A Wizardly New Year

Happy New Year all my fabulous followers of miniature magic!!

It's 2014 and there's a lot of exciting things to come this year. Look out for my first Pixie Dust Miniatures book which will be out this spring.
It features dozens and dozens of full colour miniature scene photographs, insights into my miniature creations including the behind the scenes photography, a couple of tutorials (with my most secret techniques revealed) and running commentary about the life of me, Caroline - the miniaturist behind Pixie Dust Miniatures.

Besides the book, I am starting the year with a new Wizard Range - including these chamber candles. They're absolutely tiny (1:12 scale) and my favourite candles to date.

I'll also spend much of this year working on the film 'Myrtle the Witch' (a short film which is shot entirely on miniature scale sets and using hand-sculpted miniature characters) - find out more about this and stay connected at the Tall Tales Productions Facebook page here.

Find out when the book is out, and stay connected to Pixie Dust Miniatures via the Facebook page, and look out for the big Christmas Sale which will soon be announced on my other blog.

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The Trendy Witch's Kitchen!

Do you remember when I wrote about the retro kitchen for the modern witch that I was building?!

My work-in-progress blog post about it was here.

It's finished now - ta-da!





Behind the kitchen
As many of you know, I work as a miniature maker in Hollywood, creating miniature scale set pieces for film, TV, commercials as well as creating one of a kind miniatures for collectors. Well on my own time I am slowly and quietly working on a short film which I wrote, called 'Myrtle the Witch'. The sets are massively fun to design and create - her house for instance is built as a roundhouse in the depths of a forest with trees interwoven amongst her Aga and welsh dressers. It's a fairytale construction that I just love to be part of.

Having spent a lot of time working towards Myrtle and her witchy world, I felt like a change and was all too willing when I was asked to build a 'modern' clean and bright kitchen with a fantasy twist. So I created this kitchen which has design elements from the 40s, but is also fairly modern and certainly unconventionally 'witchy'.

Have a look at the photos below and let me know what you think!

In the Press!
I am delighted to say that 'The Dolls House Magazine' took an interest in this project and published some photos of it and a little write-up in their current issue. Great UK magazine, and you can find it here. The article itself is at the end of this post.

My Workspace - Quills and Inkwells!

Do you remember my quill and inkwells from back in 2010?! Well they sold out aggggggges ago and I kept meaning to re-make them. At last that time has come. I have spent a couple of days creating many new quills of all kinds - some which are more naturalistic (like swan, raven and owl feather quills) which can be used in a realistic miniature environment. The others are fanciful, colourful and magical - to be used in miniature fantasy scenes...

I will photograph them properly this weekend and make them available for sale in my online Pixie Dust Miniatures Etsy shop, along with the new dragonskin spellbook range.

Also, take a look at the last image. I have been hand-painting a wooden writing desk in an antique Japanese style... I am showing it on this blog but I think as it is not strictly fantasy, I will end up making it for sale at my other shop. :) So look at for that one as a finished piece there.

New TUTORIAL available! Spooky Fireplace...

Want to learn how to make a spooky old stone fireplace and fill it with your own handmade pumpkins? I've created a special tutorial with 27 step-by-step instructions to teach you exactly how to create your very own fireplace fit for a miniature fantasy / witch's home and filled with colourful pumpkins and jack o' lanterns.

This tutorial comes in PDF format and you can download it instantly from my online shop. Just click here to find it at the Pixie Dust Miniatures shop.









Exactly what you will learn how to make....

- A 'stone' fireplace with mantelpiece,
- Several pumpkins / gourds (some which glow in the dark),
- A Halloween vase,
- Halloween bunting flags to hang across it.

Techniques taught...

- How to create realistic brickwork, aged stone slabs (with my special aging technique),
- How to sculpt realistic pumpkins / gourds,
- How to paint a realistic pattern on pumpkins / gourds,
- How to sculpt a vase, including an special tip for a tidy finish.

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Shop announcement

The PDF tutorial is available right now, but as you will probably notice the rest of my shop is currently on 'vacation mode'. I am out of the country for 1 week having a holiday in Lanzarote with my family, so will not be able to ship miniatures until I am back. However PDF tutorials are electronic so you can download them instantly - even when my shop is on 'vacation mode'.

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This is what you'll learn how to make!

 

My Workspace - Heart of a Witch's Home!

Very occasionally the worlds of Pixie Dust Miniatures and my other company collide. I have been building out a colourful vintage / retro kitchen in one inch scale (for a project and also magazine feature I'll share soon) and am actually making it flexible enough to be used for both companies by swapping out props and furniture.

For Pixie Dust Miniatures this kitchen will of course be the heart of a witch's home (but for the other company it will be an innocent retro kitchen). Complete with sooty iron kettle, dragon eggs on the kitchen island, toadstools on the windowsill and a sign which reads "Well behaved children welcome. The rest will be made into pies." (I found this sign on the internet and just loved it so I printed it and mounted it to sanded and then painted basswood).

So... about this work-in-progress kitchen...
It was built by me out of MDF (and in part, foamcore). I made several pieces of the furniture from scratch, and other pieces were altered by me quite significantly. I cut wooden panels for the back wall, painted walls and put days of work into it. Here are some in-the-making photos I have taken along the way. I'll share the finished project here and on my Facebook page in a week or less.

Note that you can see the kitchen goings-on at my other blog (here) so check that out too!

Don't forget to follow and like!

PS The last two photos were quick snaps of the kitchen as it is today but I am still arranging the furniture and making changes, so the finished kitchen will be different... ;)

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The Potion Table

For those of you that read my personal blog or like my personal page on Facebook, you will know that I just got back from 8 days in the UK. Had a wonderful time catching up with family and eating good food despite the sad reason for my trip (it was to attend the funeral of my grandfather).

Whilst adjusting to jet-lag, I decided to list my very special Potion Table. I made it to a very high standard as a piece to take to the Good Sam Show in Chicago later in the year (this amazing show demands the very best in quality) but decided to list it at my online Pixie Dust Miniatures shop and make similar tables for the show. It's not until October after all.

This table is in one inch scale. It was hand-painted in layers of black and 'duck egg' paint, aged and filled with all sorts of gorgeous items (everything is attached).

The Potion Table includes:
three hand-blown glass vessels (two of which were stained-glass painted by myself),
eleven different handmade potion bottles,
six handmade spellbooks,
aged scrolls,
a golden key,
a signature / trademark Pixie Dust Miniatures dotted spoon
and spell-tags on golden or silk threads. 

Have a look at all the photos below. It's very hard to capture on film, but when the sunlight touches the little glass potion bottles they cast tiny rainbows of light on the surrounding area. I tried to show this in the first photo below.

This Potion Table available for sale here.

Mirror Mirror... Fairytale Furniture

Hi everyone,
It's a beautiful sunny day here in LA and I have been having fun working on a UK commission and various projects for magazines (for my other blog here). The deadline is tomorrow so must rush to finish...

However, taking a small break from food, I decided to organise my fabric and trimmings draw in my messy workshop. I'm just dying to dive into the Fairytale Furniture Range which you have heard me mention before in previous posts agggges ago! Well I am finally getting around to making some for fairs and my online shop.

I had such a great time at the garment district two weeks ago finding the right fabric for my first range, which will be my Mirror Mirror range, inspired by the movie. Have a look at my silk fabrics I sourced to match Eiko Ishioka's incredible inspirational costumes.

I had already drawn up lots of designs and sketches for all sorts of fairytale furniture, but when I sat in the cinema watching 'Mirror Mirror' I got so inspired to use some of Ishioka's colour schemes and designs and interpret them my own way into a furniture range. So expect canopy beds with yellow and pink embroidered silks with butterfly and flower designs... couches and chairs with deep reds and white peacock details, sage greens and rich purples.... I can't wait to start making and share here on my blog and the Pixie Dust Miniatures Facebook page.

Scroll past my fabric swatches to the images I found of costume designer Eiko Ishioka's designs. Please note that this amazing woman passed away last year and if you have fallen in love with her designs like I have then you must look her up and read about her.

And whilst we're talking about furniture, here's a glimpse at a finished Potion Table...

And here's the dress I love SO much that I am almost bound to make into a costume for the next masked ball in Los Angeles. (PS I have made costumes before for parties in LA and have a video on my YouTube channel here if interested!)