We Lit up the World

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

We've had the big countdown... can you believe it's 2013?! London's typically sensational fireworks were launched from the London Eye as I counted down from Brown's Oxford with obligatory champagne in hand.
If you haven't seen the London Fireworks display then take a look here....

What a year for Britain! The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, hosting the Olympic Games and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges' announcement they're expecting their first child. I felt the choice to include Seb Coe's Olympic quote as a soundtrack to the fireworks display was a good one.

"We lit a flame and we lit up the world."

Well we certainly did in London, NYE. ;)

Images courtesy of Daily Mail

Here are some flashbacks of 2012 from my world and Tall Tales Productions.
Throughout last year I took on bigger and more adventurous commissions, had my work featured in 11 magazines, 2 books and on 4 front covers whilst continuing to sell my work in over 40 countries worldwide. I moved to Wellington New Zealand and lived there for 6 months, worked with the fabulous Weta crew on Richard Taylor's Project Born and flew back to Great Britain in time to ring out the new year. I'll be moving back to LA next year!

Stills from short film 'Myrtle the Witch' plus Halloween pumpkin.

Fairytale sets, Cinderella pumpkins, Halloween collectibles

Fairytale sets, props for Myrtle

Life in Wellington, New Zealand June-Nov 2012

UK Christmas commission, featured on front cover of magazine Nov 2012

Patisserie commission featured on front cover of US magazine Sept 2012

Grinch candy village sets, Sept-Dec 2012

What? - Front Cover Feature again?!

Yes - I'm a cover girl again!

First, a little Tall Tales update...
I set sail, or took to the air rather, from Wellington, New Zealand on the 20th November and just a hop, skip and 30 hours of flying later I arrived in London Heathrow. I'll be based and working out of the UK for the next few weeks until I fly back to LA in early Jan. Short film 'Myrtle the Witch' will just have to wait until I'm back in the US...
I said goodbye to 'Windy Wellington' - a cheery little city with quaint restaurants serving lamb, lamb, and lamb as well as most things with a side of beetroot and aioli  Always beetroot and aioli. I loved my 5 month stay, loved the people, loved Weta Workshop and look forward to returning.

A bit of a shame to miss The Hobbit premier on the 28th, but still, it's nice to be back in Tolkien's neck of the woods - Oxford (where he penned The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.) Besides, I'm enjoying the numerous industry screenings I'm invited to in London! ;)

The photos below show a commission I undertook whilst in Wellington for a client in the UK. It comprises of several Christmas scenes in exact 1:12 scale (one inch - meaning 12 times smaller than real life) and it took me about a month to complete. Everything was built by me, from the hardwood floors I laid by hand, to every tiny piece of food and piece of holly decor.

English publishers Warners Group Publishing took an interest in my work and featured me in their 'Dolls House & Miniature Scene' magazine as well as giving me the front cover for this month's issue.

Here are some photos I took of my work on this project and the feature itself.

Walkies... and going Walkabout

I've been taking Myrtle's pet snail Noggy for walkies over the past few days. Walkies through temporary sets, green-screens and Maya. For the time being he's tied to the kitchen chair so he doesn't wander off.

As for my walkabout (assuming this term applies to New Zealand as well as Australia) - I'll be packing up my workshop and heading out of Wellington into the Kiwi countryside for a little trip to see some real New Zealand beauty. Just less than a week to go and I will be flying outta here and braving the 30 hour flight back to Good old Blighty. Five weeks after that I'm flitting off back to Los Angeles (yay!)

So commissions are rapidly being finished off, orders rushed out to the post office and editorial deadlines quickly wrapped up. Incidentally, I am a cover girl again this month - I'll fill you in with my latest magazine feature and post photos here of my miniatures and miniature sets which were used for the front cover and featured inside. ;)

Here are some snaps of Noggy the snail from my short film 'Myrtle the Witch'. If you're interested in knowing more about this project and following it as I get going on it full-time, then don't forget to follow this blog and bookmark my Tall Tales Productions website!

Potted!

...Because you can't have a roundhouse witch's abode in the thick of a copse without potted toadstools on the kitchen windowsill.
It would be like a hipster apartment minus ironically bad art, a 'Keep Calm and Carry On' sign and vintage movie posters.




As well as pots of toadstools to complete a section of the kitchen, I've also finished off those bats (previously blogged about here). I needed about 30 to line Myrtle's bat tower but stupidly parted with a few too many to private miniature collectors, and now need to make more.
Don't forget that all that you see is in one inch scale which means it is 12 times smaller than real life.

Stay tuned for more 'Myrtle the Witch' updates. ;)

miniature bats, Tall Tales Productions animated short film, stop-motion animation, Los Angeles based miniatures, scale miniature sets, claymation 

Halloween Weta Style!

All Hallow's Eve..... the warmth from the ending summer still hangs in the air... there's an Autumn chill blowing in... red and orange leaves crunch underfoot.... people's fences are lined with carved Jack o' Lanterns and their flickering candles light up the spooky evening.... children run amok dressed as fairies, witches and superheros collecting candy door to door. Halloween....

.... unless you live in New Zealand. 

My first Halloween spent in Wellington, NZ was a culture shock similar to the one I experience now as Christmas trees are erected decorated with summer fruits, and cooking magazines provide Christmas BBQ recipes on the beach and cakes decorated with summer raspberries.

There were no Jack o' Lanterns, no children trick-or-treating, no crisp orange leaves on the ground, no bare skeletal trees. But just as Danny Elfman's lyrics sprang to mind:-

"the monsters are all missing,
and the nightmares can't be found"

- I arrived at the Weta Halloween party and 500 zombies honed into view. Okay, phew - Kiwis do Halloween afterall. It's just.... different!

Here are some pictures from the night. I'm the pirate wench. ;)

I leave New Zealand and am bound for Great Blighty later this month (Nov 20th)... can't wait to catch up with friends in London and then I'm orf again - back to LA in Jan / Feb where I'll be able to set up Myrtle in a proper studio space and work so much faster!

Note: You can contact me on my NZ mobile until Nov 20th and then best just to email me until I'm back in the states.

A Handful of Horror

Indeed - a "handful of horror" for more reasons than one. A very small horror in the palm of my hand pictured here. Read on for more... ;)

I remember when I considered October a busy month simply because I had to find time outside of work to make a Halloween costume, plan a Halloween party (which I was known for throwing every spooky season back in London) and pick out a birthday gift for my mum - whose birthday is the day before.

Not the case anymore! Since I established my small business - Pixie Dust Miniatures - October has become my crazy-busiest month because sales, commissions and demand is greater than any other time of year. It's brilliant being so busy.
So.... probably not really the very best time to fall ill with flu and bronchitis and spend 2.5 weeks either in bed or in the doctor's office a few days into October...

But my name's not Caroline Tenacious McFarlane-Watts for nothing, and so I am now happily back on track! Thought I'd share some Halloween miniatures I made for collectors this season, plus some to be used as Myrtle background props (short film - 'Myrtle the Witch'). I've fallen behind with Myrtle due to being unwell, but I'll soon catch up and share updates.

Finally, I leave you with a commission I completed this week - one inch scale opossums. They measure just less than 2 inches from nose to tail and have soft downy fur. They fly to Texas this afternoon. Bon voyage possums.

Standing on the backs of Giants

As the 12th century philosopher Bernard of Chartres put it, "nos esse quasi nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvenimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea."

...translated from Latin...
"We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size. "

It's often misquoted as 'standing on the back of genius'. Today would have been Jim Henson's birthday. He was one of my major influences - the genius I stand on the back of, the great inspiration in my life.
He was the reason I looked for fairies in the copse behind my house and water nymphs in the river Thames... the reason I built a cardboard cinema when I was 9 to show the films I'd written, the reason I chose a film degree at university... and finally an inspiration behind my own fairytale book and TV series ('The Hidden World' - in progress).

Influenced and inspired by such works as 'The Storyteller', 'The Labyrinth', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Dinosaurs'... my aim has always been to do great things within entertainment. To create worlds and stories which are fantastical, enchanting and unique. Take a look at the pictures below; the Jim Henson influence is definitely there in my work!

Happy Birthday Jim.

By the way, the above image of goblins from The Labyrinth was a drawing of mine using watercolour pencils when I was 19. It did it for fun in my dorm room at uni when I should have been focusing on an essay. ;)
Below are images from my own project 'The Hidden World' and images from Jim Henson's work with Jim himself grouped in with The Dark Crystal pictures...

See more images of my concept artwork here and more sculptures here.

My Sketchbook - Designing Miniature Sets

As many of my readers are aware, I am living in New Zealand at the moment, working full-time as a miniaturist with my own business - Pixie Dust Miniatures - which supplies miniature scale set pieces for films and music videos and scale miniatures for collectors all over the world. When I'm not dealing with admin for my company or indeed working through commissions, I work on my first short film - 'Myrtle the Witch' (more posts about this here). The sets are built in one inch scale (12 times smaller than real life), as are the handsculpted clay characters, and the rest is being done with a little visual effects magic.

I dug out some of my notebooks from my suitcase as I am starting on Myrtle's kitchen this week. I'll be making it in sections so we can get the camera in there and I'll be working in MDF, foam-core, clay and other mixed media. It'll be pretty cool - can't wait to make some headway!
Decided to share some of my earlier designs - they're seriously rough though. I am able to do super detailed beautiful pencil sketches... but when I get really excited about simply getting a design down on paper right away, this is what you get. Better (more finished) artwork will be shared soon.... ;)

If you can tell from my rough drawings (including a bird's eye view angle below), Myrtle lives in a roundhouse a little like the ones my ancestors built in Iron Age Britain before the ruddy Romans came along. It's in a forest and built among trees, with many of the trees weaving into her home and incorporated as furniture. Don't know much about roundhouses? Then I suggest you acquaint yourself with the works of the devastatingly gorgeous and fantastic Neil Oliver (sigh) and find out more. Really quite fascinating.

Oh, and in other news, I got a (custom made) motion control camera slider over the weekend.... damn exciting... already done some tests shooting miniatures - may share some in a few days.

Poison, Rain and Dire Straits

Bolted out of bed early after 4 hours sleep and I feel damnably awake - you'd think I add speed to my tea. Up to my elbows in clay since 8 am and working through commissions fast so I can focus on 'Myrtle'....

Over the weekend I got a little work done on it. Made poison pies (plus extras arranged on slate boards for collectors) and tested (played with) new tools (toys) such as a brilliant dremel kit with more attachments than Inspector Gadget. I also met Alan Lee over at the Weta Cave.... Wasn't star-struck any of the times I met James Cameron, but I meet Alan Lee and forget my name halfway through introducing myself.

Being British, the weather has to get a mention and here in Wellington New Zealand it's been wetter than a mermaid's brassiere. The wind's terrific as well - my apartment's been swaying back and forth, outer glass doors shattered in the wind and water's splashed up through the sinks and onto the walls. I just had to take some photos, and I've put them below comparing a picture of my balcony the day I moved in (July - which was winter here) with a snap of my balcony on Saturday (September - technically spring!)
Still, it's kind of exciting and loud weather like this legitimizes me playing Dire Straits at an unreasonable volume ;)

Wet and Windy Wellington.... (click on an image to enlarge)

Sunny winter................................................................Wet, wet, wet spring.... ;)