Baking with Snails

It's a gag in short film 'Myrtle the Witch' - she cooks with un-savoury ingredients. I'm focusing on the kitchen set at the moment, and sculpting the food out of polymer clay in tiny 1:12 scale to fill it. Take a look at the cakes topped with minuscule 'garden snails'.

 Caroline McFarlane-Watts miniature model-maker cicada princess nightmare before Christmas polymer clay miniatures

Flash back - 'Ín the Workshop' (2010)

Because some people have emailed to see more of a project I did for Christmas 2010, I'm posting pictures of this. It's called 'Ín the Workshop' and I had a lot of fun with it. The 'workshop' consisted of an 'L' shaped conveyor belt in front of a Christmas tree and surrounded with little worker elves and a plump foreman. The elves were preparing for Christmas by making cakes, candy, gingerbread houses, gifts etc. All in miniature (one inch scale) of course and designed, built etc by me.

Caroline McFarlane-Watts miniature sets miniaturist miniature model-maker stop-motion film Nightmare Before Christmas

Making Magic - to Scale

As some people know, I am working on a short film entitled 'Myrtle the Witch' and it requires miniature sets, miniature props and miniature characters. I'm funding it in (small) part with money from my online shop which I run as a hobby alongside a career here in LA. So whenever I make necessary props and bits and bobs for Myrtle, I make 10 or so extra and sell them online. Smart little arrangement, right? ;)


The script necessitates two shots of Myrtle's back weed garden and here are some props (miniature pumpkins and gourds)... all in one inch scale (this means 12 times smaller than real life). Handmade by me using polymer clay.





Caroline McFarlane-Watts, Tall Tales productions, concept artist, miniature sets, miniaturist, fantasy stop-motion film-making

Miniature Model - Magic Trade Shop

These are pictures of a recent-ish miniature model I was commissioned to make. It's an antique shop of magic for trade. All in half inch scale (for those of you that don't know what this means... 1 foot in the real world equals half an inch in the miniature model world). So it was fairly tricky and detailed (I'm used to working in one inch scale).

This particular piece ('Boggart's Bazaar') is being featured in an English trade magazine 'The Dolls' House Magazine', published by GMC in the Nov 2011 edition. They're running an interview with me, so look out for it. :)
I've been permitted by both the editor and the owner of the model to show a few small JPEGs until then.

Miniature model of a Fantastical Magic Trade Shop - 'Boggarts Bazaar' by commission. (March 2011)

And something a bit older... here's an image of Hogsmeade Village which I worked on in Greater London at Leavesden Studios. It was my second gig after graduating and I loved it.

Miniature set of Hogsmeade Village for 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' (Feb 2005)
Photograph courtesy of Warner Bros.

scale miniature sets for film, TV and music videos - designed and built by Caroline Mcfarlane-watts

Making Myrtle

'Myrtle the Witch' is the main character in a short film I recently wrote and plan to work on in the new year. Although I love making miniatures / sets for other people's projects, I'm keen to create my own content and finally my first short, so I created this blog partly to share my progress as I make it.

It will be shot on scale miniature sets with hand-sculpted characters and VFX. My assisting VFX artist (with 20+ years in the industry) is keen to make it in 3D... so we'll see...

So why Myrtle?
When I was 6 years old I wrote and illustrated a book called 'The Witch's Day' which got my photo in a local Oxfordshire newspaper. (Still trying to locate a photo of the news clipping as that would be fun to share here!) It was a fun little book which turned the classic idea of a witch on its head. 'Myrtle the Witch' is similar in that. I named this new witch character 'Myrtle' because I like that myrtle is a European plant with natural healing properties, previously used in Pagan and wiccan ritual, symbolically tied to Greek goddesses and also with a unique tradition in the royal family. (Something a bit British thrown in.)

Still creating the design for the main character... This is a first sketch I did when I wanted the film to focus on her as a much much younger witch. Don't expect her to look anything like this now... she'll be about 30, dumpy, nervous and a completely self-doubting witch uncomfortable in her own skin and with a myriad of unusual pets.

Redundant Myrtle sketch. Check back here soon for new design and to see the film come together...

Fantastical Beasts and a Journey into the Hidden World

Well I have to begin this blog somewhere. I'll start with some images probably familiar if you came here from my Tall Tales Productions website. 

These are characters I created for the book and episodic series 'The Hidden World'. It's about the magic hidden among us in the real world - just out of sight. These are watercolour character designs.         

I created natural habitats for 'The Hidden World' characters. 


                  



This is a collection of articles and instruments I designed as part of my 'Hidden World'. Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.