Artists not being given credit where credit is due.

I've copied the post below from my Facebook page  ... It really does make me so mad. Even with the benefit of doubt that the person is just adding pics and then sharing them without really knowing what they are doing - even after me and others have pointed out that the pics are other artists work and should be given credit the poster has remained silent... but is still posting which probably annoyed me more!

It takes a lot of time to make miniatures look good in pictures. Taking the images and editing them to be appealing to an internet audience. I admit I don't always watermark my pics but sometimes I think I really should add something to each picture I take like the one above so if it is used then they know it's mine!! 

..... copied from my Facebook post earlier ... 

VENT ALERT!!

I'm a member of many miniature groups on facebook. As I've been browsing though the posts there are a number which are of artists miniature food being posted by one individual.

In the big scheme of things there is nothing wrong in sharing other people's work BUT there is no text accompanying the pictures and you could be under the impression the work is of the person posting.

I've commented on a couple of posts, there are watermarks in some of the pics but if you use a mobile to view it may not be clear that there is one.

It is annoying that this person hasn't edited any post to clarify that these are food items she admires/likes as I'm not even sure if the intent is to pass the models off as her own, she has stayed silent apart from posting the images.

Anyone could take one of my pics and pass it off as their own. Way back many years ago one of my pics was used in a blog post which was along the lines of - the people that make miniatures and in particular miniature food are mad and why would they do it? I found it by googling one day by accident.

I do say on my blog please respect and play fair and if a pic is used to give proper credit as me being the maker. I do with anything I write about mini or not I try to link back to the original picture or at least credit the website/blog/facebook page of the artist.

Last week I saw some things I'd made years ago for sale on a facebook page. The lady was selling them along with other food miniatures from several artists. What she wasn't doing was passing them off as her own work but said they were items she had bought and now no longer wanted.

All anybody asks for is credit for their work which if everybody played fair they would do but not everyone plays fair.

Steps down from soapbox ...

Blast from the past!

Shop room box filled with miniatures I made up to 2008. 

A couple of days ago a blast from the past hit me on a Facebook page. Things I'd made years ago when I was trading under a different business name were being sold by the lady that bought them. Every artist has their own style and I recognised them immediately. I can't remember exactly when I made them but it was somewhere between 2004 and 2008. I'm half tempted to buy them to remind me of my past adventures into polymer clay model making. 

Nowadays you can turn on the computer and connect to a whole world of information. There are videos, blogs, tutorials, any number of miniature pages that will teach someone how to make miniature food. When I bought my first dollhouse in 2001 there was no internet and the only way I could fill it was to buy magazines that had adverts for mail order, The Dolls House Emporium being one at the time. I also bought some how to make miniatures books and started making things, the memorable one being a shelf unit from lollipop sticks! I also bought some fimo from the Polymer clay pit and wool and needles from Buttercup miniatures.

I still have some miniature food items from that time. The cakes in my shop are mainly from that time and I have a few things in my Christmas room. I look at them now and see how amateurish they are but I do have a fondness for them as I made them and I was learning and it's where I was at that time. I'm redoing the Christmas scene but I think some of the food will stay. I use the cake shop picture on Facebook with the cakes on the shelves behind the counter. 

After I bought a computer in 2003 and connected to the internet new possibilities presented themselves. The usual thing of 'your things are good you should sell them' line from friends and family came up and so I started selling on ebay. When I had that first sale I was so happy! Mad I know but I thought maybe I am good enough to do this, although at the time I was swaying between mini cross stitch and cushion designs and food. I decided to concentrate on making and selling food. 

Cushions and cover for bed I made on 28 count aida. 

Real life sometimes has other plans and I stopped selling in 2008. I stepped away from miniatures completely for a while and concentrated on other things. The problem with having time consuming hobbies is there are only so many hours in the day and I decided on other priorities. To be blunt I was fed up of making things. Spending hours planning, making, creating and preparing the models to sell to only have a few pounds profit at the end of it. I needed a break but I didn't really intend it to be this long. 

The break has done me good though and I decided to start making miniatures and selling again last year. It's been a steep learning curve over the past year, I don't sell on Ebay as I don't think it presents itself with the right creative market place. Instead I sell on Etsy and the fees are much much lower than ebay. Even though it was only a year ago I look at the first models I made and really think it was me learning how to model in miniature again. I did sell a few things but not lots. I'm better now than I was then but still learning all the time. Even with so many how to tutorials out there the apples I made at the weekend I made by trial and error trying different techniques until I was happy with the final result. I think it took three or for attempts to get a 6mm blob of clay to look like an apple! 

Then the eternal question what do you charge for the skill, knowledge, hours of making, preparing etc etc that go into that tiny model that generally measure less than an inch in size? Especially nowadays when there are so many mass produced items a customer doesn't always appreciate the time, effort and work that goes on behind the scenes so to speak. I think the ethos behind Etsy where the marketplace is of individual handmade pieces and the people that shop there will appreciate that fact.

Social media has a massive part to play in order to sell things. There are hundreds of people selling miniature food why should they buy mine? I have had invaluable advice from people who are more savvy than me and this part of the business is the biggest learning curve and possibly more important than the model making itself as my products, my name and me need to be 'out there' on social media networking to bring that elusive customer to my shop. 

More pictures, better photography, editing, cropping, uploading, instagram, pinterest, twitter, facebook this blog, all things I actively try and do something every day on at least one platform which in my previous mini life I never did but are absolutely essential now. 

This post started with me seeing something I made years ago on the internet and  having a bit of a think about how I was then  and how I do things now. I still work full time and I think if I'm being realistic this will always be a hobby business but I still smile when I make something that looks real, I still appreciate every customer that sees my things and wants my items in their dollhouse scene and as long I still have that I'll keep making miniatures! 

Christmas is around the corner.

It's one of those weird quirks of anyone who makes things or sells things is that seasons and seasonal products tend to make an appearance at the wrong time of year. It's summer, sunny if not too warm and I'm thinking glitter, snow and good food that comes with December.

So I've started thinking of Christmas things as it's now June. I like the thought of making a gingerbread house or two - I bought a glass jar candle holder last year and think a a few mini houses would make a nice little scene in it, and making a few to sell of course!

So these are the first two I've made this year. I like the big roof on the first one which now resides in my dolls house. It's a big house 4cm x 4cm but as it's work in progress and my first practise piece it's fine.

After the big house came the smaller in scale and looking much better house - 

As usual I have lots of plans and not enough time, but as I'm starting to think about things now in June I might be ready in six months time. 

It's National Picnic Week - 13-21 June

It's national picnic week from the 13 to the 21 June in the UK the sun is (hopefully) shining, the days are long and warm, so what better way to send a few hours than going for a walk or to a park and packing a picnic to eat when you're there? 

National Picnic Week 13 - 18 June 2015 

My miniature picnic

I'm not sure on some of the recipes on the site - under the 'love your greens' section there is a broccoli frittata which sounds lovely but then the next one is for sprout kebabs which sound like the kind of thing I won't be trying even though I quite like sprouts. 

Lots of yummy goodies for the miniature picnic.

Another angle of the picnic made in one inch scale. 

For me a picnic normally involves a sandwich of some kind, crisps, scotch eggs, sausage rolls and 'pudding' which is usually a slice of cake.

The past couple of years have seen more recipes for picnic sandwiches or pressed sandwiches. These are usually bread rolls or a large round crusty loaf that has had the middle taken out and filled with all kinds of deli food Ham, cheese, pesto, tomato, mustard, lettuce, salami, beef are all layered up into the bread and then it is wrapped in foil and left overnight, Sometimes a small weight is added  to squash the loaf down. The following day the loaf is cut into slices and eaten. I've seen lots of inspiration on Pinterest and these are my mini versions - one is a round crusty loaf, the other is a baguette which has been cut into chunks.

Pork pie, gala pie, sausage rolls are always a favourite on a picnic - anything wrapped in pastry is good in my book. 

Pork pie

Gala Pie

Sausage rolls

There is also a flask of tea and some cold juice drinks on any picnic I pack. But they aren't on the picnic blanket above. By the way I knitted the blanket many years ago, it was my first attempt at knitting in miniature on tiny thin small needles and was a challenge to say the least. I haven't knitted anything since but I do have ideas that I might do one day when I have the time. 

Now I'm off to check the weather forecast and think about going to the seaside for the day with my picnic!

It's baking day...

I think it's good to add a bit of realism to a dollhouse. It's nice to have finished cakes in the window of a bakery or on a tea table but it's also good to reflect real life by having a bit of chaos in the kitchen. A work in progress so to speak. 

I've made some cake preparation boards which would be good to put into a kitchen, or on a counter in a shop. The cakes are 18mm round made from polymer clay. The icing is made by mixing transclucent liquid sculpey and fimo polymer clay to an icing consistency. It is then baked as per packet instructions. 

This peach one is an almost finished iced cake. There is a bowl of icing in the background and a knife covered in icing. 

A large wooden board has the cake, buttercream, knife and lemon slices set on it.

A small marble board with a cake being iced. 

Cake being iced and finished cake.

Strawberry cake being iced with hulled strawberries.

Cake being filled with buttercream, strawberries for decoration on board. 

Finished cake and cake being iced board.

I'm happy with the results as I find strawberries difficult to make and for some reason I always have problems with red coloured things. I didn't add a stalk or calyx to them as they are hulled ready to put onto the cake. 

All I need now is a cup of tea to go with it.