Sunday, July 30, 2017

” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”








Ravens have managed their way into superstition, stories and poetry. It is said that if the ravens ever leave The Tower of London the Crown will fall and Britian with it. In Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" it symbolizes grief and death.  They sure have found their way into Halloween. I suppose that Poe's poem can take credit for that.

They are huge birds. As long as 25 inches in length and as much as 4.4 pounds. A lot bigger then a crow. 


The inspiration for the miniature was actually Pepper's Gothic dollhouse. https://mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.com/  I wanted to make her something for it. She has received it now so I am not spoiling the surprise. 

I had no idea how she wanted to decorate it so that made making something for the interior difficult. Then it suddenly struck me that a raven might look right sitting somewhere on the exterior. Old manor houses also seem to have a lot of taxidermy around he might even be used like that.

I had ordered a lot of black turkey feathers for this project so I made the one shown here. It is very difficult to photograph black!  There isn't any white lint on the bird, I had to lighten these a bit so you could see them. Otherwise they would have looked like a silhouette. He is jet black!




I cut his flock out of black silk embroidery floss. He was sculpted out of polymer clay. I only used the tips of the turkey feathers to cut down.

No color tweaking below. Here he isn't grayed from lightening the photo.




Monday, July 24, 2017

Lazy Summer Day



It has been very hot and humid here. Yesterday the heat index said it felt like 109 degrees F.  The air-conditioner really can't get the inside temperature more then 20 degrees below what it is outside. So we have been enjoying lazy days. I have been working in polymer clay making  miniature animals, while Kilmouski naps next to me.


 There is a dormer window I put a kitty perch in upstairs. The fabric pillow he is resting his head on is printed with cats. One of which looks exactly like him. That pillow belonged to his predecessor. It still apparently contains the wonderful scent of Honeysuckle after more than 20 years! I wish I could buy him Honeysuckle wood sticks (for cats) but it isn't sold in the USA. You can only get it in Canada. Sadly, they won't mail it to the US either. Catnip just does nothing for him but he thinks Honeysuckle is magic!

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

I LOVE Silk!





This spring Linda http://miraclechicken.blogspot.com/  kindly allowed me some space on her table at the Tom Bishop Show in Chicago. I wanted to try to sell some of the William Morris silk chairs I made. When I got to Linda's table she asked..."Notice anything?" I was shocked! The chairs sold within 45 minutes of the doors opening on preview night. WHY, Oh WHY, didn't I bring more!

No photo can convey how beautiful that silk fabric is. The way it takes dyes is magic.  So... I have decided to make a few more. Each pattern presents a real design placement challenge. I try to and make a mirror image on each side.  On both sides of the wings, both arms and the sides. That can make you say some very bad words while you are working.

This one has hand carved legs made by Linda Master. She is a wizard! How she carves two perfectly alike is a mystery to me.





Here are a few 1: 1 scale William Morris upholstered chairs I found on Google. The scale seems to be close to what my miniature ones are. 



Pepper https://mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.com/  very kindly sent me a gift of some beautiful silk she got at the York show in the UK. I was thrilled to bits! I have a very hard time finding fabrics. These are hand loomed. Just gorgeous!


AND... She sent me some Susan Bembridge silk in my favorite colors. I  LOVE the patterns! Thank you so much Pepper. ;-)


I am still collecting Terry Curran crocks. Here are a few new ones I found on eBay.