Witch travel trunk

I had planned a few years ago to build a witch cottage. I know it's not original, but I like witches, so I've decided to make witch stuff anyways. Some three years ago, I bought an Orchid kit by Greenleaf to make this witch cottage, or maybe a fairy house, or the house of Little Red Riding Hood's granny, or the house of the seven dwarves in Snow White or ... something else. The kit is safely kept under my bed, it follows me untouched moving after moving. I have made more and more witch stuff and Harry Potter items. I have built a Harrry Potter shop, called "Les Dragons Azimutés" , but still no cottage. My world of wizzardry is always on the move, which is why I needed a travel trunk especially designed for witches.

Witch travel trunk       done

Luggage for vampire slayer

I found a very unique case for my Curiosities Cabinet in a dusty antique shop. It’s a collector luggage especially conceived for vampire hunters. It seems to be a tool case from the end of the nineteenth century belonging to a vampire slayer.

Beyond the portraits of Vlad Tepes and Elisabeth Bathory, two of the most well-known vampires in the world (except for Edward and Bella), we can see all the tools needed to get rid of vampires: a hammer and a stake to stick right into their heart, holly water, garlic, crucifix, and a Bible to keep them away from the living ones.

There is also a pistol with silver bullets. Not all specialists are convinced that vampires are sensible to silver, some say it only works against werewolves. They are there just in case. Our hunter also had a mirror to make sure it was a real vampire he was dealing with, as well as a board showing various forms of bats. Vampires liked to change into these animals, thus the need to be able to identify the species.

All these items are packed in a very practical small case, designed to travel even in the Carpathians. I noticed there is no trace of a bottle of True Blood to feed them if necessary. Maybe this kind of drink was only created later…

A new gem for the curiosity cabinet

I have been away from my miniature world for a while. During this summer, the real world and my house there kept me busy painting, fixing, and sewing. But now I’m back in my mini workshop. The Art Nouveau house is crying for new furniture and more items in the curiosity cabinet.

I’m still working on my carpet, intended to be used in the sitting room. It’s so tiny, I think I have enough work for the next 3 years, if everything goes right.

I have built and painted a display cabinet to store shells and stones.

The collection has grown with the arrival of a new curiosity: the skeleton of a hand with six fingers. This hand goes back to the Sixteenth century and is said to belong to a very big man, six feet tall, of the family of Anne Boleyn. This is a very rare example of polydactyly with a complete functioning sixth digit containing bones. A gem for the collection!

More Curiosities

I have prepared new settings in "The Cabinet", using a large amount of pieces I have collected over the years.

First, I don't remember who made this Tiffany lamp but I'm sure I bought it in New York at "Tiny Dollhouse". The telescope, the armillary and the cannon-noon gun - a real curiosity of obscure purpose - are by Nantasy Fantasy. For the orrery I used a kit from Ericka Van Horn.

On the new table, a collection of rock crystals and a tiny piece of amber with an even tinier fly trapped inside.

I just finished the skull display : a mayan crystal skull, a tiny bone skull - quite normal for a skull - and a Mixtec human skull partially overlaid with turquoise mosaïc.

In the bedroom

I'm still working on my house's rooms. Some new and older pieces have take place in the setting.

I have made some custo of broken Bespaq furniture, I changed the upholstery of the chair : it's now a peacock print, very William Morris.

The hat is by Marie-France Beglan. The black box with brooch and the compact by LXL-Cruces-Miniaturas. I have made the tapestry handbag in a workshop with Cilla Hallbert.

The dresser set in tortoise shell is by St Leger. I 've made the gloves and the bottles.

The Neil Carter shell lamp on the mantel of the Art Nouveau fireplace.

My "Lady of Shallot" hanging on the wall of the bedroom, painted by Aidan Campbell.

New Treasures for my Art Nouveau house

I'm back from the Kensington Dollhouse Festival with a bag full of treasures and ideas. Today I will show you only the most important ones. I keep the others for another day.

The table was made by Kim Selwood, after an original by Hermann Obrist (1863-1927) a sculptor of the Jugenstil movement.

All the bronze pieces are by Neil Carter. The bust is a bronze by Agathon Leonard (1841-1923) a french Art Nouveau sculptor. The table lamp with shell is after an original by Gustav Gurschner (1873-1971) a renowned sculptor of the viennese Art Nouveau. The ibis is of egyptian origin and is meant to go in my Cabinet of curiosities with other archaeologicals findings to come.

Here is an english painting fitting in the period, The Lady of Schallot after a victorian ballad by Alfred Lord Tennyson, painted by Waterhouse (1849-1917) in the Pre-Raphaelite style. The 1/12 scale copy is by Aidan Campbell, an English artist in miniatures.

Some real books by Ellie de Lacy.

Those are two Atlas: one by Mercator going back to 1595, the other is a more recent Royal Atlas.

And, at last, the most brilliant pianist of the show, an automaton by Laurence & Angela St Leger. If that's not a curiosity !

Voodoo dolls in the mailbox

I was away on vacations. When I came back this week, I found three tiny voodoo dolls in the mail. It's a gift from Erika EVminiatures. They are fantastic, just aged enough as if they had been already used, maybe they have...They are a special gift for my voodoo boat. Unfortunately the boat is not with me right now, I would have to wait before displaying them. Therefore I have had a better idea : they will be perfect in my Cabinet of Curiosities, with some other weird artifacts I just finished : shrunken heads !

The Voodoo Dolls

Thank you Erika, the dolls are really great.

Steamer trunk

I was so happy with the results of my apothecary trunk that I can't stop the production anymore...
This one is more girlish, with pink stripes and crystal and golden bottles.

I will list this trunk on my Etsy !

Discovery of a naturalized Dodo in a private collection

The Dodo will be the first piece for my Cabinet of Curiosities. This heavy flightless bird from Mauritius Island has been extinct until the late XVIIth Century. We have descriptions and drawings by Dutch travelers who visited the Island during the Sixteenth Century, some bones are preserved in Museums but no complete skeleton has been found. I have the chance to be the owner of the only naturalized Dodo known in the world…Of course he is 1:12 scale made in FIMO and flocking, with the addition of some feathers, but he is still very rare.

The FIMO part of the work.

Painting the Dodo

A new Dodo is born.

My Humpty Dumpty House little Etsy store

www. humptydumptyhouse.etsy.com

I have opened my own Etsy store, the Humpty Dumpty House store, where I’m listing some of my handmade miniatures. I already have romantic shoes for sale, the kind Madame de Pompadour or Marie-Antoinette would have liked. I’m going to list the slippers right now. I will also sell other miniatures I have made in the recent past, like my stamps collector desk. I hope you will enjoy it.

Evolution

In Manhattan, there is a very interesting store for anyone looking for curiosities, oddities, taxidermy, natural history...

Even if you make miniatures you can find something there. I came back with new pieces for my Cabinet of Curiosities. Here are the first pieces for my mini cabinet...the others- I still have to make them- are not ready.

Tiny coloured shells, a fossil ammonite, a fossil sea urchin and at the bottom some extrasmall rock crystals.

Also a really tiny seahorse and a starfish. I have added my miniature magnifying glass to give you the size. The skull was carved in a bone in Indonesia.

You can use the magnifier to see my last find, that's really the best one : fossil amber from the Baltic with a mosquito or something trapped inside. I will play "Jurassic Park". Next time I'll show you my dinosaurs !