Mini Mansion - New miniatures 2006

Miniatures II

Some miniature pottery

I used air drying clay. These pots and bowls are but a first try - they are crooked and show fissures. Just good enough to fill a shelf in a dark corner of our garden shed later.

Makrame hanger

Even my sister was bitten by the bug when she saw what we had started. In a sort of short fever she created this little thing.

Planter

This is a project from "Dollhouse Miniatures", the Sept-04 issue.
Instead of creative paperclay I used normal paper mache. People keep telling me that I shouldn't do this, but I since I had no other material at hand, this just had to be good enough.

Aquarium bowl

The one on the right was my first try. I made a fish from Fimo and water plants from wire. The bowl was a find. It has openings on the top and on the bottom. I glued sand and plants to the base, slipped the bowl over this and poured clear candle gel into it. When halfful, I let cool until it wasn't absolutely liquid anymore so that I could stick in the fish. Then I poured again until the bowl was filled. It looked nice, although there were some bubbles. Unfortunately, my two-year old tore base and bowl apart recently...

Here you can see the parts. I asked a local glassmaker to make bowls with one opening only and he made twenty orr so - plenty material for further tries. The base is a jewellry part which is being sold in a local craft store.

The aquarium that is on the right here was my second try. This time I made a fish from window color - a very fine technique which was taught be a very nice person from the Small Stuff group. (Go to my linkpage - there you'll find the Small Stuff Archives. Go there and type in "fish"). Everything looked well, this time, until I poured in the "water" I used some sort of poly resin this time; and something must have gone wrong. After hardening there were fissures going through it...

Crocheted Hat

This was made by my mother,
using very fine thread and a tiny hooked needle.

Succulents

I tried to make some succulents from Fimo.
I am not satisfied with the result. You can see what they are meant to be, but they just don't look real. I guess the clay mixture needs some more translucent. Or maybe I should try to find another material, because it is so difficult to shape these tiny leaves. It is important that they look fleshy and that the whole plant gets a very regular look, which is hard to maintain during the assembly.

Urns

These rusty urns were another project from DHM. I don't remember which issue.
They are empty plastic medicine containers, painted with acrylic colors to resemble rust.

As you can see, there are many things that were only half as good as I wanted them to be. One reason is 95 cm high and named Nora. The other is my inexperience. So, if you got any tip that might help me with the projects shown above, please let me know here:

info@mini-mansion.de

	Some miniature pottery I used air drying clay. These pots and bowls are but a first try - they are crooked and show fissures. Just good enough to fill a shelf in a dark corner of our garden shed later.
Makrame hanger Even my sister was bitten by the bug when she saw what we had started. In a sort of short fever she created this little thing.

	Planter This is a project from "Dollhouse Miniatures", the Sept-04 issue. Instead of creative paperclay I used normal paper mache. People keep telling me that I shouldn't do this, but I since I had no other material at hand, this just had to be good enough.
Aquarium bowl The one on the right was my first try. I made a fish from Fimo and water plants from wire. The bowl was a find. It has openings on the top and on the bottom. I glued sand and plants to the base, slipped the bowl over this and poured clear candle gel into it. When halfful, I let cool until it wasn't absolutely liquid anymore so that I could stick in the fish. Then I poured again until the bowl was filled. It looked nice, although there were some bubbles. Unfortunately, my two-year old tore base and bowl apart recently...
	Here you can see the parts. I asked a local glassmaker to make bowls with one opening only and he made twenty orr so - plenty material for further tries. The base is a jewellry part which is being sold in a local craft store. The aquarium that is on the right here was my second try. This time I made a fish from window color - a very fine technique which was taught be a very nice person from the Small Stuff group. (Go to my linkpage - there you'll find the Small Stuff Archives. Go there and type in "fish"). Everything looked well, this time, until I poured in the "water" I used some sort of poly resin this time; and something must have gone wrong. After hardening there were fissures going through it...
Crocheted Hat This was made by my mother, using very fine thread and a tiny hooked needle.
	Succulents I tried to make some succulents from Fimo. I am not satisfied with the result. You can see what they are meant to be, but they just don't look real. I guess the clay mixture needs some more translucent. Or maybe I should try to find another material, because it is so difficult to shape these tiny leaves. It is important that they look fleshy and that the whole plant gets a very regular look, which is hard to maintain during the assembly.