Hey!! Here's some fish and fruit!

I decided to make some fish...and fruit (well, citrus, as in Buddha's Hand)!! Again!!!  I don't think I will rest until I've made just about every kind of fish on the planet. Or rather, in the ocean, stream, river, aquarium.....

Jeff Littlejohn: from acccomplished full-sized sculptor to...budding miniaturist!

Jeff Littlejohn is the man who messaged me on ebay. He is a phenomenal sculptor (among other things) and his work, like the moveable dinosaurs, is in museums. You can certainly see why!! Good god!! He is very interested in making 1:12 scale miniatures, particularly animals. He is scary good, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with!! I'm always curious to see how full scale sculptors fare when they scale waaaaay down, but I have no doubt that Jeff will crank out astonishing pieces. In fact, Martha Puff took one look at his website and is already interested in writing an article on him, once he starts. Come on Jeff, let's see it!! No pressure or anything ;-).

http://sites.google.com/site/jefflittlejo/home

Not fish or fruit

I will go back to making fish very soon (probably tonight, lol!!), but I slipped in a couple breakfast sets, for a change!

Mixed fruit bowl and Red Stripe Rockfish

I piled a bunch of fruit in this gorgeous handturned bowl that my buddy Thomas Saunders made.
And I made more fish since...well, there are so many types of fish to make! Someone contacted me today to compliment me on my fish, which was high praise indeed, considering the fact that he is a phenomenal sculptor, who has life-sized pieces in museums!! As in, a moving dinosaur :-O!! He makes smaller animals as well, and wants to get into making miniatures. Once he does, you can bet that I will will feature his work here!!

Tom's blog: http://turningsinminiature.blogspot.com/

Carolyn Mohler Kraft's gorgeous plants

My good buddy, Kristy Taylor of Mini Menagerie, maker of the cutest damned critters you've ever seen: http://www.minimenagerie.com/, introduced me to her good friend, Carolyn Mohler Kraft, maker of some mighty fine plants: http://www.carolynmohlerkraft.com/!

Carolyn has been making and selling her plants to discerning collectors since the early 1980s, and was first published in Nutshell News in 1987!! VERY cool!! She does NOT use paper punches- each leaf is made painstakingly by hand (something I don't see much of nowadays). Instead, she uses an "old-school" method, one that she prefers, because it makes for a much longer lasting and sturdier piece of art. Her late mother was also a miniaturists, and clearly, the apple has not fallen far from the very fruitful tree ;-). She would be very proud!

These are a few examples of her outstanding work:

A pig's head with a rose in its mouth

I got a purple rose as a free little gift when I bought something, so I stuck it in a pig's mouth. Speaking of roses, my tattoo guy wants to trade pieces of my work for pieces of his! He has been to my website and I think he is hooked on miniatures! The last time I saw him, a few days ago, I gifted him with something I made a few years ago. It was one of my root people scenes. I'm not sure yet what I'll make him for next time.

Mangoes

Here's a basket of mangoes. I don't eat too many of them, but I LOVE pickled mango!! This sounds familiar....did I already do a post on mangoes!? Anyway, my second grade teacher in grade school, an old Hawaiian lady, who was a completel psycho b*tch, made the best pickled mango that I ever put in my mouth. But she was absolutely frightening. When we were "bad", she put us in a closet, smacked us with a yardstick, and made the boys put on ballet tutus and sit on a stool in front of the whole class. And yet, she would sometimes bring us delicious pickled mango. Very strange woman.