OK...A Couple More....

OK...before Richard 'Shoots' me ...as he REALLY wants this room to photograph...I wanted to upload a few more 'Potter People' ... May I introduce 'Willoughby Wombat' (who works at the Leaky Cauldron)...and Professor Flitwick ... Charms Professor at Hogwarts...and all his many books containing the most magical of spells.

If I could live anywhere in the world (imaginary or otherwise) it would be Hogwarts...I swear I would never ever leave...

Hugs for a Terrific Tuesday...

Jodi

Blast from the Past.....

Often we are asked how we got started making Miniature Dolls ... and what were the first characters... ?? Well... in going through a lot of photos and files lately I am running into all sorts of little 'Blasts from the Past'... and this is one of them.... our very first Miniature Dolls.

We were commissioned back in 1995 to create various 'Railroad Characters' for a collector and friend Rod Johnston . He had this great idea of building a Beautiful Train Station and a working 1" Scale Railroad on his Property in Canada... with working platform, Trains, tracks etc... the only thing he was lacking were the People to inhabit the highly detailed setting. So Rod (who was a collector of our larger dolls) asked if we would be interested in creating the 1:12th scale miniature Train Dolls for him....

Hmmmmmm let me think.... Do I think it MIGHT be possible to convince Richard to do ANYTHING Train related...hmmmmm...might have to really twist his arm ...YEAH RIGHT!!!! Richard was Entirely Crazy about the idea and said YES YES YES...never mind the fact that we had never made anything at this point under 10 inches!!! As I have mentioned many times before here in this blog..."We love a Challenge"!!

So we taught ourselves how to scale down and think really small...that included sculpting, clothing, shoes, accessories ...the whole ball of wax...GULP!! Talk about on the job training..(no Pun Intended!!) But in truth...we knew we could do it before we even started ...we just wanted to do it well. He started with 8 Characters ...we did one a month ...in-between our regular Bigger Doll Commissions...bouncing from Big to small was interesting in itself...in the end, Richard and I agreed that creating Small was so fun. We started to create Bigger dolls with 'smaller' dolls, puppets, babies etc.... things were growing smaller in our studios.... but to this point we still were not making 1:12th scale dolls to sell in shows or even advertise that we were making. Then some time later we received more commissions...for Wizards and Witches (something close to my heart) ... it was at that point that we made the turn to miniatures. Although we still create Bigger Doll Settings through commissions...primarily our focus these days are more geared towards miniatures.

The Photos above were taken by Rod and have been featured in magazines as well as a Video. Our characters were An Engineer, Conductor, Car Tonk,Brakeman, Hobo, Elderly waiting passenger, Red Cap, Attractive Passenger, a Traveling Anvil Salesman. Richard also made the luggage cart that the Red Cap is pushing and suitcases.

This was a joy to create...and we Thank Rod each day for giving us the 'directional push' into the Wonderful World of Miniatures....

Happy Wednesday All...

Jodi and Richard

Bellatrix has Arrived and Casting Spells Already!

AT LAST!!!! We have finished and photographed Bella Baby... WHEW!! I say whew because it must be known up from that my dear sweetie Richard HATES to photograph with lots of black fabric in the picture... very difficult... and the bad thing is I LOVE creating dolls with lots of black... so when the time comes to photograph...we square off like two caged tigers ...low growls and a few hisses! But alas I think it worked pretty good. Now I am a bit unsure of colors and contrast as I have a new monitor and still learning to balance everything...so I am hoping all looks OK!

Bellatrix is 5 1/2" tall ...hand sculpted completely in polymer clay (you all saw her butt) ...you have to trust me on the rest! She is painted, hair is tight Lincoln wool. Clothing is silk....hand painted. Her corset or boustia is hand sewn leather. I carved her tiny necklace and Richard carved her wand.

She was a BLAST and I must say...my fav so far....and our first 'dark' character from Harry Potter .... more more more!!!

Now onto something totally different!!

Thanks for taking a peek...and putting up with 'butt shots'

Have a good evening

Jodi

Commission

Happy Tuesday All...

This is a commission for a miniature Doll that we had. Chinese Empress...1:12th scale .... Hand Sculpted in Polymer Clay over complete armature. Hand painted and printed clothing. Fan hand made from shaved thin wood. All furniture hand made from wood...you can't see in picture but she also has bound feet. Her hair is a combination of hand worked Art Papers and shaped and stiffened mohair. Love these speciality commissions...makes us really do our homework...

Thanks for taking a peek...

Jodi

Been One Heck of a Day...

And now...it is almost over...or at least, it is for me...YAWN!!!! Ready to hit the sack and slip off to dreamy bye land... where all the creepy monsters and boogies await to attack...yes, I am one that often has fitful dreams filled with weird creatures and things waiting to pounce...but that is another blog for another day...

Both Richard and I worked on many things today including the bits you see below...but also house stuff....a real mixed bag you might say.
Richard finished his wooden base part...the basic part...now all the little detailed work can begin...like the Owl, snake and tiny dragons...and painting of course....I think I get to do that part...I LOVE that part.
The third pic down is Richard is...oh how did Richard say it..."Turning a circle into an octagon " with tiny files and rasps... COO COO...COO COO!!! Then he put parts together that were from yesterdays pics... milled Plexiglas on bottom and glass bead on top...but as you can see we had differing opinions on which bead should be used on top... Blue or clear...the jury is still out on that one...we have time to decide....yes...Richard and I can spends days on details like this, I know..sick!

The other shot is the starting of the brass stand that will be on the backside of the carved/ sculpted owl ...and from that will be the two stands that hold all the candles.
Richard has started working on the owl late today.... the whole thing will be made to come apart in stages...to paint, bake etc... then reassembled.

The last shot is Dumbledore with his first layer of clothing on..... this one threw me for a loop...I hate bulky clothing and the fabrics I had seemed to stiff...so I spent a few hours...washing out sizing and lightly sanding the backside of the fabric. I liked this fabric as it was a nice Burgundy with a gold gilt to the fabric... it has six size 22 gold beads up each sleeve and a whole lot of under trim down the front...sorry it didn't show well in this photo... Now tomorrow I will begin his Wizard robe...the hat over the weekend..plus glasses (Richard makes those)..but I won't push those yet as he is up to eyeballs in Owl right now...

OK...fading fast.... see you in the morning...

Jodi

And the Dumbledore Saga Continues....

OK...day two...not much to show really ...all the cool fun stuff has not really started yet . Here are a few misc. shots.... The first is Richard's drawing of the lectern ...and shows the changes that he is already making...(BAD JODI...BAD) ...I wanted him to make the wings bigger/wider ...so I think he reluctantly did a simple mark to show where I would like them to expand to ...I am surprised that he did not make a little
&*%$#! after the word 'Owl Bigger' ....hee hee!! I made marks on the photo to show the parts he is working on in the pictures below.
Next pic he is working on the Lectern post on his lathe (that was one of 'sneak up and shoot' pics)... One the next picture I was not so lucky with the sneaking...busted!!! So I snapped him milling the Plexiglas block into a shape like in his drawing at the bottom of the post.
Next shot is the post finished and lacquered...ready to be gold gilded. And last is AD in his skives ...I always put undies on our dolls even though they are seldom seen...and on Dumbledore I even monogrammed with an 'AD'... never to bee seen...but I know it is there... By the by his head is just 'sitting' on the body and not yet attached...it will be much easier for me to dress him and them add his head last...there will be much beard and hair straightening up in the end. His shoes are painted now.

So today I am beginning the clothing and robes and Richard will start the Owl I believe...

Happy Tuesday All

Jodi and Richard

The Dumbledore Project!!

Well Sunday yet again slipped right past me.... as I think I mentioned before, Sundays tend to be my 'cram days'...where I cram every project that I have lingering into this one day....running here and there around the house..in a frantic crazed haze. I really should tie a piece of yarn onto my leg...I'll bet at days end I would have a VERY interesting Afghan !!


Mainly we worked on our Dumbledore Miniature for our collector. And what I have decided to do is post pictures here of his progress ...basically birth to fini! Which means I will be doing a lot of sneaking up on Richard and getting 'peering over the shoulder' shots... I will also take some shots of his body and dressing shots...(Dumbledore's...NOT Richards!!!)


Richard has the biggest task of all...as a truly dedicated anal perfectionist ...he is determined to get Dumbledores Lectern 'JUST RIGHT' ...which means tons of extra planning out and work ...don't ya just LOVE a challenge!!! Can you say ..."CRAZY ALREADY"...we can!!!! But it will be fun and indeed we do love a challenge and this one will be unique. Now we are taking artistic licence here as I have decided to create the Richard Harris Dumbledore (the first one) ...which means his clothing is different than the second...there are a lot less detailed photos to find than the second dude... and we are taking artistic licence with combining the second Dumbledore's Lectern with the RH one... but it just seemed the thing to do and we are nuts about that lectern...all the melty candles, gigantic golden owl...glass balls with dragon carvings...etc etc etc... and away we go!!!

So I will from time to time post pics of this piece in progress here on my blog...something that I rarely do ...as I seldom stop work to pop a pic... wish us luck!!!

I have posted a few pics to get the ball rolling ... these were just quick snaps on my worktable...head , legs and hands....

Head is without hat and glasses, hands are not yet painted and legs are just starting to be painted......I will begin putting all together today while Richard will be sawing and doing shop stuff today.......let's see if I can 'sneak' up and snap snap without causing any accidents..... I promise to be VERY careful and quiet!!



Let the Project Begin!!!

Jodi and Richard

Our Latest Harry Potter Piece

We recently finished another Harry Potter commission...

(OUR FAVORITES TO DO)...

This handsome gentleman is Kingsley Shacklebolt...a distinguished Wizard working for the Ministry of Magic. He is 1:12th Miniature Scale ...standing at just 6".

Believe me, I would LOVE to say that this is MY Studio in his background...but alas it is just photo trickery!! AHHHHH...to have Hogwarts as a Studio... how fantastic would that be....

Thanks for taking a peek

Jodi