On a Miniature Scale

One of my first loves as a kid was building dollhouses and making little people and things to inhabit it's small, magical world. In my mid-twenties, I rediscovered dollhouses and doll making through Maureen Carlson's awesome book How to Create Clay Characters, and later, the utterly fabulous James Carrington's 1/12 Scale Character Figures for the Dolls' House. Back then, my dolls were invariably constructed from polymer clays such as Fimo and Super Sculpey, and for my large scale Santas, I still work with that medium.

When I started playing with Creative Paperclay and paper mache, I always worked in a larger scale, creating folk art characters with more of a sense of 20th century "kitsch" (see goofy paper mache "Pumpkin Man" with the polka dotted tie below), rather than in the Victorian and primitive styles.

After participating the Vintage Dragonfly's Valentine paper doll swap , I was inspired to try making an altered art style pixie in miniature scale, with hand sculpted and hand painted features, and finished with a painted polka dotted crepe paper skirt, sheet music wings, sugary glass glitter, stripey-elfish stockings, lots and lots more glitter and antiquing washes. Hot off the the sculpting table...the little pixie below measures under 5 1/2 inches. I caught her this morning hiding in my Valentine's Day bouquet!!!

So now, in full swing miniature mode, I have been sculpting and painting (and will be wax dipping) these funny faces, which I plan to costume in the "Regency" style . This is the kind of thing that makes me really eager for the weekend to begin so that I can get started.


In the meanwhile, I'd love to get your thoughts on what I have here. I think I might be listing the mini Pixie on eBay eBay on Sunday night. I'll update if I do :-).