By Joanna Campbell Slan
I have always been fascinated by small things, and after my mother took us to see Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle in the Museum of Science and Industry, I was hooked. Since I grew up poor, I couldn’t run out and buy all the tiny stuff I wanted. Shockingly, miniatures are expensive. Very, very expensive. Right now on Etsy, you can buy a miniature piece of Santeria Spiritual furniture (a chest of drawers) complete with voodoo items for $125. And that’s mainly a cute piece. A petit point bench is selling for $160. Are you beginning to get the picture? The joke in the mini world is: "The smaller the item, the bigger the price tag."
To me, the fun in miniatures is making the stuff. Particularly when I’m turning trash into treasure. Last year I decided to create a spooky scene to enter in the annual Halloween scene contest run by Miniatures.com. My concept started with a paper Starbucks coffee cup that my husband, David, had thrown away. It reminded me of a stove. An old round stove. If you have a stove, you are well on the way to a . . . kitchen. Yeah. I decided to make a cooking scene, one that any tiny witch would be proud of. Because I wasn’t down in Florida, our home, I had to make do with any cheap materials I could scrounge up quickly. My imagination really went into overdrive. Here’s what I used:
1. The stove is a Starbucks cup.
2. The spider web is wire and thread.
3. The spider is clay.
4. The saw is the cutting edge from a box of foil or plastic wrap.
5. The hand coming out of the trapdoor is clay.
6. The butcher block table is a bunch of pieces of wood glued together and cut into a square.
7. The rag with a hand print. I cut a cork into the shape of a tiny hand and used red ink to stamp it on a paper towel.
8. The cat is all polymer clay.
9. The cow skull is paper mache.
10. The “glass” jars are strips of plastic packaging taped in a tube shape.
11. The eyeballs are clay.
12. The broom is dead grass tied to a stick.
13. The witch’s hat is an empty tea bag painted with acrylic paint.
14. The basket is paper.
15. The green candles at the top of the cupboard are straws. Inside each is an LED light (up at the flame). Then I dripped green wax into and around the straw.
16. When it’s dark, there’s a light coming out of the stove, the candles, and the trap door.
17. I printed out an old chart about bugs and put that on the shelves.
18. The cupboard is cut from mat board, like what's used to frame pictures. The little witch on a broom was created by using a punched image as a stencil and filling it with wood putty. When it was dry, I painted it. String is glued down to the top of the cupboard to add dimension liked carving.
19. Cheese cloth dyed in strong coffee is the open weave fabric on the shelves.
20. The floor is paper clay, except for the trap door.
21. The pots are paper with wooden handles.
22. The plate on the butcher block table is a pull top from an almond milk carton. The fingers and eyeballs are clay. The cleaver is metal from a wine bottle, inserted in a wood dowel.
23. The basket with green balls is a nutshell that’s been sanded smooth.
24. The cauldron is clay. The “steam” is a bit of cotton batting.
25. The fancy bottles are stacked beads.
26. The plant in the pot on the top shelf is that bit of green plastic you get when you buy sushi. (Never throw it away!)
And one last thing: The green bubbles are witch's stew. (Gorilla Glue covered with green acrylic paint.)
NOTE: Femmes Elaine Viets interrupting here. Joanna's miniature made a big impression on me. I voted for it.
The Miniatures.com contest runs from now until Sunday, Oct. 28 at 11:50 p.m. EST, and you can vote every 24 hours. Here’s the link: https://wshe.es/CHKxTObS
To see more ideas about miniatures and how to make them, visit Joanna's pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/jcslan25
I voted! Thanks for taking my slot today, Joanna. I'm in deadline hell!! With a broken finger!
Posted by: Marcia Talley | October 25, 2018 at 08:50 AM
That is AMAZING, Joanna! I used to collect miniatures as a child, but never made my own. This is something I can see my little ones really enjoying, they love to build things. I'll go vote, too!
Posted by: LynDee Walker | October 25, 2018 at 12:13 PM
Marcia, you poor lamb. A broken digit is a real problem for one of us. I hope it heals quickly and that you remember the famous words of Churchill: "If you're going through hell, just keep going."
Posted by: Joanna Campbell Slan | October 25, 2018 at 12:42 PM
LynDee, welcome! Glad to have you. Minis are soooo much fun! Wait until you see all the tutorials over on my Pinterest boards. You'll have a blast.
Posted by: Joanna Campbell Slan | October 25, 2018 at 12:43 PM
As children, we had a little bowl in the dollhouse
kitchen that was just the right size to pop an
acorn cap onto and insist that it was shepherd’s
pie. Some thin opaque plastic can be cut to make
Wonder Bread slices (crusts trimmed) and if you have
a new pencil, thin slices of the eraser on the end
will make bologna.
Posted by: Anne Murphy | October 29, 2018 at 01:22 PM
What terrific ideas! Now I'll let you in on a little secret, Anne. I'm in the middle of editing a cookbook for REAL people, and then you posted this, and all I can think about is all the food I cannot eat! Maybe I'll gnaw on the eraser...
Posted by: Joanna Campbell Slan | October 29, 2018 at 02:14 PM