Where have I been?!

It has now been over a year since I blogged on here, and some of you may have been wondering where I went and why I dropped off the face of the planet! It may have surprised a lot of you since for about 5 years I updated this blog very frequently.







So, here's the truth, the complete truth, and it's a long read!

A year ago something catastrophic happened to me. It was so painful that it's taken me this long to want to come back to blogging properly and really resume business as usual. What the heck happened?! I'll tell you...
I was sitting at my computer one day and all of a sudden the folder I was saving some work in looked empty. I was like "hey, where did my files just go?" I clicked out of that folder and explored the rest of that hard-drive where I kept all my work, and found that none of the folders opened.... panic started to rise from the tips of my toes throughout my whole body, and I waited nervously for my computer-wiz friend to come over and help me check out what was happening. He couldn't even get the hard-drive to open and see any info. Now, this hard-drive contained absolutely all of my work - my entire portfolio of miniatures for both Pixie Dust Miniatures and Hummingbird Miniatures, and also all family photos, and all photos in general in my life. But most of all it was my portfolio going back 5 years - when I started creating and photographing my miniature work. I felt an enormous sense of panic because I knew I hadn't backed up for 6 months. I was terrified to the pit of my stomach that I could potentially lose 6 months work (for me that represented thousands of images, my book 'The Art of Pixie Dust Miniatures' I had been writing and was almost complete, tutorials I'd created and so forth. Nooooooooooooo, please don't let that work be lost, I kept saying to him! We took it to the best place for data recovery in LA (and don't forget, most of the best computer developments come out of California so I knew I was putting it into very safe hands).

Things couldn't get much worse... or could they...?

I went over to another hard-drive where everything (except the past 6 months) was backed up. Just wanted to browse it and feel a bit better.

... Nothing was there.

My housemate had at some point moved it  / wiped it / who knows. He didn't know where it went. Basically it was gone. The only place my entire miniature portfolio existed was on the hard-drive that stopped working. And that was in the hands of these data recovery guys. I waited for their verdict with my heart in my stomach and sheer dread.

They got back to me weeks later. "It's dead" they said. "No chance of recovery". I was devastated, but wouldn't accept it. I searched out the best recovery places in the world (which also are in the US - although I'd have sent it anywhere). I paid a few thousand and sent it to them. Surely if this was crucial FBI material, something seriously important they'd be able to recover it, was what I kept telling myself. I told them I'd pay any amount, I just HAD to have all my work back (hundreds of thousands of files). I waited weeks... maybe a month. The response was negative. I tried one final place, another few thousand dollars. Nope. They could retrieve absolutely nothing at all either.

And in this time my father died suddenly without warning at the age of 61 as well.

So I gave up on my work for about 5 months. Then I managed to climb back on the horse by applying myself in a new direction. Barely creating anything for Pixie Dust Miniatures or Hummingbird Miniatures, I decided to dedicate my time to the short film I have been planning for a while. I started really creating for it in March of this year. I designed and sculpted the characters for the film, which is called 'Good Witches Bad Witches' and started blogging about them here and showing them on the Facebook page for it. It helped. :)

Eventually I also started getting back to creating miniature food again and slowly and steadily rebuilding my Hummingbird Miniatures portfolio here (and on the Facebook page here) with things such as black forest cakes new mini food jewelry and a massive detailed range of Mexican food - which was soon after published in Dolls House & Miniature Scene Magazine.

Recently I finally started creating for Pixie Dust Miniatures again! I created some Jack o Lanterns and listed them at my shop here. See some photos of them below as well.


So! I rarely (or never) talk about my private life here, but I thought I owed everyone an explanation as to where I have been and why I haven't been responsive or active on this blog, or the Pixie Dust Miniatures Facebook page, aside from Instagram feeds that occasionally show up there.

But I'm back now! I will resume updating this blog and listing new items at the Pixie Dust Miniatures Etsy shop. So thanks for hanging in there!

Lovely to be back. Love to all! Caroline x X x

Witches this Halloween

This Halloween you can complete your miniature spooky scene with 1:12 scale (one inch scale) witches handmade in great detail by myself and available tomorrow at the online Pixie Dust Miniatures Etsy shop.

If you want to purchase one of these witches before they are available at my shop, then you can email me directly and also receive a discount if you buy directly from me and not via Etsy.

A bit about these Gardening Witches...!

Their names are Gertrude Nettlebed and Petunia Ditchwater. They are both dressed for tending their weed gardens and pumpkin patches, and both come with a little pumpkin / squash, which is not attached to the witch, so it can be removed and you can position them to hold something else.

These special witches were handmade for use in the short film 'Myrtle the Witch' by Tall Tales Productions, but since they are no longer needed for filming, they are available for sale as collectors items.

Take a look at the photos below which show them from different angles.

Happy Halloween!

Spooky Crows...

Yep, my miniature spooky crows are now available at my online Pixie Dust Miniatures Etsy shop here!

These crow are handmade by me in one inch scale (1:12) and have little faces, tiny eyes, tiny feet, real feathered tails and flocked bodies.

As featured in Dolls House and Miniature Scene Magazine this Halloween!

Stay tuned as more Halloween 2014 Range is listed...

Making Halloween... 2014!

Just a quick glimpse...! I'm working on my Halloween Range for 2014 (which you've probably seen previous posts about here), and I am taking pre-orders now for items before they are listed. If you want to bag a green pumpkin / orange jack o' lantern / crow before they go on sale then just email me to reserve one!

And.... if you want to be in with the chance to win a free Halloween goodie, then there's a competition currently running at my other blog and it finishes tonight at midnight (PST)! So hurry... just a few clicks and you're entered! Enter the competition here!

Good luck!

A Scary Tutorial Featured!

I love, love, love seeing my work in the magazine 'Dolls House & Miniature Scene'. Especially when I am on the front cover as well! I feel very honoured.
This is a great UK magazine, but you can order it wherever in the world you live and it's also available as a digital download.

My scary tutorial has a Fall / autumn theme... it's a spooky pumpkin scarecrow, but if you read the tutorial, you'll see that it can be adapted for a Guy Fawkes scene as well.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to;

- make a scarecrow (including his clothing and pumpkin head)
- make carved jack o' lanterns
- make fluffy black crows.


The instructions are for a 1:12 scale model and for an intermediate clay crafter.

Find the magazine issue here!

Interested in these sorts of spooky characters? See the 'making of' at my other Facebook page here.

See more about this particular spooky Halloween project in a previous post here and the tutorial below.

Magical Unicorn Horns

I stopped selling unicorn horns back in early 2012 because: a) - I ran out of stock, and b) - people wrote and complained that it was hurtful to them as it suggested violence towards animals. Since I feel I've cleared that matter up and fans are now happy with me selling unicorn horns again... I've just made them available again at my online Pixie Dust Miniatures shop!

Handmade by myself in one inch scale with great attention to detail, you can find these horns for sale here.

And if you'd like to read a little more about unicorns and the project they were for, don't forget to follow my 'Caroline blog' or better yet, the Facebook page here!

Here are some magical fairy tale photos to get you inspired when creating your own magical miniature setting. The witch that lives here had gone foraging on a warm summer morning, bringing back jars of moss, oak leaves, toadstools from fairy rings and unicorn horns which she found in the woods... see below...

Enchanted Forest in the Making...

What kind of miniature magic is happening over in the workshop of Pixie Dust Miniatures, you may wonder.....

This week I have been building an enchanted forest, complete with toadstools, fairy rings, bluebells, and soon there will be trees with faces as well! Take a look at a few snaps below, but for more information on this miniature project, don't forget to follow my 'Caroline blog' and the Facebook page here.

Must give a 'shout out' to the talented Georgina Steed, as it was her miniature flower kit I used to make the bluebells. They are in 1:12 scale (as is the rest of this miniature set piece).

A Scary Workspace!

I know, I know... I don't blog here enough at all! I update my 'Caroline blog' and its corresponding Facebook page more frequently these days. And of course, there's always my blog and about my range of miniature food here.

What have I been up to lately? Aside from making a miniature birthday with the tiniest candles ever, for a an artist friend at Dreamworks (read all about it and see photos here), I have been creating a scene for one of my favourite miniature magazines ever - Dolls House and Miniature Scene Magazine. Here's a iny glimpse of what is to come below... take a look into my workspace and don't forget to buy this brilliant magazine when it comes out next month! Find the magazine here.