bought a few dolls. They never made it to the "live, dressed" stage.  I did get some of them wigged. I started making my own dolls and never looked back. 

The person in the middle of the second row in this photo is a pincushion doll from the 20s. The poor lady next to her, outside the box has no arms or legs.  I would have to make those. What was I thinking???

The doll laying in the middle of this drawer is the only one that actually got wigged and dressed.  I should find a home for her somewhere. Poor girl!

Anyway, this is the box that I keep my silks in.  It is still pretty full.  No. I am not dressing Tessie in silk. She would only wear it about 10 minutes before she had stains all over it.

Here's the other girl again. Not a bad looking lady.  Her hair could use combing. Other than that she is pretty much ready to move in somewhere.

Maybe I should just ignore Tessie for the rest of the day and find this lady a home.

Nope.  Tessie is putting up a terrible ruckus.  Better go see to her needs.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

Fingers...Hands... Up to the Elbows....

I did a few more hands today.  Each hand starts out as a flat slab of poly clay.  I usually use Super Sculpy flesh tone, with a bit of this and that  added to make the color of the skin I want.

I just roll it out with the pasta machine and then form the arm around one of my handy, dandy, armatures.

I then cut three slits for the fingers and roll the fingers out and cut them off to the proper length.

This step takes some practice.  Once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast.

After that, I cut a length of a roll for the thumb and  add it to one side of the hand. Then I start smoothing everything.  When I get it the way I want it to look, I finish with an embroidery needle.

You can get perfect nails on the hands with the eye end of the needle.  Just pick a needle that looks to be the right size and press it into the end of each finger.

After you have them the way you want then, put the little stands in a pan and put that in the oven.

I turn it on to 275 degrees and let it heat up with the hands inside.  I let them bake about 15 minutes after that..  Take them out.  Let them cool. Put them on the doll of choice.

If there are any rough spots when you are finished, you can smooth the hands out with an emery board.  I usually cut the emery boards once lengthwise and once across.  That way you have four emery boards for the price of one and all of them will get into smaller spaces!  I do this for furniture making too.  Works like a charm.

That's all there is to it.

See you tomorrow.

Miles To Go, Before I Keep!

I started sculpting on Albert this morning... So far, just OK...

He needs a lot more detail work.  I am not crazy about him yet. I think that part of the problem is lack of hair and mustache.

He's pretty rough right now.

I did braid some of the hair that I am going to use.  It needed a lot tighter waves than the big braid could produce.

Meanwhile, I propped him up in the colonial bedroom...

Tessie immediately attacked. 

Yes, Albert looks petrified... You would be too.  If you were only half way alive and Tessie accosted you. 

She has done that to me a couple of times.  I wake out of a sound sleep with her bouncing up and down on the bed, shouting at me. 

Trust me. It's not a good way to wake up from a sound sleep... No matter what the situation.

I am going to go rescue Albert now.  Back to work.  See you tomorrow, with a more refined Albert.

One Day at a Time!

Albert is on his way!

I am going to take it slow and get it right. I am trying to find out how tall he was... That's not something that is put with every photo...

Some of the photos of him were taken with other people.  I am probably going to have to guesstimate from the size of the people around him... Maybe.  Anybody out there know how tall he was?

I started with two chenille stems and twisted them together.  Then I folded it in half. I wrapped the top inch and a half with white floral tape.

 Next, I added arms with one stem folded in half.  I cut that one down some.  I know that he was not terribly tall.  No six footer or upwards.  Some of the people that he was with in photos were a lot taller than he was.

Anyway, I wrapped the shoulder area with floral tape to hold the arms in the right place.

Then I wrapped the hand area with tape.

Then the feet up to the knees.

I started putting on the skin... Head first.  That is the most important part. If that isn't the right size, nothing will be.

I put the hands on next and then the feet, but I will be taking the ones that you see off.

I only work on one part at a time.

Head, then hands, then feet.

Tessie has already reacquainted herself with the new Albert... He can't see, hear of speak yet, but that doesn't make any difference to Tessie.

She is so excited that she can't see straight...

I don't think that I want to know what is going to happen when Albert starts helping her with her evil plans...

Back to work now.

See you tomorrow.

Not Recognizable...

I sat down and did a few sketches of Albert this morning...

They aren't really recognizable as him.  They are to help me get the wrinkles and features right.

This first one just looks like a generic old man.

This one was him on a boat.  It gave me more information on the hair and where the shadows would fall.

I had one perfect photo of his profile... That was most important.  I want him to look like HIM.  Not some generic little old man that kind of looks like him.   

Tessie wandered in as I was doing this last one. 

She had the nerve to tell me that she wanted him when he was younger... Her explanation? 

"He got old.  I didn't. When he was in college, he was cute. Then he got old and I lost interest...All he wanted to do was study and NOT comb his hair anymore... He also took to wearing sandals all of the time. He hated shoes. He got to be a real hippy type." That was her explanation for wanting the younger version...

Sorry Tessie! You're getting the version that everyone recognizes!

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

For the Time Being...

 I found a couple of things to put on the side tables.

The first is the bag with the oriental shop inside.

The other was the Walmart gazebo. 

I may change my mind several times before I get it right.

I have mentioned the first one before.  The bag is from a shop in London. 

The doll is one that I purchased at a show here in Tucson.  I don't know a lot about her.  She seems to be Japanese, from the clothes that she is wearing.

 I got a bit more done on Tessie's new chair.  That's about it for minis.

I did buy this bunch of flowers at the Dollar Tree.

I am going to use try using them for Wisteria flowers in the conservatory.  I think that, if I trim them right and paint them shades of purple, they will work.  I can at least give it a try.  Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

The First Lady...

We all have to start somewhere. I just found the first mini doll that I EVER made.  She has been around since 1982.  She is really old!

I was working in a miniature store, part time and learning as I went. 

I had just done a life size doll that was done with my own proportions.  So I figured how hard could it be to do in miniature size. 

Maybe we should call her the first Tessie.  She never had a name, but was always chattering away at me.

I missed the mark in several areas.  She is not tall enough.  She doesn't have the proper wingspan... That is, her hands, when outstretched don't equal her height.

My only excuse is, I had not seen more than a couple of dolls in miniature at the time...

I kind of made her up as I went along...Yes.  My usual way of doing things.

She was made on a chenille stem armature and wrapped in cotton batting. Then totally covered in nylon stocking material.  Her face and hands were stitched to indicate features and fingers.

Her dress stood out from her hips because of a large covered piece of cotton batting. 

To my credit, she did have bloomers and a petticoat.

OK..  So I painted a pair of April's Barbie doll shoes.  I am NOT proud of that! I hadn't learned to make proper leather shoes yet.

Here she is sitting down.  That darned bustle did not work exactly the way I wanted it to. 

Her dress was made from a man's necktie.  The three things down the front of her dress were jewelry findings.  There's also one in her hair.

Considering that she has hung in there for the past 34 years, I think that she deserves to live on my desk in the workroom.  She has access to the TV.  Any furniture that I happen to leave on the desk is hers and she sometimes gets to move to other venues. I don't think that she would like living in a proper room box.  She likes her freedom. 

This just goes to show you that everybody has to start somewhere.  She was my first...

I tend to keep the first one of anything I make.  That way I can see if I have improved on newer versions... I think that I am doing a little better now.

Back to cleaning out the snake pit.

See you tomorrow!

Back to the Past, Part Two...

All I have done today is get more of the border finished on the Russian rug. 

Kota volunteered to show it off... He was not asleep... Pretending, so that he didn't have to pose.

As for the back to the past part, this is the very first thing I ever entered into a Tucson Miniature Society Show. 

It got best of show...

I am sorry about the quality of the photos.  They are photos of photos from back then.

The actual scene is on the plant shelf in the top of my workshop.  One of these days, April is going to claim it.  It is her favorite.

I think that the year was 1982... Not sure.   I would have to go searching for my ribbon. 

Anyway, it was a movie set.  I didn't make the building.  It is a Ballhagen building. I did do the painting, the sign That was before computers.. All of the rest, with the exception of the camera and the director's chair were made by me...

The guy that built the building was selling his buildings at the show the year before.  I bought it and decided to join TMS at about the same time.

I did seven figures for it... The seventh one, you can barely see.  He is a bartender behind the bar.

Here are the director, camera man and the script girl.  The camera and the chair that the girl is sitting in are souvenirs from the National that year.  It was in Anaheim, CA. That's what gave me the idea for the movie set.

I broke the front window of the saloon, outwards and glued down all of the pieces around the cheating card player. 

I think that they were jumping the gun just a bit.  There is already a hangman's noose in the tree behind the director...

The guy that built the building came to me and asked what happened to his window... I had to explain that I did it on purpose... He just shook his head in disbelief and wandered away.  I laughed a lot at that. 

I don't think that he appreciated me doing that to his beautiful building.

Here's a close-up of the cheater... Please notice the ace up his sleeve and the one on the ground.  He deserved what he got.

It is time for me to get ready for radiation.  Gotta run.

See you tomorrow.

Long, Long Ago....

 I was looking through one of the early albums of photos this morning... I ran across this one that I thought might be of interest to someone that wanted a fast project.

It was built from one of the unfinished wooden plaques that you can get just about anywhere craft supplies are carried.  I think that I got this one at Walmart.  It was at least twenty years ago that I put this together.

I found the candlestick light at a thrift shop.  I combined the two simply with glue... Finished the plaque and then glued on the light with plain old white glue... That was it.

It made a well lighted display for a few minis and could sit almost anywhere in the house.

Next, I ran across a lot of photos that Pam Throop sent me when I was doing people and wicker for her. 

Since I mentioned that someone was selling them at a show a week or so ago, I thought that you might like to see some of my first people.

This was a cook and a retired sea captain. 

This one was done from an actual photo of the man.  Clothes and all were copied.

I especially liked the stirrup pants. 

This young lady and a gardener went with another house.  I don't remember which one.  The photo was taken outside of the Witches Warehouse. 

The gardener's smock actually has miniature smocking on the front and shoulders.  Hard to see in the photo.

Here are two pieces of my very early wicker. 

It is very straight laced and not very comfortable looking. 

I do believe that those are about the third and fourth pieces that I did... Not sure.

Some of these pieces and people made it into Nutshell News...

I have two medical appointments today.  So, I will probably not get a lot of mini making in today... The appointments are a couple of hours apart, so we are going over to see April and Amare.

Back to cleaning in the workroom.  The sign is still up. "Do not disturb!  Cleaning in progress!" I may as well get something done until we have to leave.

See you tomorrow.

Secret Hand Shake...

OK. I confess... Tessie, Zar and company break a lot of hands.

Poly clay is susceptible to breakage when flying around on dragons, motorcycles, pogo sticks and brooms...

I have learned over the years to keep a few spare parts on hand.

This morning I made a few new ones.

The nice thing about having a lot of hands(yes and even feet for Tessie) is that you can change a hand at a moment's notice if one gets broken...

In the first photo, you can see that I start out with a long piece of clay stretched out flat.  I shape the basic hand and cut in fingers.

Then I close the arm around a handmade stand of pipe cleaner and floral tape.

After it is firmly around the base, I start shaping the hand.  Roll the fingers, one at a time.  That's the tricky part.

Then the attached thumb gets shaped.  The hand gets posed... Sometimes it's open to hold a tool.  Sometimes it's closed in a fist or maybe thumbs up.

It just depends on what kind of mood Tessie is in.  I make a lot of fists...Just kidding.

The fingernails are put on last.  I use a small tapestry needle.  It is just the right size and shape to make the indentation.

The last step is to bake them.  For Super Sculpey, it is 275 degrees.  I put them in a glass dish and into the cold oven.  Set the timer for 20 minutes.  That is usually long enough for hands of any sort.

After they come out of the oven I let them cool down in the pan. 

After that they can  be slipped off of the stand and are ready for use, when needed.

Usually, Tessie wants to try them on right away.

It must be handy to have spare parts available at a whim.  I store them in this little red box... There is a slot for right, left and weird...Rubber gloves, for instance.  The top, larger section is for broken parts to be repaired.  Oops!  I should have done that one while I was baking.  Oh well... Next time.

We are on our way out to go to the Tucson Museum of art, downtown.  There is a special exhibit of a private collection.  I hear that it has a lot of famous paintings.  Need to go see!

Then we are going to Café a la C'Arte for lunch.  It is right next to the museum.  One of the Wednesday Witches owns it.  Great food!   I sound like an advertisement... This is not a paid plug.  I just like the restaurant.  It is in an old adobe house from the 1800s. 

Gotta run!

See you tomorrow.

Diamonds Are Forever...A Traveling Show

The subtitle is "The incredible journeys of world famous diamonds and the people who owned them..."

This is a traveling show and will be here through April 19, 2015. That' at The Mini Time Machine Museum, Tucson AZ
http://www.theminitimemachine.org/

These amazing figures are by George S. Stuart of Ojai, California. They are a quarter of life size.  Maybe about 15-20 inches tall.

The diamonds are copies of the real thing and made by Scott Sucher of Tijeras, New Mexico.  They look like the real thing! You could have fooled me!

The first two are Victoria and Albert. The diamond is on the branch between them. 

The second one is Elizabeth the First.  The diamond is to the left.

In each case, one of the figures is wearing the diamond on their person.

 Louis XVI kind of fell asleep at the switch...

This one was my favorite of all of them.  The other 18 people were very formal and neatly posed...

Louis was the most real of them all.  I do believe that is an empty cup on the floor by his foot...

Marie Antoinette got to pose with the diamond in this case.

It's at the left edge of the photo. 

In all three cases, the diamond was worn on the head, in a crown or diadem. 

Do enlarge the photos to get a better look at them.

Anyway, I hope that you all get to see these one day.  They are definitely the most beautifully done dolls that I have ever seen...

I am still digging in the workroom.

See you tomorrow.

Old and New....

April and Amare were here this morning.  April was trying to find a photo of her when she was his age. In two of them, she was wearing shirts that he is now wearing.  I saved one because I embroidered it with Sesame Street characters.  That was her Oscar the Grouch shirt.  The other was one that Walter brought back from a national bowling tournament in 1976.  Unfortunately we didn't find the ones that she was looking for, but I found these.

Other oldies but goodies.  You have seen photos of the overall scene before. but I didn't know that I had close ups of some of the people.

April has claimed this scene and if she ever gets a home big enough for it, I will clean it up and give it to her.

Here are three of the very, very early dolls that I made for it.  I think that this was in 81 or 82. 

The camera and the director's chair of the script girl were from the Anaheim NAME National.  The building was a Ballhagen storefront.It was about the smallest one that they had and all that I could afford at the time.

Everything else in the scene was my work.  I still love the director, with that cigar in his hand, yelling, "Cut!".  He kind of reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock. 

I was quite proud of this one.  It was my first entry in the Tucson Miniature Show and it won Best of Show.

With April and Amare here, I didn't get a whole lot of minis made.

I did get the windows cut out of the outside of the tower...That's it.

Tessie and Zar came by to see what I was doing.  Zar speculated that the hole in the floor was not for a turntable....It was a drain, in case someone wanted to install a bathtub...???  Or maybe someone was too lazy to mop the floor and they could just flood it?

Anyway, I still haven't solved the window problem.  And another problem is in view.  the hinges and the lock by Tessie's head.  I am going to have to think of a way to hide them, without too much blockage of the scene.  And I thought that this was going to be easy....

So much for easy!

See you tomorrow.

Gone, But Not Forgotten....

First of all, please excuse the poor picture quality.  These photos were taken back in the 80s and 90s.  Sorry about that.

I am still cleaning.  I stumbled across this old photo album and realized that there were a lot of minis in it that I have either sold of given away over the years.

I thought that you might like to see some of them.

The first one is two people that I did for Pam Throop of Historic Homes in Miniature. When she passed away, her daughter Eve took over the business.  She is missed.

The two dolls were dressed in English 1840s costumes and the gardener's smock was actually smocked in miniature on fine linen.

This gentleman was done for one of her other houses and I had photos of the man to work with... I liked his trousers with the stirrup straps at the bottom.

This house is a quarter inch mansion...Believe it or not, it was my first quarter inch building.  It took six cigar boxes and a piece of a carpet tube for the tower.

Nobody told me that I couldn't jump right in and build a mansion, so I jumped right in and built a mansion...

Regrettably, when we moved, I traded it away to a friend.

I wish I had kept it.  Look closely.  You will see bent wire "ice cream parlor" chairs in the kitchen.  They were done with hairpins.

The hammock, hanging basket chair and the stair rails were all done with needlepoint canvas.

The hood over the stove is real copper.

This is a carved walnut copy of a Chippendale bed.  The cornice is taken directly from his Directory of Furniture.

Unfortunately, I got banged around and broken...

I didn't have the heart to do it all again.  It was fun while it lasted, but I was so sick of carving walnut when it was finished...And sick of making roses.  There were over a hundred on this bed.

This last one is a room box that I did for one of the mini shows.  I got best of show for it.  If you look closely, you will see that the room boxes in the back are Barbie scale.  I wanted people to be able to see the interiors.

The center bottom one is the exact same room.  And that room has the six room boxes built into its wall... Yes.  There is an indication that that room box has the same interior....NO!  I didn't go further with it.  I don't build room boxes for fleas and gnats to inhabit!

Anyway, I sold that one to a friend that fell in love with it.  She moved away and I often wonder where it is now.

Enough strolling down memory lane.  Back to work in the real world.

See you tomorrow.