Another Cover, another Exhibition!

In case you missed it, I just got back a couple of days ago from China, where my second exhibition of this month is currently being held!

I put some photos of the finished pieces they commissioned here, and I'll share lots of photos of the event, of awesome Shanghai, and of the making of the miniature scenes soon. 

(The other exhibition of my work, in Burbank, California was also blogged about here).

Below is a photo of the venue that the exhibition is being held at, the IFC in Shanghai (IFC, 上海) and my meal that evening after the press conference!

Also, fun fact of the day, my name in Chinese is 卡罗琳麦克法兰瓦. 

In other news, I was so pleased to receive my copy of a miniature magazine which featured me on the front cover this December. Here are some photos of that article.

From Ghoulies and Ghosties

I love that old passage from a Scottish / Cornish prayer.
"From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!"

It's Halloween this month, I have three events scheduled for it, and yesterday I braved the 106 degree weather and went to the amazing garment district in downtown LA to buy leather, tartan and gold embroidery thread for the costume I'm making... I'll blog about it later in the month once I've made it.

Aside from that I am preparing some pieces for an exhibition of my work (coming up) and also pieces for Halloween this year. Over the weekend I received my copy of another magazine I make an appearance in. It's five pages plus the front cover. See a previous blog post about this project here. The About section of my blog shows a snapshot of all my print features / books to date.

So... here's a glimpse at my workspace, below. The pieces are not yet finished.... just a few ghoulish green pumpkins and squash that will form part of one exhibition piece.

And here's a snap of the bits and bobs I bought downtown. Correctly guess who I'm going to be for Halloween this year and I'll reward you with a gift coupon for my shop...!

As the Crow Flies

That last magazine feature is wrapped up and submitted, so now I have only to finish two others and start on some new commissions which came up whilst I was back in Blighty for my sister's stunning wedding. (I just got back on Monday). When that's died down I'll show some Myrtle artwork...

For those that saw my last post here about the scarecrow / crow king project, here's just a couple of photos from the final scene. I've included a scan of my initial sketch as well.
Everything in the scene was created by me in 1:12 scale. The scarecrow has a pumpkin head which is polymer clay, whilst his body is raffia, horsehair and craft straw over a wire armature. I dyed and stitched his clothing to him and used hairspray to set it. The crows are clay, wire and real feather. The field and hay ricks were made using raffia and twisted tree stumps from wire, paper clay and other mixed media.

On a less related note, some people have asked me the meaning of the title of the last post. A 'murder of crows' is simply the collective noun for a group of crows. Other examples are; a parliament of owls, a gaggle of geese, a flamboyance of flamingos, a colony of penguins and a clamour of rooks. Interesting isn't it? Stop and think before you next utter the words 'bunch of birds'...!

Don't forget to find updates by liking the Tall Tales Productions Facebook page.

As usual I'll update my 'publicity' section with the magazine feature when it's out.

A Murder of Crows

Recently I've been working on a commissioned feature for a magazine - a miniature scene in which the central focus is a scarecrow. A relatively quick job I thought, as I unpacked a tidy selection of materials including armature wire, raffia and air dry clay... of course it's 10 days later and I'm now wading through a mass of black feathers, gauze and superglue.

I managed to take a break from this project to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform live at the brilliant Ace Theater (an evening of Black Crow King didn't hurt in terms of inspiration), and ironically enough I just discovered a great bar in my area (Los Feliz / Silverlake) called 'The Thirsty Crow'...!

Here are some pictures of this project in progress. The un-finished scarecrow photos were just taken quickly today whilst glue was drying. You can see the final scene soon as I will blog about it here and upload images to my Tall Tales Facebook page here.

A Stint in Print

Taking a break from designing a newly commissioned miniature set piece (dark fairy-tale themed kitchen) to update some more magazine features of my work from the very end of last year. You can find almost all published features to date on my blog's About page as well.

So below are features from two American publications and one UK publication from November and December of last year. Two featured front cover spots.
As usual, everything featured was designed, made and photographed by myself.

- Dragon eggs for breakfast (article titled 'Trendy Witch's Kitchen'), Nov 2013 - GMC Publications.
- Commissioned Christmas scenes including food and furniture, featured Dec 2013 - Warners Group Publishing.
- Christmas foods and elves at the workstation, Dec 2013 - Ashdown Publishing. 

Pumpkins, Squash and a Magazine Cover

Without realizing it I've somehow become associated with pumpkins in miniature. I suppose I have made them a lot for various projects over the past 4 years, but still it was funny when a magazine editor approached me and asked for high rez pumpkin photos for their November magazine cover.

Thought I'd include some fun pumpkin and squash photos from various projects I've worked on in this blog post. You can see some in the making - starting off as clay forms, then with pigment added, then eyes added, then they're hardened in my clay oven, then paint touches added.

Scroll past these photos to see the magazine cover. It's one I haven't been featured in before - specifically a dollhouse magazine called 'Dollshouse World' and published in the UK by an American publisher.

Magazine cover.
See full 8 page feature here on my About Page.

From Russia with Love

Been away awhile.... and so to catch up...

Just returned to LA from a 3 week vacation to find my copy of another Russian magazine I am featured in.

The last Russian feature I did was for a magazine called 'The Art of Miniatures' (Nov 2013 issue) and, disappointing to me, was published in English. This last magazine, called 'довольно куклы' was published in Russian (Dec 2013 issue). As someone who is 1/8 Russian I was fairly chuffed to see it. Take a look at the excerpt below!

I also had a few other magazine features (including 2 front covers) lately as well, which I always appreciate. See some snippets below or you can see them all to date on this 'About' section of my blog as well.

Coming up...
I will share photos of the finished miniature model of the thatched cottage (which I actually completed a couple of months ago but haven't had time to write about). Will also post a video demo of myself using Celluclay to achieve the thatch.

And in my personal life...
Holidayed in the Canary Isles with family and returned a few days ago. Only a 4 hour plane trip from London and the weather was very similar to LA, albeit with a touch of humidity. Interesting volcanic landscapes, camel rides and wonderful people. Loved it but still I'm happy to be back here in LA and able to get on with things. 3 weeks away from clay / paints / computers and I start to get really fidgety. ;)