Hey, Don't Go...!

Wait, up... don't go! ;)

Current politics mean that many of you are choosing to delete your Facebook accounts. I've actually lost 40 fans / followers of my Tall Tales Facebook page since the Cambridge Analytica story broke and #deletefacebook started trending.

But wait... you'll miss things!

What politics? What's going on? 

First of all, Tall Tales takes no political stance and is nonpartisan, but the issue at hand is that a data firm allegedly sold peoples' personal Facebook data to a political organization (story here) and so many Facebook users are now deleting their accounts in protest.

Why does this affect me and also you?!

I love to be able to keep you informed and share my news with you all (anyone interested in Tall Tales happenings) and Facebook has been a great way for me to connect with you.

So, I ask that if you're planning to delete your Facebook account then please be sure to sign up for Tall Tales news via the Newsletter! You can do it in a few clicks here, and then you won't miss stories, promotions and news. Another way to stay connected if you're leaving Facebook is to follow this blog or follow on Instagram.

So, what's the latest Tall Tales news?!

Oh, I'm so glad you asked! I recently finished sculpting Hortense based on the original prototype you liked (here) and she was sent off on her journey towards becoming a resin figurine so that you can all own her, and at an affordable price.

If you're interested in purchasing Hortense - the French witch, as a hand-painted 1:12 scale collectible figurine, then do sign up for the newsletter to be notified when she becomes available for pre-sales. Absolutely no obligation to buy if you sign up for the newsletter. :)

Any questions, please feel free to email me.

Here are some photos of her being made and the original prototype below. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Caroline

Tall Tales, Tall Tales Productions, CS McFarlane-Watts, Caroline McFarlane-Watts, figurine, maquette, sculpt, sculpting, figurine, collectible, collctable, good witches bad witches, laika, miniature maquette, miniature puppet, stop-motion puppet, stop-motion witch, animation, witch character, stan winston, jordu schell, gnomon workshop, aardman, mackinnon saunders, tim burton

The Enchanted Potting Shed

You may have caught some behind the scenes of me making these toadstool characters and such a few days ago (here)... well here are some final photos from this project. I'd say more about it if I could, but you know how it is!

Watch me make mandrake seedlings in timelapse over at the Tall Tales Productions YouTube Channel here.

Don't forget to subscribe!


See a magical glimpse taken of the shoot using my iPhone here or below

Adopt a mandrake seedling / grumpy toadstool via the webshop here.

Enjoy the photos!

Whose Pastime is to Make Midnight Mushrooms

Who knew that the title of this post is a Shakespeare quote from 'The Tempest'?!

"...and you whose pastime is to make midnight mushrooms..."

As the year draws to it's close I go through my endless folders and see what was done, what was finished and what's outstanding. It's at this time I often notice that things have been done and not written about.

So here we go! Let's catch up, and allow me to share a toadstool project from September of this year. Grumpy toadstools and mandrake seedlings (I'll write about them later). If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter then you've probably caught videos and images of these things in the making, but if you follow me only here and on Facebook then this post is for you.

I made quite a number of tiny 'terracotta' flower pots (no bigger than thimbles) and proceeded to pot each one with a colourful toadstool and scenic grasses / moss / soil. Learned a lot about toadstools in the process. Did you realise that they grow naturally in such a variety of psychedelic colours? It's amazing. Yellow toadstools (Amanita muscaria var. guessowii) and blue toadstools (Clitocybe odora) and so forth. So inspiring. 

I went on to make crackled glazed pots and filled them with grumpy toadstools with fabulous little faces. Each one of these is a 'one of a kind', and they're available at my webshop here.

See a making of video here...

Behind the scenes photos and more... Enjoy!

It's all Greek to Me

Credit to all those that knew the phrase "It's all Greek to me" was written by Shakespeare!

I have another witch for you today, and this one is of course.... Greek. She is part of the project 'Good Witches Bad Witches' and was designed and hand sculpted as a miniature maquette by me. Please check out more characters at the Tall Tales Productions website here.



I have tried to make my witches relatively contemporary (stuck in the past at times regarding their dress sense, but still part of the modern world.... ish). However, this Greek witch doesn't look all that modern! Whoops. I did however give a lot of thought to Greek culture and the momentous things the Greeks have done for us. The Greeks 'invented' democracy. They were pioneers in so many fields including the sciences, geometry, philosophy, maths, astronomy, history... I love that it was Pytheas who described Great Britain as a 'wonky triangle' when he was the first to circumnavigate it. In medicine, doctors still refer to the Hippocratic oath, instituted by Hippocrates, however despite the Greeks being pioneers in the study of anatomy, their unusual ideas about the so-called 'four humours' of the body perhaps misled English doctors right through the middle ages!

Anyway, I tried to convey my inordinate respect and gratitude to the Greeks for their contributions to the world by making my Greek witch a wise seer-type serious witch and an astronomer, complete with an armillary sphere - also invented by the Greeks.

The Greek witch has owls for 'familiars' (pets), Greek 'meander' patterned dress, gladiator sandals and of all my witches she has the warmest skin tone yet! Stay tuned as witches of other races will be coming soon.

Now a little note to my Greek friends and fans. Please scroll past to see the images of the behind the scenes process.

Έλληνες φίλοι μου και θαυμαστές μου, αυτό είναι ένα σημείωμα ειδικά για σας!

Αν ακολουθείτε αυτό το blog, τότε πιθανότατα γνωρίζετε ήδη ότι σχεδιάζω μια ταινία με τίτλο «Καλές Μάγισσες Κακές Μάγισσες» (Good Witches Bad Witches) και ότι δημιουργώ πολλούς από τους χαρακτήρες των μαγισσών από όλο τον κόσμο. Είμαι μια καλλιτέχνιδα στο Tall Tales Productions (website) και η δημιουργία αυτών των χαρακτήρων είναι πολύ διασκεδαστική και έχω βάλει πολλή σκέψη σε κάθε σχέδιο. Είναι γλυπτά σε μικρογραφία χρησιμοποιώντας πηλό. Μέχρι στιγμής έχω ήδη κάνει την Αγγλίδα, τη Σκωτσέζα, την Ιρλανδή, την Ουαλή, τη Γαλλίδα, τη Γερμανίδα, την Ιταλίδα, τη Γερμανίδα, την Αμερικάνα, την Ολλανδή και τη Ρωσίδα μάγισσα! Ο καινούριος χαρακτήρας είναι μια Ελληνίδα μάγισσα.

Προσπάθησα να τιμήσω τουλάχιστον μία απίστευτη συνεισφορά που η Ελλάδα έχει κάνει στον κόσμο και ως εκ τούτου αυτή η μάγισσα είναι ένας αστρονόμος με ένα σφαιρικό αστρολάβο. Ελπίζω να την δείτε με χιούμορ και να θυμάστε ότι δε θα ήθελα να προσβάλω κανένα με τους χαρακτήρες μάγισσσες. Είναι μια σοφή και ιδιόρυθμη μάγγισα και η φούστα της έχει σχέδιο μαιάνδρου.

Αν σας αρέσει το project, μπορείτε να το ακολουθήσετε στη σελίδα του Facebook και σε Instagram και το Twitter! Ευχαριστώ!

Behind the Taste

Catch my miniature parodies of the awesome 'Tasty' videos yet?!

(Tastys are 60 second cooking tutorials created by Buzzfeed video.)

Today Instagram is celebrating hitting 500 million users and they contacted me and two other Instagram users (out of 500 million of us - yeah, I feel special!) to profile the three of us to mark the occasion. They got Buzzfeed to cover it and it all began at the weekend, which I spent creating something a little special just for them.

Buzzfeed writes about it here.

I created two miniature parodies of two of Buzzfeed's 'Tasty' videos.

* Tasty video 'Shrimp And Avocado Salad' - watch the REAL TASTY VIDEO here!

My miniature parody is here!

Or, watch my parody on buzzfeedtasty's Instagram here!

* Tasty video 'One- Pan Sriracha Chicken and Veggie' - watch the REAL TASTY VIDEO here!

My miniature parody is here!

Or, watch my parody on buzzfeedtasty's Instagram here!

The behind the scenes process...

I created all the components for both recipes, which included raw chicken thighs, slightly cooked chicken thighs, more cooked chicken thighs, shrimp (again, cooked in three stages), raw bell peppers, onions and potatoes, cooked  bell peppers, onions and potatoes, avocados in 5 different stages of prep, whole lettuce leaves, chopped lettuce leaves etc etc! It took me a whole day just to create the miniature ingredients, and I used polymer clay and mixed media for all of it.

Then I set up a camera on a tripod, set up some bright lights, picked out my best miniature mixing bowls and cookware, and started filming the recipe process whilst watching the real videos for reference!

I edited them together, changing the speed at times to match the real videos. Voila! Besides my Instagram, you can also find these videos on my YouTube channel here.

Why choose me?!

Apparently it was the timelapse pancakes video that caught the attention of Instagram! Watch it here.