27 August 2008

Miniature Breakfast


Miniature Breakfast
Originally uploaded by Northern Miniatures
1/12th scale polymer clay breakfast sculpt. Silver dollar pancakes, with syrup, toast, with jam, fried eggs, a pitcher/cup of coffee and some extra slices of toast, and finally a fruit bowl containing two kinds of grapes, two oranges, two apples and a banana.

The Silence of the Spuds

I had a weird dream the other night about potatoes being chopped up and cooked in lard. In this dream, the little potatoes waiting nearby in the basket were screaming but no sound came out. I think this dream may have something to do with my recent diet. LOL! Here's the miniature dream reproduction, shown on a hand-painted table, I painted it just for this scene.

11 July 2008

Miniature Deviled Eggs, Olives and Cheese

Lost in shipping was a tiny tray of deviled eggs and cheese (I have looked high and low but I think it might have been stuck in the box I had it in originally and been thrown away!) I had made for Sue's order, so I've remade it now and I think it came out even better than the original. There is room enough in the middle for Sue's crackers she plans to adhere. Yay!




Second up was this tiny tray of Olives for Sue as well. One of the most challenging things I have ever tried to make!






10 July 2008

Publications and Tutorials

I have recently added some new pages to my site, tutorials and published pages for my work.

You can find them here:

Tutorials
Published Pages

Enjoy!

04 July 2008

Finished Sue's Christmas Order

Here's the final order, complete: This was part of a 1/12th scale custom order for Sue from NY. Includes all of the items she could remember from Christmas dinners past, including: Sauerkraut, bread, pierogis, shrimp pate, deviled eggs, breaded fish filets, stuffed celery and cheeses.

Miniature Shrimp Pate

Another custom order for the lovely lady in NY. This is a fish molded shrimp pate on platter. Yum!

Miniature Pierogi Platter

Really enjoyed making these for a customer in NY. Pierogis on a platter. Oh, I have a cdhm blog too, go check me out! http://www.cdhm.org/user/aminimanda

30 May 2008

garden visitor


garden visitor
Originally uploaded by dont make a scene
Don't Make A Scene included one of my snails in her new scene! Too cool! :D I'm so excited about it!

21 April 2008

Miniature Strawberries


Miniature Strawberries
Originally uploaded by Northern Miniatures by Amanda
I've been making so much stuff lately and working a lot to boot. We've also got a new puppy and it's been very hard to get any sleep at night. I suppose it will be worth it when she's older and settled down but I know this next year of puppy hood is going to be a test for all of us!

I have been making some savoury dinners recently and just have not photographed them yet. I made these strawberries late at night 3 nights in a row, while watching Monarch of the Glen, which I have now finished 3 full seasons of! It's a cute show, really, like the UK equivalent of 7th Heaven but without all of the religious stuff. ;)

I am planning on doing a craft show in May and also I have a guest staying in my home for 10 days, so it's going to be a very busy time and I may not be online much. Sorry if I've not answered your email or message lately, I've had a lot of other business to take care of, and a puppy chewing on my feet, hands, shoes, furniture, anything chewable.

I have ordered many items to make into food items, baskets, silverware, bowls, dishes, etc. and I should be making many more items for the webstore soon. You can find the store at http://www.northernminiatures.com and there's a wide variety of hand-crafted and unique polymer clay items there. We also have some hand-painted and hand-crafted furniture and some beautiful bedding and plants.

I hope you're all well and am always happy to hear from you. Off to bed for tonight, it's an early night as I'm whipped!

03 March 2008

Miniature Foodiversary



February 25th, although I didn't realise it, was my one year anniversary of making miniature food. On that date in 2007 I made my very first miniature food, pancakes. It's now been just over a year since I started making these crazy polymer clay things and it feels like I've been doing it for years. There have been the dry spells, yes, where my food creativity has felt blocked and I've not wanted to work. Working on a custom order for Sumaiya this week has helped a lot.

I have also found that ever since I purchased la Vie en Rose DVD I cannot make miniatures without Edith Piaf's music playing in the background. I usually play La Foule over and over again. I don't speak a word of French. I am tempted to buy the Rosetta Stone program (hundreds of dollars) just to learn. I know I cannot afford such a program, but wouldn't it be nice to be fluent in French so that my fiance and I might take a holiday in Paris some weekend? I think that would be nice. For the moment, Piaf's music has been inspiring me to create, and I thank God that Marion Cotillard won the oscar or I'd have never been tempted to watch la Vie en Rose at all and would have never known who sang the songs I had heard in so many films and enjoyed for so many years.

Miniature Desserts Assortment

Sumaiya Mehreen ordered these desserts for her dollhouse and I had such fun making and arranging them. These were my first time ever making grapes, strawberries and cherries with stems, and the creme brulee was a fun new project and a dessert I simply must try! Sumaiya is working on a wonderful dollhouse animation as well, and her blog is always very interesting. She's got quite a keen eye for miniatures and I am so happy that she chose to order items from me. :)

Sumaiya was the first dollhouse blog I ever read, and she featured my work in it a while back, I was absolutely honoured and she's the reason I opened this blog. I had looked at other blogs but never thought I' d have a purpose for one until I saw how nice hers turned out. :) Such an inspiring person and an amazingly creative one, I am so proud that she is the new owner of these pieces.

Miniature Roast and Soup

I had so much fun making these custom items for Sumaiya Mehreen this week. She had purchased a salad, bread and soup set from me on eBay and contacted me regarding a customer order on some of her dishes that she already owned. She had three sets of dishes that she needed filled with food, so I asked her to mail them to me in order for me to fill them and send them back. She was absolutely the kindest, most courteous customer I've had!

I spent the last week making the soup, roast beef dinner, tea set and then the desserts she ordered. I just finished and packaged them tonight and ya know, I'd really appreciate it if for once my cat would stop trying to be the gaffer in my minis business. She's always got her head in the boxes, or paws in there fishing out the polystyrene packing bits. Today as I was wrapping the desserts, she was trying to steal the packing tissue. I understand that it makes a nice crinkly noise and that it would make a wonderful cat bed, but really, I don't need any more help or any whiskers stuck in the packing tape. She's cute and she purrs at chirps at me while I work, but I only wish she'd shave her fur coat before coming to the job. :)

Miniature Tea Set




This was the tea set I filled with clay for Sumaiya and she also bought my Asparagus dinner set! I am so thrilled!

21 February 2008

Pretty Painted Furniture

I did a one off request item a few months back, a folk art, Mary Engelbreit, style table and it sold on eBay. I then had a request for another table, and although I am not normally a painter, I find that this style of painting in miniature is very relaxing and soothing. I have been painting two benches all week. I must have at least 10 hours into each one. I am nearly finished with the second bench now, and they have been keeping me awake until 2 to 3 in the morning every single night. The first bench is in true Engelbreit fashion, pastel colours, bright black and white pattern, cherries. The second bench is in my own style. I like to add a variety of primary colours mixed with pastels. It's got checks, spots, stripes and hopefully tomorrow some swirls. I can't wait to show them to you!

I'm participating in the eBay strike this week and I don't think I'll be listing there again for a long time. It's so disheartening to see how they are trying to make more money off of the little guy and let the big sellers get more benefits. Ahhh well, so goes the mini world!

09 February 2008

Miniature Champaign Glasses


Miniature Bowl of Fruit


Miniature Candy Shop Sweets


Miniature Blue Hutch


Miniature Fireplace


Miniature Apple Fruit


Miniature Bananas Fruit


Miniature Orange Fruit


Miniature Breadsticks


Miniature Cookies In Jar


Miniature Dad Coffee Cup


Miniature Mom Coffee Cup


Miniature Pizza Prep Scene


Miniature Santa Wrapping Paper


Miniature Peppermints in Button Dish


Miniature Chinese Takeaway


31 January 2008

Exciting News

After much hard work this week and lots of photography, we now have over 100 unique items in our webstore at http://www.northernminiatures.com/shop and we're still adding more. Mary Jo has made some beautiful hand-crafted wooden beds, a fireplace and some curtains with valance. These are ready to be sold as well, I just have a few more other things to list first and we'll be adding more furniture and other miniature delights to our shop. Our shop accepts paypal, money order or cheque and we're offering the same great service we offer on eBay. We're probably going to stop selling on eBay after February 20th, due to some major listing policy and fee changes, we'd be paying 11% more to list an item and that simply won't do. If we had to pay that amount, we'd have to cut our listings down to one or two a week and it's simply not fair to our customers, so we've decided to sell primarily from our webshop. We hope you will welcome the shop with open arms. Remember, we always take special requests and custom orders and all of our minis are crafted by hand.