Santa Claus is coming to town

I managed to finish Santa in time for today's tutorial :) I think he came out cute!

I couldn't find the perfect red fabric - something that was thin so it'd work well for miniatures, but at the same time not bright red.. Ended up buying a tank top in H&M, and it worked out well :)

And this one also counts as 1 of 3 dolls without any blue pieces of clothes (refering to the deal I made with myself, mentioned in the previous post).

The more dolls I've made these past few weeks, the more I'm looking forward to doing some more fabric shopping at the next miniature fair! I always buy tons of fabric, but I tend to go for all the 'fun' patterns, textures etc.. I really need to focus on finding more of the basic & one colored pieces - oddly enough, those are the ones you use the most.

Anyway - tutorial for the Santa is uploading as I'm typing this, so I hope you like him :)

Lady in a bathrobe

Finished my miniature doll - A lady in a bathrobe :)

I'm imagining she's gotten out of the shower and is getting ready. She's holding a lipstick and I made her hair look 'natural' as if she hasn't styled it yet.

I gave her some loose curls/waves by spraying her hair with 'stiffen stuff' (fabric stiffening spray), wrapping it around a knitting needle and blow drying it.. I then used glue to hold it in place how I wanted it to sit :)

Debating with myself whether or not to take a better picture in the morning, but knowing me I'm probably not going to.

I've also decided to keep myself from using blue as the main color for clothing for a while.. This is the third doll in a row, if mr Butcher's apron counts, that has blue clothes..

But I had to give her a blue robe - the drawing/pinup that inspired me was a woman in a blue robe, a towel around her her,. Pieces of dark brown hair sticking out and a big smile - with red libstick, of course. I fell in love with the colors.

Unfortunately I didn't have the perfect fabric to use as a bathrobe..

Towels/washing cloths were too thick.. I had a micro fiber cloth and even though they kind of have the right texture, it was still too thick.

So I ended up using this stretchy cotton material since it could look like a similar texture?.. if you squint a bit, haha.

I didn't get started on the Santa today, so it's probably not going to be up on YouTube until Sunday,.. What held me back was something as stupid as my manicure. My current manicure didn't exactly look need anymore, after approx 2 weeks and lots of crafting - so I had to fix that.. Closeups of chipped outgrown nail polish doesn't look good on camera *sigh* :)

A butcher & a teddy

I made a miniature butcher :) I love making butcher themed "food" in mini, so I thought that at the next fair, the butcher himself should be on my stall!

He reminds me of my granddad (who passed away in 2010), which isn't a bad thing. I guess this is just the type of face I consider to be a typical older looking man.

Had to paint the blue stripes on the apron - or almost paint them.. The fabric had blue and white stripes, but the blue stripes weren't wide enough, so I had to paint inbetween them to get the look I needed.

I also made a teddy bear :) This is for a tutorial for today. I was supposed to post it on YouTube yesterday, but I've got a cold (and so many other things got in the way) so I didn't have time to finish it and edit the video.

Pottery?

Miniature pottery? haha, yeah..

I've been wanting to try my hands on miniature pottery for over a year.. Actually, I first thought of it back in 2011, shortly after I started making miniatures. I liked the idea of being able to make any size or shape of plate/bowl you needed or any tray, pot, vase, jug etc. But back then (since I'd just started out) something like ceramics seemed frightening, and no way would I've been able to afford the tools and materials - I mean, a kiln?!

After I started using metal clay this year, and learned that a kiln doesn't have to take up an entire room, that urge to try my hands on it came back..

After a lot of research to find out what exactly I needed, I decided to make an order for a pottery wheel a couple of days ago - as well as some clay and glaze. I won't be buying a kiln until January or February, but I thought I could practice... I've never, ever made any type of ceramics before and have never worked with a pottery wheel, so practice will be needed, haha.

It arrived today and I've had a quick play with it.

These were my first attempts (still need to trim the bottoms);

What can I conclude so far?;
1, It's a disadvantage to have long nails! - but I'll just have to see that as a challenge.. in my mind it's not an option to cut them.
2, probably should've waited for my tools to arrive in the mail (basic trimming and pottery tools from ebay) but I didn't feel like waiting up to 2 more weeks before I could have a play with this.. So I just used a wooden stick, a makeup sponge, xacto knife and a blade (for removing the dishes from the wheel).

But you know what? for a first attempt I don't think they're that bad at all!! *proud* lol

The only problem now is, that I reeeeeeally want to fire it..

Will have another play with the wheel tomorrow, after recording the next polymer clay tutorial for my YouTube channel... or maybe I'll just wait till Saturday.. as if =)