It has been a while since I blogged. I haven't been really active in the doll room. I have worked on a commission in 1:4 scale for client whose dollhouse for Ellowyne and Evangeline is just fabulous, - it was a cake commission, you can see photos of it in my Flicker albums. I will do a little post on it when she sends me some photos. I have been working on some picnic items for the dolls.
As you can see the dolls are having quite a picnic!The hamburgers are glued to the bottom buns, but the top buns are removeable so you place them to the side. The fries are individually sculpted and hand colored , they are not molded into a lump of clay with some lines drawn into the lump of clay on the plate. You can put an individual fry on the doll's hand. All the fries are moveable. If you wanted to, you could put all the servings of fries onto one big plate, and the burgers on one big plate and the plates in one pile for a buffet look. Nothing is glued down.Pretty cool, huh? It took a long time to get these four done, I have alot more burgers done than servings of fries. I need to get more plates. I hope to get these listed on Ebay soon. I have been selling occasionally on Ebay still, for a little quick money, and to move some items out of my collection, since closing down my ebay store. I am still taking commissions on my miniature foods and find it does sell on ebay quicker than Etsy sometimes. I am at the point where I would rather put it on auction than have it sit in an Etsy store forever now, as that costs money.I would rather at this point in my creative zone, make it, sell it, and ship it and not have to store it. It gets hectic to keep track of it--- which brings me to my NEWS.
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One reason I haven't posted alot is I have been in the process of closing and finalizing the process of closing King William Miniatures. The website is closed down, and all of the business end of it is done. Since closing the store in 2011, I had been selling off the stock in my ebay store Pumpkin Hill studios and on my website King William Miniatures. Doing that as well as helping my husband in his boiler company LeoPaul and Associates even after closing the store was hectic. Going to the post office five days a week sometimes packing orders for two hours in the mornings is heavy, hard work. Then turning around and packing more orders in the afternoon for the next day is more heavy, hard work- as these were packages that weighed up to 15 lbs.
So now I have been going through items in our spare bedroom that were taking up space from the leftover stock- taking them to goodwill, throwing them away- or just giving them away to people who might be able to use them. It's a great experience to get rid of stuff. I am also cleaning out a ton of doll and miniature magazines to the point I thought I maybe I should start my own library! I have alot of good miniature friends who will gladly take them off my hands. Sometimes there comes a point when you have to ask yourself if it is 'collecting' or 'hoarding', LOL...I also have already shipped off two large boxes of miniature ribbon, trims, and fabrics to a doll artisan friend that creates reproduction french fashion dolls. These two large boxes of this stuff was doing me no good and taking up a large amount of space. I plan on going to the Goodwill this morning with 2 boxes of items,again!
Closing King William Miniatures & Collectibles is hard, but for me, it is time. After 11 years, I would rather close it after having been successful and achieved what I set out to do. I have other things I want to focus my attention on, and I have begun to have an attitude now of, 'Been there, done that' ....not to be arrogant but I have been very fortunate in the miniature world and loved every minute of it. I would rather work in it from a hobby and exclusive commission basis than as a total work my buns off every day type of deal. Switching from doll furniture and dollhouses to commercial boiler industry is a stretch but I've been doing it for a while now, lol. and it's energizing and amazing how you can take what you know from one industry to another. We are always constantly learning. I always say were it not for my incredible husband, Chris, there never would have been a King William Miniatures, and I still say it today.
So I will still be making my 1:6 scale miniature foods.. and posting them on Etsy and Ebay. I am going to still try Ebay food auctions with free shipping and see how that goes. If I get some fruitcakes who demand returns and leave negatives than I might leave off of Ebay but it seems to be working ok right now since I closed the store. Etsy does not get alot of traffic. I like it, but I post items there but rarely get sales even though I advertise the items. So I am going to try the foods on ebay auctions. Since I am going to be focusing on downsizing alot in my home, and storage now, it will be rare when I do sculpt. People would not believe how much out of date and old craft supplies I threw away last week- try two garbage bags full! Paint, clay, you name it. I couldn't believe it. One of my rules is no more hoarding of clay as it goes bad. Not until I need it. I'm going to be sculpting alot soon so I can use up what I have - I have a big project to do that will use up all of my current clays- a vegetable stand-in 1:6 scale!
Sorry to be a Chatty Cathy today...I hope to have more on the dolls soon.Re-vamping and being awol is going to probably be a given for me but I hope to make up for it with pics. ~Lisa
***************************************************************
One reason I haven't posted alot is I have been in the process of closing and finalizing the process of closing King William Miniatures. The website is closed down, and all of the business end of it is done. Since closing the store in 2011, I had been selling off the stock in my ebay store Pumpkin Hill studios and on my website King William Miniatures. Doing that as well as helping my husband in his boiler company LeoPaul and Associates even after closing the store was hectic. Going to the post office five days a week sometimes packing orders for two hours in the mornings is heavy, hard work. Then turning around and packing more orders in the afternoon for the next day is more heavy, hard work- as these were packages that weighed up to 15 lbs.
So now I have been going through items in our spare bedroom that were taking up space from the leftover stock- taking them to goodwill, throwing them away- or just giving them away to people who might be able to use them. It's a great experience to get rid of stuff. I am also cleaning out a ton of doll and miniature magazines to the point I thought I maybe I should start my own library! I have alot of good miniature friends who will gladly take them off my hands. Sometimes there comes a point when you have to ask yourself if it is 'collecting' or 'hoarding', LOL...I also have already shipped off two large boxes of miniature ribbon, trims, and fabrics to a doll artisan friend that creates reproduction french fashion dolls. These two large boxes of this stuff was doing me no good and taking up a large amount of space. I plan on going to the Goodwill this morning with 2 boxes of items,again!
Closing King William Miniatures & Collectibles is hard, but for me, it is time. After 11 years, I would rather close it after having been successful and achieved what I set out to do. I have other things I want to focus my attention on, and I have begun to have an attitude now of, 'Been there, done that' ....not to be arrogant but I have been very fortunate in the miniature world and loved every minute of it. I would rather work in it from a hobby and exclusive commission basis than as a total work my buns off every day type of deal. Switching from doll furniture and dollhouses to commercial boiler industry is a stretch but I've been doing it for a while now, lol. and it's energizing and amazing how you can take what you know from one industry to another. We are always constantly learning. I always say were it not for my incredible husband, Chris, there never would have been a King William Miniatures, and I still say it today.
So I will still be making my 1:6 scale miniature foods.. and posting them on Etsy and Ebay. I am going to still try Ebay food auctions with free shipping and see how that goes. If I get some fruitcakes who demand returns and leave negatives than I might leave off of Ebay but it seems to be working ok right now since I closed the store. Etsy does not get alot of traffic. I like it, but I post items there but rarely get sales even though I advertise the items. So I am going to try the foods on ebay auctions. Since I am going to be focusing on downsizing alot in my home, and storage now, it will be rare when I do sculpt. People would not believe how much out of date and old craft supplies I threw away last week- try two garbage bags full! Paint, clay, you name it. I couldn't believe it. One of my rules is no more hoarding of clay as it goes bad. Not until I need it. I'm going to be sculpting alot soon so I can use up what I have - I have a big project to do that will use up all of my current clays- a vegetable stand-in 1:6 scale!
Sorry to be a Chatty Cathy today...I hope to have more on the dolls soon.Re-vamping and being awol is going to probably be a given for me but I hope to make up for it with pics. ~Lisa
3 comments:
Wow, Lisa, you have been busy! Congrats on a successful change in direction. You need to do whatever makes you happy. I need to get down and purge a lot of stuff too. Not only does it de-clutter your space, but I think it is very good for de-cluttering your mind! Lisa, you sound very happy and I can't wait to see what you do next with your dolls.
Pretty cool, indeed! Everything looks yummy. Did you make the picnic table too?
Thank you Muff- No I didn't make the picnic table.A guy on one of the action figure boards years ago did- his handle was Warhammer Studios. He does great work, I think he still makes stuff like this. They were really to scale too. I can't do without this prop in the summer. I've never stained it it looks so good as is.
Phyllis, it's a great direction. I have downsized sooooooooo much and it doesn't even look like I've made much of a dent in my disaster of a house, but I have. I think I have hauled away to the dump about ten trash bags of useless stuff- paper, junk mail, cardboard, trash, old stuff, etc. Then I know about two full trash bags full of clothing, another two or three boxes of stuff, a box of books, and now I have another box I filled up today. Still not done yet in the one room I am sorting thru. Still have more stuff to give to my friend who is into 1:12 scale minis, will have to make another box for him. One reason I am working so hard is if I do this, this leads to a bigger doll room. Our current bedroom will be moved to another bedroom and and it will become the doll room- the smallest bedroom is my current dollroom and it is so small. Too small. When the barn studio is finished within a year or so I hope to have the bigger dioramas set up out there and the fragile ones in the doll room. That's the plan, lol, anyhow.
Hopefully I can make some more of these burger sets, I sold all four of these on Facebook this weekend and didn't have to list them on ebay.
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