Unexpected tea leaves

The end of Summer is near, it is time to prepare miniatures and tutorials for Falltime and Halloween but my head is still full of light and delicate colors.

Some weeks ago I've found in a shop a beautiful branch of faux tea leaves, very realistic, so I've decided to use them for miniatures. These are the first ones, a plant with a natural cotton vase and a white crate with two plants inside.

Plants with crate, in my Etsy shop

Single plant, in my Etsy shop

I think they will be great in a dollhouse in modern or cottage chic style, combined with furniture in natural colors. In these pictures you can see the plants combined with two bee subject pillows, one of them with a beehive texture and the other one with a lovely vintage bee printed on white cotton.

Faux plants with bee pillows in 1 inch scale

 

Do you have inspirations about a fresh use for these wonderful faux leaves? You may see your ideas come true ;)

Poppies

Poppies wreath in miniature

On woven head wreath or in Thanatos' (Death), Nyx's (Night) and Morpheus (Dream) hands, poppies are symbol of oblivion. The red poppy, with its silk petals, has moderate calming properties, Papaver somniferum, with its large mauve petals, has sleeping and narcotic properties.

Meadow with poppies in miniature

In Commonwealth countries red poppies are symbol to remember soldier who have died during the World Wars. Red poppies are distributed during Remembrance Day on November the 11th, the day when in 1918 World War I ended.

Its soft and red petals are irresistible. I've tried to reproduce them in miniature, with tissue paper, on wreaths, frames and little corner of meadow.

Frame with poppies in miniature

Poppies inspired to me a tutorial, do you want to know about it? Stay tuned :)

Easter 2014

This year, for Easter, a new decoration for the two tiers little cakes

a colorful wreath

 

and best wishes! :D

Spring 2014

Each time a season fades in the next one, I write on my Facebook pages a verse of the song "The Voice" by Celtic Woman. This time I've used one of my miniature to welcome Spring.

The idea for these Crocus flowers comes to me from a real Crocus composition on the web. Crocuses are little plants from the Iris family, they are cultivated for the saffron from their stigmas. Crocuses paint Winter and Spring meadows and woods with their wonderful purples and yellows.

Here the table of Crocus colors, their remind to Pantone colors for 2014.

Here a collage with some lovely creations from my Etsy Team :)

1. Green lace collar - Callmemimi
2. Purple ACEO print with violets - LetterapSy
3. Amethyst jade necklace - Elettrarossa
4. Handpunched butterflies in the shades of purple – VeraPaperLab

Everything sprouts again.

Resoconto Hobby Show Roma primavera 2014 - Parte 1

As written in another post precedente post, on last weekend I went to the Hobby Show Roma at the ADMI (Associazione Dollhouse e Miniature Italiane) stand to promote miniaures for dollhouses, the ADMI team and to do short classes with Cristina Stacchini, Daniela Messina e Roberta Solari.

ADMI stand and Cristina

Cristina's, Roberta's and mine roomboxes

Daniela's works

The item from the short classes

ADMI stand with Cristina, Daniela and me

Thank you to ADMI, to Cristina, Daniela and Roberta :)

Here we are :D

The next post will be about the little treasures I've found at that fair :)

Carnival treats

Every year, on February, I'd like to make Italian traditional Carnival treats in miniature but I cannot find the right dishes for them, so this year here you are some pictures of past works :)

These are the first Carnival treats that I've made on February 2011. A plate with "Castagnole", fried dough balls with sugar on them, and one with "Frappe", fried stripes of dough with icing sugar or honey on them.

This is a custom order that I've made on October 2011. A plate with "Castagnole"and one with "Crostoli", fried rhombuses of dough, and "Frittole" extended balls of fried dough.

Happy Fat Tuesday and bon appetit ;)

Hobby Show primavera 2014

Da un po' di anni l, una delle fiere dell'artigianato e dell'hobbistica più famose in Italia, si presenta in un doppio appuntamento annuale a Roma.

L'appuntamento autunnale è il più conosciuto, quello primaverile lo è un po' meno ma è pur sempre ricco di corsi e materiali.

On February the 28^th, March the 1^st and 2^nd an Italian fair, HobbyShow, will take place in Rome at Nuova Fiera di Roma and I'll be there with other miniaturists at ADMI (Associazione Dollhouse e Miniaturisti Italiani) stand.
There will be some short classes, for the list wee here.
The other miniaturists are: Celidonia with her amazing sculptures, Le Miniature di Eurosia with her wonderful works and Cristina Stacchini with her lovely workd, all in 1 inch scale.

My classes are two, a little shabby chic shutter

and a fantasy set.

See you at HobbyShow :)

Celidonia's tiny mice

Do you like mice? And do you like miniature mice? I would like to introduce to you Daniela Messina's mice. Made with great attention to details, they are expressive and look so real even if they are made out in polymer clay and high, on their feet, about 1 cm (0.4 in).

The mice in the pictures below are arranged inside candle holders that I've made just for them.

Daniela gives the magic touch to these works and you can visit her blog CelidoniaStudio to see a lot of other Daniela's wonderful miniatures.

You can see her little treasures in person at Miniaturitalia, the only Italian dollhouse (and other things) fair.
Not lose this mini-magic meeting ;)

Faux zinc

In the previous post I've written about the faux zinc candle holderhouse, well, I've create another house, this time in miniature.

I've drawing it on the base of the bigger one, there are some differences between them such as less windows and no window to introduce a light. It is possible to make a hole on the bottom or on the back of the house to elettrify it.
Near there are an alder fruit, that looks like a tiny pine cone, and a juniper berry, that looks like a deep red apple.

Another faux zinc item, that I've made after a long time, is the candle holder. This time I haven't use a polymer clay candle but a thin plastic one, so white and perfect to have a lovely contrast with the candle holder.

I'll make other faux zinc miniatures, I've already work on some of them, sure I'll match faux zinc with flowers and vintage labels.

You can see the little house and the candle holder on my shop on Etsy.

Christmas trees in miniature

Alfredo Cattabiani in his book "Florario" writes that till the Ancient Egypt the fir (Abies alba) is considered the tree of the nativity. In Greece ot was sacred to Artemis, the Moon. In North Europe and Northern Asia the fir is considered a Cosmic Tree, tied to the winter solstice.

In the Middle Age in Norse and in ancient Germanic territories, a fir was brought inside home and decorated with wreaths, painted eggs and sweets. Only in 1840, at French Court, the fir became the Christmas Tree.

Also this year I've made Christmas trees in miniature, some very little, protected under glass domes, some larger, always in 1/12 scale.

I've covered the trees with white paint, decorated with beads, bows, tiny glitters; a very useful pick up tools, with a sticky tip, helped me: the Pinflair, you can see it on Joanna Sheen website.

These little trees are better than my real Christmas tree, maybe I'll post some picture of it... maybe.

An ancient talisman

Ilex aquifolium is the Latin name for holly. Alfredo Cattabiani in his book "Florario" writes that the ancient Romans brought branches of holly during Saturnalia, the days before the winter solstice, as talismans against evil spells.

An echo of this tradition has reached us and in the present holly is a symbol of Christmas.

I think it is a good omen to write again on this blog with a post dedicated to holly.

During the past days I've prepared some miniatures with little paper leaves and tiny handpainted berries. The writing NOEL is already gone in UK, the two wreaths are in my shop and the greeting bunch will follow them on tomorrow and then... what is that question mark?

Curious ;)

Nautical shabby chic

I don't like sea or nautical theme very much, but there is a kind of style, between nautical and shabby chic, that fascinate me in a strange way. Light colors mixed with blue and red, some grey and a lot of white. Lighthouses in the shades of the summer sky, lost shells, faux starfishes, clear sand, soft cotton fabric.




I know that this mixed style is not the real nautical one, but I like it too much for considering something of different about sea :)




My first attempt to create something about the sea is this little roombox, about eight years ago. Pictures are very bad :/




I reach the first lovely result with a tutorial written for Piccole Cose (the ADMI magazine), a little woden boat in two colors: white-read and white-blue.




But I'm very proud of my "nautical attempts" only with these two shelves :)



boat-shaped, sold out here


bathing cabin-shaped, for sale here
One of my endless projects, to trasform a greenhouse from Ikea in a nautical shabby chic roombox, but I accept suggestions for a shorter project :D

Pasqua 2011

I wonder why the first tought for Holydays goes to food. Maybe because food puts togheter families in a easy way, even if sometimes food can divide.

My mother comes from Perugia (Umbria) so I've made some traditional Easter food from Umbria.



A ring shaped cake called "Ciaramicola". This cake has a heart of soft sponge-cake with Alchermes (a sweet deep pink liqueur) and a coat of meringue with tiny sweet confentioneries in five different colors: red, white, yellow, green and azure.

Red and white are the colors of Perugia. Yellow is the color of the cornfields, green is the colors of the meadows and azure is the color of the Trasimeno lake.



A salty cake, a sort of cheese bread. This cake is often served with a salted and smoked pork meat taken form the neck called "Capocollo".

I know some of my followers are Veg*, I hope one day traditional Easter food will be meat-free!




Eggs! Why eggs? Eggs are symbol of birth and Easter is the day of rebirth. It is Springtime and Spring is the season of birth and life. So eggs!


I wish you a Happy Easter and better, a Happy Rebirth-day ;)