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!