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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What's the Buzz?!

What's the buzz?! ...This week the buzz is all about the videos I made as a parody of the 'Tasty' recipe videos.

Full post about it here on my blog, yesterday.

One of my videos has already had 500k views in less than 48 hours. It's the second most watched video at Buzzfeed video this week. Pretty decent for a video I put together quite quickly this weekend, following a call from Instagram who asked me to do something special to mark the occasion of them hitting 500 million Instagram users. :)

Buzzfeed thought it would be fun to show their fans a 'behind the scenes' glimpse of me working, so I went over to their studios on Sunset Blvd, two days ago, and we shot a 20 minute segment of me creating realistic miniature food including bagels and lox, limes, iced donuts, cake with birthday candles and shrimp fajitas.

It broadcast as a live-stream on Buzzfeed's DIY video channel here. You can find it there or see a clip from it at my Instagram here. 

Stills of this video piece!

And in case you're wondering what all this miniature food is about when you started following this blog because you were interested in my miniature witch sculpts and 'Good Witches Bad Witches'... don't worry! I am working on a new witch right now (you might have seen the sneak peek a few days ago here on Instagram) and she's almost finished. Stay tuned for many more witches coming soon.

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.

Guac, frying and Videotapes

Been working on something top secret and super exciting, so haven't been able to post about my work much for most of Feb... but will do soon. However, I can tell you what I've been up to otherwise!

I've heard it said that I "should be on the tourist board for LA" because I love living here, take advantage of every opportunity to do LA things and I have a loud voice about it. Let's stay on that topic for a minute. Since I last blogged we've had Shrove Tuesday (aka 'Pancake Day') which I gather isn't that well known or celebrated in the US, but back in Europe it is. We make pancakes and then give something up (like alcohol, sweets, cigarettes etc) for 40 days until Easter Day, and then we go back to gorging ourselves on our vices. In New Orleans they celebrate this day and use the French term 'Mardis Gras' which means 'Fat Tuesday'.

The Alcove, Los Feliz

I celebrated 'Mardis Gras' by making American style pancakes and going out in Los Feliz for the Mardis Gras celebrations. Also... and this is where it gets relevant....

* * ... I created a Tall Tales Productions YouTube channel! * * 

I fried up some real pancakes, used them as reference, and then made miniature pancakes for an editorial commission. Having discovered the 'timelapse setting' on my camera I decided to film the process and this is the video result! See it here or over at the channel.

In other fun LA lifestyle news, I was invited to a Guacamole party known as 'Guac Bowl' in which people bring the craziest and most imaginative guacamole offerings such as Oysters Guacafella, Wok-a-Guac, Devilled Gueggs, Guacamole cheesecake, Ice guax pies, Miso guacy sushi... you get the idea. I reiterate - "How much fun is living in LA?!" Not that quick off this mark I entered a fairly rudimentary little dollop of guacamole in a plain dish.

...However! I made the hosts a miniature guacamole gift and timelapsed that too! Watch it here or at the channel.

Photos from the Guac Bowl experience!

Aside from that, it's been fun and work, Angelyne sightings in my neighbourhood, work, meeting peacocks in a Wild West themed restaurant, work and work. Also, heads up - the next witch for 'Good Witches Bad Witches' is a Russian witch...

Will update more witch progress soon. Don't forget you may find more frequent work updates at my Instagram here.

Angelyne

So many books, so little time

Last week I found myself in downtown LA and wandered into a magical place called 'The Last Bookstore'. It was a bizarre book shop with books stacked to the ceiling and inside vaults you climb into, tunnels of books you walk through and an actual labyrinth of books that you weave your way through to get to the exit on the other side. It was a curious place. It even had pennies tile the floor (see photo below).

If you're in LA you have to give it a look (website), and not just because they also host an art gallery for local artists and upon chatting to one of the organisers I was asked to sell prints of my illustrations there (!)

This place was fun inspiration for the project I am in the middle of - my 'Alice in Wonderland' commission. On that note, scroll past the iPhone photos I took of 'The Last Bookstore' and see my work-in-progress snaps of this project. If you follow me on Instagram then you probably already saw my furniture. This is the rest I've created thus far. There's an un-birthday cake, a Charlotte cake with pocketwatch, another cake, English tea time sandwiches and fairy cakes etc, and books and teapots to fill the table.

Also, see some of the planning for this Alice in Wonderland miniature piece in my previous post here.

PS Title quote by Frank Zappa. "So many books, so little time".

Downtown LA baby! (I love it there).

My work-in-progress Alice in Wonderland project...

Holy Guacamole!

Remember when I said I'd post a witch a week? Want to know how long I managed to stick to that?! 4 weeks. (It's because things - mostly commissions -  come up!) So... no witch today, but here's a project that took me away from Good Witches Bad Witches for most of May... I had to create an array of miniature Mexican food. It's verrrrry detailed and verrry tiny. All is in 1:12 (one inch) scale and made by me, using mostly polymer clay, paint and pastels.

In other news... being a tremendous nerd, I went to the Renaissance Faire here in LA and had a blast. Weird Al Yankovic's 'White and Nerdy' could have been written about me.
My talented friend from Dreamworks (Nicolas Marlet) did a drawing of me in my mediaeval garb at the faire, so I just had to share it here.

I've spent the past week creating a new witch and tomorrow I will show it here on this blog, and the Facebook page and Instagram... don't forget to click back and let me know what you think!

Photos from the Renaissance Faire 2015, Los Angeles!