Bite-Size Culture

Here in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world I love that people recognize me as 'the witch girl'.... Somehow the niche I carved for myself in miniatures diverged and it's the witch characters I sculpt in 1:12 scale ('Good Witches Bad Witches™') that people mostly recognize me for.

I'm passionate about the subject of witches, so I'm fine with swapping out the title of 'miniature girl' for 'witch girl'.... I think(!)

However, my past in miniatures and specifically miniature food resurfaces here and there in the form of a commission or an article published somewhere in the world.

Last year it was the Peninsular Press in San Francisco that wrote about my miniature food (article here and below) and today it was the Ukraine! That's the ninth language I've been published in, so I am fairly pleased about that.

It's a magazine called Aeroplan, and you can read it here (pages 38-39) and below.

Anyway, Just thought I'd throw together some old miniature food photos for you since we're talking about mini food and as Aeroplan magazine put it, a 'bite-size craze'. Personally I loved how the Peninsular Press put it... a 'snack-bite culture'.

Enjoy the photos.... don't forget to follow on the Tall Tales Facebook to see more, and watch me work in live time and post (almost) daily updates on Tall Tales Instagram here.

I'll update you very soon with when pre-sales begin on Hortense Pompeux.... it's happening very soon!

Some past miniature food made by myself... Find out more about my miniature food and see tiny food cooking videos at the website here.

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Life, in a Teacup

In a nutshell / teacup... in other words, condensing my past month into a quick update!

My website has had a face-lift and is hopefully a little easier to navigate around. And if you wait another couple of days there will be an online shop attached! Many of you probably know that I've sold miniatures and art prints on 3 Etsy shops for the past 5 years, and that wont change, but you can now buy directly from me as well. This means prices will often be lower, so worth a look if you're someone who shops for individual miniature pieces / figurines and prints.

Tall Tales Productions website here!

Behind the Scenes...

You've been asking for more photos and videos of what goes on behind the scenes, so I'm endeavouring to oblige. If you follow me / Tall Tales on Instagram then you probably caught this!

I've also made another quick little video up on the new YouTube Channel here which shows me making the Trick or Treat scene. More video tutorials / time-lapses will show up soon.

Also...

Another watercolour painting or two (which I've yet to scan and share)...

Another article which you can see more of on the Press Page of my site!

In other news, I am really honoured to be included on the Creative Talent Network's site here. It's run by Tina Price and if you're at all familiar with CTN you might even know that they're having an event this weekend. Details here. If you're in LA then come along and say hi to me there.:)

Aside from work, I'd love to share with you a new place I discovered in LA. The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Went there on Easter Sunday and it was out of this world. Put it on your 'to do' list, but mind you pick the right time of year to see it. Bye for now and have a fantastic weekend!

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.