A Clean Sweep!

Inspired by Disney's film Fantasia, Karin Foster from Orr Lake, Canada (an hour North of Toronto) made this broom from polmer clay.
An awesome job!




Her blog is: http://minitutesfromorrlake.blogspot.com/

Masks

Halloween, New Year, Costume parties, masks for your dolls can be great fun.
Here are some made by Karen from Bracebridge Ontario.



Tanya from Tanya's Mini Dolls has a tutorial, as well as one for a fan.
http://www.taynasminidolls.com/Tutorials/mask/index.shtml

For Halloween, your little monsters cam wear masks by Alice Zinn:
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1047731230034817961qkHgEK

Plates from Plastic Egg Cartons

Chris from Canada wrote:
My Trash Talk hint this week concerns the clear plastic containers that some eggs are sold in. In Canada these are generally the more expensive Omega-3 and organic free range eggs, a marketing ploy if I ever saw one, as these eggs have a harder shell due to the hen's diets so don't need extra protection! Anyhoooooooo ..... These 3- part cartons, in addition to the usual useful rectangles of window 'glass' and so on,also contain in the second part 12 perfect 12" diameter plates (with no indents) to either cut out and paint, coat with several coats of glass stain, or use intact as a mold for paper clay, air dry or polymer clays, tissue paper maché or coated with 2-3 coats of coloured glue. Just pop or peel them off gently, trim the edge all around and there you go.

Dress Shop

Tanya is working away at her dress shop and doing it brilliantly, as usual.
She says : Once I finish this it will go in the window of my ladies shop. Don't ask me why I have the pink pocketbook up there with the lingerie and robe, it just looked good to me cause it was pink so I hung it up. Still have lots more to do. Oh, a few people have asked if this doll is Barbie scale, nope, she is just a little over 5 1/2 inches with her head. So she will go great in my 1 inch scale scene I think. I got her at a generic dollar store.



Go to Tanya's site and explore all the items she has made for her store - handbags from 3D stickers, belts and belt display rack , shoes and boots. You will get lost there!

http://www.picturetrail.com/tanyamc123

Draping Effects

Wanna in El Paso wrote this explanation for draping fabrics.
If I want something to look as if it's been tossed aside after being worn, I first cover the bed, chair, or whatever with plastic wrap to protect it, and/or to make the garment more easily removable later.
Then I either spritz the dress lightly with water, hair spray or fabric stiffener, depending on the fabric or what I have on hand. Some people use steam from a steam iron. ( If I am working with silk, I hesitate to spray unless I dampen the entire thing because silk spots so easily.)
Another consideration is whether the garment has been sewn or glued; if sewn, it's less of a concern; saturating a pieces that has been glued may affect the seams. Whatever is used, the idea is to make the garment malleable so that the natural folds and wrinkles that come from gravity can be manipulated. (It helps to toss a real dress on a real bed and see how it actually looks; sometimes I Google for images, as well.)
Sometimes I pin the folds where needed first, then spray. On occasion I have taped the folds lightly with either masking or cellophane tape, sometimes tied with string until dry. It all depends on how easily the fabric can be shaped and whether the object on which the garment is tossed is hard or will receive pins.
Then I let dry, remove the plastic wrap, then replace the garment, using just enough glue to hold it in place, in case I want to remove it later without messing up the surface. When I am placing a garment atop something special, like a hand-made quilt, for example, I don't glue; I figure out how to pin underneath the folds to hold it. Sequin pins are good for this because they are so tiny.
There are numerous draped items on my website.
Here is an example of a throw that has been manipulated on a hard wooden surface:
http://wannainelpas o.com/seasons/ irenes_christmas _bench.shtml

Here is Santa's clothing manipulated on a wooden screen, as well as over the arm of his chair:
http://wannainelpas o.com/seasons/ santas_nap. shtml

And here I discussed making his clothing, too:
http://wannainelpas o.com/dolls/ napping_santa. shtml

The first dress I remember trying to manipulate in this way was actually on the doll. I wanted my Wife of Bath to look as if she had just collapsed on her bed after the long tiring journey home from Canterbury. I had a terrible time with it because I wanted her to look natural, rather than just balanced atop the bed, and since I had already made her completely dressed I had to - gasp - cut away the fabric at the back until I could make it look as if her body was actually somewhat sinking into the bed coverings the way our bodies do naturally.? I wound up cutting and cutting away, finallly poking glue up inside the folds and pinning them in place until they dried. If I were to do her nowadays, I wouldn't even make an entire dress, I would just do the bodice front and drape fabric around her to make it look like it was the skirt.

You can see what I am talking about here:
http://wannainelpas o.com/The% 20Wife%20of% 20Bath/the_ wife_of_bath. shtml

Mme Alexander Dolls from McDonalds

Chris Pecherzewski made this adorable scene with a Michaels pumpkin and Mme Alexander dolls from McDonalds.

Fisher Price Dolls

Dolls add life and character to a scene. A couple of miniaturists use Fisher Price Dolls to great advantage in their work.
Tanya from Ty-nee-stuff has many wonderful scenes.
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/5815043

Doreen Playter uses her FP family to illustrate phases in the construction of her dollhouse.
Here are David and Julie in action.

http://doreensminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/05/flooring-gets-stained-and-wallpaper.html

Also look at:
http://minitreasures.pbworks.com/fisher_price?SearchFor=fisher+price+dolls&sp=3
There is a section on dolls - use the search button for character dolls, or look in the sidebar for inhabitants.