Fancy Miniature Orreries

My poor blog has been neglected this holiday season. Working on some large commissions.. I will share photos when I finish. But for now here are a few new Orreies I have been working on..

 A few new telescopes and orreries available on my web page:
http://evminiatures.tripod.com/telescopes5.htm

 Some interesting orreries with lenses. The lenses magnify the gears when you look down into them.

3 lens telescope with crystal and amethyst decoration..

Crystal ball zodiac orrery

Denver Miniature & Doll Fall Show Part 1

Back from the Denver Miniature show.. Had a great time! So fun to hang with the other mini collectors and artists.. I took show coverage photos for Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine this year. I always get a guilty pleasure from being able to hold and examine miniatures from some of the most fantastic artists.. I also freak out a little as I have some very precious items in my possession for short periods of time. hehe.. Below are two artists I met and photographed. I will have a part 2 and maybe 3 posts in the next few days

First is Sylvia Mobley. I was so lucky I got to hang with here a little during and after the show.. 

She works in Porcelain and ceramic. Of course she has her wonderful dolls, But she also makes the most detailed wildlife figures. Please check out her blog. She posts a lot of tips and techniques that miniaturists love.. http://www.sylviamobley.blogspot.com/..

make sure you click on the photos to see a larger picture..

 

  

I got to take these two little guys home with me. I think they will end up in my fairy garden?

 

 next is Ed Chol of J. J.'s Miniatures.. I had to share a few photos of his work here. It is really mind boggling. Tiny hand-painted oil paintings of hand stretched canvas. Hard to see the detail in the photos I took. They almost look like really good photo copies with a passing glance..

 Ed and his super nice wife Phyllis who stretches all the canvases..

 

 More to come...

Miniature Religious Relics

One reason NOT to act saintly?? They will cut you up into little pieces and divvy you up to hundreds of people.. heeheh

A few new reliquaries.. I love making these.. maybe because of all the jewels...
You can see more photos of them here:
http://evminiatures.tripod.com/reliquary2.htm



Saint skulls.. okay one monkey skull too:-)


Fantasy Relic of a Vampire skull..



Creepy saint hand..









Below are some real relics..



I plan on making some arm relics like these above in the future..




This last one above could give me nightmares..

Some interesting links from where I got the photos of the real relics above:
http://www.medicographia.com/2011/05/a-touch-of-france-the-eternal-life-of-bones-tidbits-of-french-history-through-the-trials-and-tribulations-of-relics-of-the-illustrious/

http://ivarfjeld.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/vatican-tells-mexico-to-stop-worshiping-saint-dead/

http://ivarfjeld.wordpress.com/category/vatican-skulls-and-bones/

First miniature table.. 10 years ago

Cleaning up some paperwork this week and found some printouts of my first table I sold on eBay. I printed it out because I was so excited about how much it went for:-) This was one the reasons I sold my gift shop and decided to sell online full-time.. I was shocked to realize it was almost 10 years ago (in a few months) that I sold this table.. I had been making miniature food for a few years before that.. My mom suggested that I post that somewhere in my logo.. So I did. est. 1999.. Over 10 years of mini magic..:-)

My open book looks a little amature.. but You can see I made a unicorn horn, a bottle of eyeballs and a scroll. I also was already experimenting with gold embossing. I love the look of the table but I have since stopped decorating the top of tables because you really can't see the detail after I glue all the stuff on the top. I usually load up my tables so you can't even see the top now. But maybe I should make a table with gold embossing on the top again?

Below is the second table I sold.

I made a raven claw, mushrooms, and even a staff for this table..
I remember I sold a whole witches cottage on ebay around this time. I can't find even one photo of that cottage I made. Such a shame.. Hopefully the photos are saved in some dark corner of my computer or a lost CD somewhere..

Special Commission Table and 200th follower...

Hay everyone.. almost a month since my last post.. and Wow I noticed I have 200 people following my blog now. Weird people care about my work enough to to hit the follow button.. Hehe.. Thanks so much to everyone and Hello to all the new followers out there..

Been trying to catch up with some of my commissions. Thought I would share one with you.

This is a larger scale miniature table.. Not really sure what scale it would be. A collector from the Netherlands asked if I could make a wizard table that would fit into his display cabinet. The table is a little over 8" long and 5" tall without all the stuff on top..

Hogwarts in miniature

Just for fun I thought I would post some videos of Sally Wallaces Miniature Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In honor of the last movie due out.
Below are 3 videos where she narrates and shares details of her castle. It was a collaboration between Sally and Rik Pierce. Many .... many artists pieces are inside. I am proud to say that some of my pieces are in there too. Specially Books, paper stacks, scrolls and Orreries.. But also a lot of the food I recognized as mine. This was back in the time when I used to make lots of food items.
Sally was one of the reasons I was able to start working on my miniatures full time. She really helped me expand my miniature making too. She would just say "do you think you can make some chocolate frogs?" Then I found 0ut yes I could make them. heheh.. I believe she is the first person to ask for a open book from me... many years ago.. enjoy..

Miniature Hogwarts video 1



Miniature Hogwarts video 2


Miniature Hogwarts video 3


You can see more still photos here:
http://www.salssite.com/hogwarts1.htm

A few new Mini Books

A little batch of books for you to look over.. I am working hard on my books shop and trying to make some books to sell too.. I have to make a living I can't just play all the time:-) I always feel so guilty when working on my personal projects. But the truth is when I take some time and make items for myself I come up with new creations and techniques.

erickav.com

Above a group photo.. You can see more detail photos of each book on my web page
erickav.com

Dragon Theme books

The photos below and above show some of my "legible" books that I have available. These are usually special order but I have a few for sale on this page ready for purchase:
erickav.com

Book with secrete compartment and potion

Above and below are wizards zodiac gear books.

Fairy wand book

Double strap book. Does open

Blue bat book with real opal moon

Above are some new style books that I am making for my book shop. I think they look more realistic and will look nice on the shelves.

Blood shot eye spell book.. :-) it has been working to hard.. hhehe..