Karin Corbin

What more can you say? Her work speaks for itself. She is a master and fabulously talented, no doubt about it! Hey Karin, you can come over and build me something, too! I'm sending a plane ticket ;-)

http://karincorbin.blogspot.com/

http://picasaweb.google.com/karincorbin/MyWorksOfArt#

Somebody, smack me!

Yeah, I know.

Carol's itsy bitsy food

I LOVE uber tiny, and Carol Cook made some  1:48 scale goodies for a food delivery company in the UK! I love the toy truck and I love the things Carol made to go with it! Here it is in The Metro UK:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/pictures/photos-01912/pictures-of-the-day-dec-1/8

Carol's blog: http://miniaturefoodgloriousfood.blogspot.com/

Oh. My. God.

Major talent alert!! Ron Nelson's work makes my jaw drop!!!

http://artisanofocala.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8331880@N02/

A plump turkey

Here he is, the plump turkey I made last night with horribly soft Fimo! Well, Fimo and Kato. I am still deciding whether or not to make stuffing and cranberry sauce on the side. I really don't want to, but I think I probably should, so it's more "complete".

I added the stuffing and cranberry sauce below

Stop the madness!!

I lied. I made apricots in a basket with, yes,  fern!!!! The baskets are multiplying so I have to fill them!!! Please, make me stop!!

My submissions

I got my pieces back today, so I snapped a picture before sending them back again (I'm donating them, except for one). I was originally going to send in the set that is on my website (the first picture), but I eliminated the fruit and cheese platter, I redid the chicken and added peas and biscuits, and added the white nectarines. So, although it looks like I went over the limit of five, I pretended that the stuffed peppers went with the roast! Kind of weird, I know, but I was trying to "sneak it through"! I haven't received my critique yet, but I'll share it when it comes in. The picture is kind of small so you have to click on it to really see it a bit better :-/.

A bucket of clams

My mom made me an aged bucket for my raw clams. I told her to make it on the smallish side because I didn't want to make 500 clam shells, haha!!

Punnet of strawberries

Just when I think I'm through with making fruit for awhile, I decide to sneak in some strawberries. But there is NO basket with fern in sight :-D! Much like mushrooms, I find them very relaxing to make. It's like the equivalent of zoning out while knitting....if I knew how to knit.

Thomas Saunders is cranking them out!

My good friend, Thomas Saunders, is back in the saddle, and he's turning out the goods (no pun intended)! After a bout of respiratory illness that nearly put an end to his fabulous skills as a woodturner (and stone, acrylic, and any other material that strikes his fancy), he is back in his workshop! Here is a sampling of some of his latest, and also a pic of the adorable, burly, tattooed man at work (tattoos not on display here):

http://turningsinminiature.blogspot.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/turningsin

More fruit in baskets....with fern

Yes, more! Williams Pears and Black Plums. I put alot of bloom on those plums. And now, I will ease off the fruit for a bit, I promise ;-).

(Real) food sculpture

Has anyone ever seen these before? It's actual food. The mice are made from Taro root! Some of them freak me out a little, like the foot in the loaf of bread and the person emerging from the watermelon (from the first link), but here's more:

http://www.wackyarchives.com/offbeat/creative-food-sculptures.html

http://www.artchef.com/masterpieces.html

Pomegranates and a mini breakdown

It will be awhile before I can bring myself to make these again. A friend of mine asked for a couple loose ones, with one sliced open....so naturally, I made more and put some in a basket to sell as well. As I sat there, like a zombie, rolling seeds until the cows came home, I had the sudden urge to gouge my eyes out. This is probably much how Jocelyn felt when rolling grains of rice, except her hands broke out in involuntary spasms. The white part on the inside really isn't that stark white, but that happens frequently when I lighten my pics :-/.

Kari Bloom

Kari Bloom, IGMA Fellow, makes wonderful furniture and accessories! I love ALL of it, but especially the chairs and sofas. Here's a link to her website and a couple pics:

http://miniature-retro-mission-furniture.com/kari_bloom/index.php?main_page=index

You know you're a redneck when.....

your Calamari looks like this (those are hot dogs)!? I found this when googling. Someone should make this, it would be a HOOT:

A new fellow Fellow

I found out, kind of inadvertently, that there is another new Fellow in the food category! Her name is Kimie Okumura and she's in Japan! Very cool!! Of course, I googled her name and found her blog, which is chock full of some of my favorite foods to eat! Also, I am a complete sucker for packaged and takeout kind of stuff, so I'm loving that bowl of ramen with the flavor packet and stuff! It looks just like the ones I have in my kitchen cupboard! Now where in God's name did she find those accessories?? Did she make them? Here is the link to her blog and a few pics:

http://noir18.blog119.fc2.com/

Disasters...or near disasters in miniature making?

As I sit here re-doing a raw chicken that my mom told me didn't have enough texture (and deep down inside, I knew she was right, even though I sat silently seething), I started thinking about other occasions when things didn't go quite as planned. Here are a few off the top of my head:

1- The first time I made crabs, I put their eyes ON TOP of their shells, so they were looking at the ceiling, as opposed to their proper placement, which is in the front. Someone, somewhere, owns these crabs!!!! PLEASE, if you are out there and you read this, I will make you new ones! Those were deformed!

2- My first attempt at rice involved rolling each grain individually...and winding up with a heap of fat, white maggots.

3- BURNING things! Someone, usually my younger sister, has, on occasion, cranked up the heat on MY oven, resulting in a bunch of shiny, melted looking creations. I would always smell it first, then run over in a blind panic. I'd be so livid that  I'd scream and throw them at the wall :-/. It is even more tantrum inducing if I had spent over an hour or more making them. She no longer has access to my oven :-D.

4- The time my oven went on the fritz a few years ago. It was running out of "juice", so everything I made was undercooked. Yup, they fell apart. Luckily, that happened before anything was sent in the mail to paying customers :-O. I had to make everything all over again.

5- When I try to fit something bigger (or longer) into something smaller. For example, an octopus or squid into a small glass jar. Legs have broken. My reaction? I go to the balcony outside and hurl it into the bushes below. I can't bear to look at it anymore....or have it anywhere in the house!

6. This one isn't that major, but it is annoying: trying to get the perfect color. You keep adding on to the lump of clay in your hand, thinking: ok, just a bit more of this color and it'll be PERFECT....until it turns into a giant wad of the ugliest, most bizarre color you've ever seen in your life, far from what you had in mind when you started :-/. Some of my clay mountain was built on these abominations. Nay, they are the foundation.

7- My first pig's head. Enough said.

- So what are your disasters or near disasters? I would love to hear some!!

Red Snapper

Since I have been eating even more fish than usual lately, I made Red Snapper. And they're not in a basket!

Carol Cook

My good friend, Carol Cook, hasn't been able to keep up with blogging as of late, so I want to take this opportunity to raise my can of lite beer in her honor.....for making IGMA Artisan!! Carol is über talented and makes a dizzying array of food, AND other things (Tudor leather shoes, for one!). So here's to you, Carol- well done!!! Below are a few pics of her work, plus links to her website and blog (which I'm sure she will be updating more frequency now ;-)).

http://www.carolcook.co.uk/index.html

http://miniaturefoodgloriousfood.blogspot.com/

Hila Rosenberg's work...I'm speechless

World renowned writer for many miniatures magazines, Martha Puff, pointed us to the work of an artist in Israel named Hila Rosenberg (thanks Martha!). She does many things, among them model construction, animation, and illustration. Oh, and these cool "Maniera in a box". Here is a pic of her phenomenal work (LOVE the crooked houses!!) and a link to her website. Be sure to click on the section that says "My Dream House" and go through every set. WOW!!!
http://www.hilarosenberg.com/index.html

Roasted goose

This is one of the two geese that I made. They actually have really long wing tips, but it kind of creeped me out, so I'm pretending that these were "trimmed"! Seriously, it would have looked like a Pterodactyl if I left them long!!!

Basket of sweet potatoes

Well, I'm joining Sandikins with a small contribution to Thanksgiving! This is a simple basket of sweet potatoes. Hmmm...I'm on my mom's computer and these looked a touch redder on mine.

Sandra Palesch

Sandi Palesch, IGMA Artisan, is one of my best friends, and because the holidays are coming up, I wanted to show off her delicious Thanksgiving table!! She recently filmed a how-to dvd for American Miniaturist, which shows you how to make the goodies you see here! You can also see more of her work at her new website:

http://www.naturesminiharvest.com/nmh/Home.html

Bloody roast

Heavy on the blood!

A vintage luggage display from Miniature Madness

Check this out, it's FAB!! As are her other works, of course (http://www.flickr.com/photos/miniaturemadness/) ! She made the leather luggage herself:

Basket of Big-Eyed Scad

Hey, it's a basket of fish! What is it with me and the staring eyeballs?? This time I made Big-Eyed Scad, or "Akule" as we call it here in Hawaii. Gramps used to catch these all the time and fry 'em up. Just add some rice and I was in heaven!

Basket of eels

More fishy stuff in a basket

Pat Carlson's tiny cottages...and Dracula's Lair!

Pat has only been making these 144th scale dwellings for one year, but you would never know it by looking at her amazing work! I always knew her as a maker of wonderful miniature books, so I was floored to discover these tiny dwellings. To have a fully detailed house that you can hold in the palm of your hand is just the coolest! Here are pics of her cottages, and Dracula's Lair (the bottom two)!

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/skywind


http://www.etsy.com/shop/skywind

Again with the Chow Mein

I started out wanting to make some Singapore noodles, but it turned into chow mein again. The thing is, I roll my own noodles (I never use the extruder), and in order to make them Singapore style, I had to make them as thin as humanly possible (they're rice noodles). As you can see in the bottom pic, I am rolling what I think look like pretty thin threads of noodles....BUT, once those go on the platter and I snap a close-up pic of it, SURPRISE!! I get chow mein. Grr....By the way, those lumps of colored clay on the tile will be added to the clay mountain :-D

Willard Wigan, micro sculptor

Who hasn't been to this site (http://www.willard-wigan.com/)? It's been awhile since I paid a visit, but I'm amazed all over again! I thought this was very interesting:

"Willard enters a meditative state in which his heartbeat is slowed, allowing him to reduce hand tremors and sculpt between pulse beats. Even the reverberation caused by traffic outside can affect Willard’s work. He often works through the night when there is minimal disruption."

He sculpts BETWEEN heart beats!!! And each piece takes up to three months to complete!! Here are couple of his sculpts, which sit in the eye of a needle. The first is the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and the next one is King Henry VIII and his wives:

Baby zombie squid

Be afraid.

An award!

Thank you for this award!

The award rules are:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers'
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.



Thank you goes to Nuri at http://mininuris.blogspot.com/ for the award below:

Here are the seven things most people may not know:

1- I work off and on during the day (and take a nap for a couple of hours every afternoon) but really gear up with the miniature making at night.
2- I'm not wild about ham
3- Making pineapples is something I am asked to do quite a bit (maybe because I'm in Hawaii?) but I always find an excuse NOT to do it. This is because I think it's one of the most difficult things to do right. I made it once. I wasn't happy.
4- I don't use the skinner technique.
5- I don't use a pasta machine, although I have one.
6- I make miniatures ON my laptop (on a ceramic tile). My laptop is covered with a protective screen because I trashed my last one and got clay and chalk dust in the keyboard.
7- I often use my body and clothing as a "palette". I put glue on my left hand, take my tweezers, dip it in the glue, and attach it to whatever I'm displaying stuff on. I also sometimes mix paint on my hand. I wipe my hands on the tank tops I wear when I'm working. Consequently, I have an entire wardrobe of paint and glue smeared tank tops.

The blogs I nominated are:

http://sansddprojects.blogspot.com/
http://aiclay.blogspot.com/
http://ohminiofmine-loshcosh.blogspot.com/
http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/
http://tinyterminiatures.blogspot.com/
http://kimsminiatures.blogspot.com/
http://turningsinminiature.blogspot.com/

Chinese veg board

I couldn't stand to look at that thing anymore, so I'm replacing it with something better that I made a few years ago. I like making bean sprouts. I must be a masochist.

Roasted chicken dinner

Because I couldn't leave that trainwreck of a last post just hanging there, here is a nice, roasted chicken dinner to help soothe your eyes a bit. But I WILL post more hideosity if you want me to. It does get worse....muhahahaha!!!!