Corsets Cakes and Presents

Things are getting exciting for my Marie Antoinette room box. It is nearing completion.. That is saying a lot for me. I don't have too many finished projects of my own. I always feel guilty when working on personal mini projects.

This weekend I received news that my Marie doll is done and I should be getting her this week. Yippeeee!! I also got a wonderful gift in the mail. Dominique of http://minicurioscabinet.blogspot.com/ sent me two tiny and perfect pairs of shoes for Marie. Maybe i made a fool of myself gushing over them on here blog. heheh!! They are so very pretty.. I noticed she is selling shoes on etsy too: http://www.etsy.com/shop/humptydumptyhouse?ref=pr_shop_more



This is a dressed chase that I had decorated some time ago. It was a pretty cheep chair that I had redressed. I think she did a wonderful job. I have temporarily laid Marie's corsets, fans, and a masquerade mask on top. I am praying Marie will fit on the chair. If not I will have to find another chair and then I probably won't have room for this pretty chair in the room.


you can see the transformation here: http://bedsbykelly.com/customwork.html. Kelly does wonderful work.


These are the shape of the champagne glasses they use in the movie. One myth that floats around is that these glasses were shaped the same as Marie Marionette's breasts. You can read the links below to find out why that is NOT true.
http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/champagne.asp

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422720/goofs



I took a photo of my little BJD Griet with some of Marie's food. You can see a few of Todd Kruegers little Saplings too.
Many artists work in this photo.. Kathy Oberenski, Lary Tonetti, Jakie Dunn, English Kitchen.

Sweet stand by Ann Caesae of "The kitchen Captive" by Ann Caesae of "The kitchen Captive"

I had planned on making a sweet spread like this one. But with all the other cakes I have I don't think there will be room.. Well see how it goes when I actually start putting to room together.

I might try to make some gold leafed macaroons for her if I can find some space in the food spread.

I promise to get back to blogging about some of my creations this week. I have a lot of new things to show..

Miniature Pouf's and Hats

Beautiful wigs made by Todd Krueger (who is also working on my Marie Antoinette doll:-)

The big wigs were called a poufs’. They were a way for women to express them self without talking.

Some were called sentimental poufs’ and might have included flowers, or if you are Marie Antoinette it may include something like a ship which was here way of expressing her opinions on politics. But her wigs were looked on as very frivolous (they were frivolous). I don’t think she realized her image was becoming out of control until it was too late. Later in life she completely stopped all the fancy dressing and started wearing plain cotton dresses and straw hats.

Pretty hat that I bought at the Good Sam show. I think it is more like her style when she was older but I just fell in love with all the detail.




In the photo above you can see Marie Antoinette in her plain cotton dress and straw hat she wore later in life. But when she was painted in portraits like this people thought she was running around in here under garments. Sometimes you just can’t win..


Wish they showed more of her with this wig in the movie..


A very crazy Pouf'.. I have read that some could be 3 feet high and then you add feathers to that:-)


I just love this photo from the movie. I love the white white hair and then the pale pale blues and pinks of the flowers.


I would love to have a couple of hats like these. Very small and dainty. I know there are a few wonderful hat artists out there. If any one of you wold like to try please let me know..

I think this is such a beautiful bust of Marie Antoinette. If you look closely you can see how finely detailed they carved the lace. I also just love her hair. I like to think this is really what Marie Antoinette looked like. She commissioned many of these busts to be made. Marie was known to have a Hapsburg lip or Hapsburg jaw. Not as bad as some in her family (you can read more here and here). It comes from a lot of interbreeding in her royal Austrian family. I don’t really notice it in her portraits, but I think you can really see it in this bust..

Marie Antoinette’s Pearls and Pugs....

Pretties form Marie Antoinette’s Room box part 2. This time I have some of her favorites. Jewelry and her much loved pugs.

Marie Antoinette was known to love pearls and diamonds. So I have tried to find her some jewelry that would fit that era. I really struggle with making sure the items in her room box fit the time period. I have loosened up my rules a little because after all I am looking into putting a pair of converse shoes in the room. Hehee!!

Below are a few of the jewelry items I have collected.

Pearl necklaces by Lori Ann Potts – of Vancouver, Canada.

Also.. I have included some photos I have collected off the internet. They give me inspiration for more items I would like to include.

Kirsten Dunst decked out with jewelry and dressed for her role in the Movie Marie Antoinette..

Jewelry in the movie Marie Antoinette

The infamous necklace from the “Affair of the Diamond Necklace” Scandal. Many historians believe it led to the French revolution. Probably can’t work it into the room box. She never wanted the necklace. I don’t think it was ever really in her possession. It cost as much as a whole man of war ship of the time.

You can read about the sorted scandal here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Diamond_Necklace

Marie Antoinette’s Diamond Earrings




Diamond encrusted feather broach given to her by her husband. He did not really like all the high feathers she wore in her wigs. I guess he thought this would be classier.

The pearls used to make this necklace were originally Marie Antoinette’s

Three little pugs hand sculpted by Karl Blindheim

Marie was known to have a little pug named Mops, and she was forced to separate with him after they traveled from Austria to France. This was because she was supposed to give up all ties with her native land, some stories do say she was later reunited with Mops. I have also read that she had at least 3 pugs at one time. I am so lucky to have received these perfect little guys as a gift form a wonderful friend.

This is my 15^th blog post and I would just like to say a quick thank you to everyone for not making fun of my grammar:-)
erickav.com

I have a small shoe fetish....

Just a small shoe fetish. Part of the reason I decided to make a Marie Antoinette room box was being able to collect lots fancy little shoes. Most of these shoes are made by "the doll cobbler" there are a couple I am unsure of. I love them all.. and am sure she will be getting more.

This last photo is taken from a scene in the move "Marie Antoinette" directed by Sofia Coppola. I want to find a miniature pair of lavender converse for my room box if possible. This would be my little homage to Sofia Coppola because here movie is what led me to read the book the movie was based on and then to make the room box. Does anyone know where I can find a "real size" pare of shoes like this? My green converse are getting warn out..Heheh!! I know there is a web page where you can create you own converse from scratch but I don't think they offer this spacific lavender color. heeh!

Over the next few weeks I am going to show some of the minis I have collected for my Marie Antoinette Room.

New Batch of Wizard Wands

Finally got around to photographing my wands and a few wizard staffs.


Most of these are hand carved. I used a dremmel.. I think that is still hand carved:-) A lot of them have real stones. Like Amethyst, garnet and real opal stones.
Here is a photo of my wizard modeling one of the staffs. The wizard was created by Todd Krueger and he will be the owner of my "White Raven Tower" someday..
If any one is interested my wands can be purchased here:
http://evminiatures.tripod.com/wands.htm

A few new Magic items and Dark Shadows Commission

Wizards magic mood lens. Changes color with the temperature.

Miniature herb or incense burner

A few more cream candelabras. Some of these are available on etsy

A recently finished commission for blue candelabras. They will be used in a "Dark Shadows" Miniature scene. I really liked how the blue looks with the black scroll worked