Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Return of Enchanted Gourds

It was years ago that I last brought you a range of enchanted pumpkins and gourds, but since they were a success and people frequently ask for them, I made a whole new range last month. These are not the traditional orange, but white and striped. I based them on various squash I saw at my local farmer's market. Some have worried faces, some look smug and most have a spread of wonderful tiny green leaves growing out of them. Each leaf was hand painted. They are all very detailed and I hope you'll love them.

In 1 inch scale (1:12) but since pumpkins and gourds come in all shapes and sizes, these would be perfect for a half inch (1:24) scale scene or a 1:6 scale scene.

Available at my online Pixie Dust Miniatures store NOW!


And, if you want to know what was happening over at Tall Tales (my company where I make films using miniatures, then please click over to the website / blog / Facebook page). This was my Halloween greeting (above) this year. It shows my Texas witch and some trick or treaters...

Don't forget, you can follow ALL of my work (for here, Tall Tales and for Hummingbird Miniatures) by following my Instagram account!

Hope you all had a fantastically spooky Halloween!!  ~ C xXx








Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Seen it, liked it, got the T-Shirt!

Do you remember when I wrote about a baby crocodile? Well, he's actually a 'crocogator' - a half breed alligator crocodile. 
Anyway, someone wrote to me and asked to buy him so I packaged him up and he ships to his new home today. So long little pal...

Here are some parting photos of him since (if you read this recent post) you may know that I lost all my photos, including photos of him.

In other news.... GUESS WHAT?!

If you like my photography and designs, you can now buy various products which show it off, such as posters, travel mugs and tote bags! It's all here at my new Red Bubble shop! Here's a snapshot of what's on offer, but there's so much more.


And as for this coming Christmas... you may recall that in 2012 (when I was living in New Zealand) I created something special for a Pixie Dust Miniatures Christmas. It was a magical snowy village of candy gingerbread houses. Since (as detailed in the recent blog post I mentioned) I lost all high rez photos of this work, I am steadily re-building my portfolio, and will be creating something similar, but cooler, this year! Stay tuned for that... :)

And don't forget to show your support for Pixie Dust Miniatures by liking on Facebook or on Instagram! Each 'like' counts and means a lot!



Monday, October 26, 2015

You're back Jack!

Yep, you may have caught it on the Facebook page or Instagram or even if you went directly to the Etsy shop! I have a whole new range of Jack O' Lanterns to celebrate Halloween this year!

It's only a week away, but if you live in the US you might just be able to get yours in time, as to mark my big comeback, I am shipping sales DAILY (6 days a week) until further notice. I also gift-wrap upon request at no extra charge, and always will offer this feature.


So take a look at my new 1:12 scale miniature Jack O Lantern pumpkins and also see the making-of process below. Enjoy!

Buy your own pumpkin at Pixie Dust Miniatures on Etsy here. I ship all over the world!





I made these wooden crates (above) and took a snap and then I aged them, as you see below. 








Sunday, October 25, 2015

Where have I been?!

It has now been over a year since I blogged on here, and some of you may have been wondering where I went and why I dropped off the face of the planet! It may have surprised a lot of you since for about 5 years I updated this blog very frequently.







So, here's the truth, the complete truth, and it's a long read!

A year ago something catastrophic happened to me. It was so painful that it's taken me this long to want to come back to blogging properly and really resume business as usual. What the heck happened?! I'll tell you...
I was sitting at my computer one day and all of a sudden the folder I was saving some work in looked empty. I was like "hey, where did my files just go?" I clicked out of that folder and explored the rest of that hard-drive where I kept all my work, and found that none of the folders opened.... panic started to rise from the tips of my toes throughout my whole body, and I waited nervously for my computer-wiz friend to come over and help me check out what was happening. He couldn't even get the hard-drive to open and see any info. Now, this hard-drive contained absolutely all of my work - my entire portfolio of miniatures for both Pixie Dust Miniatures and Hummingbird Miniatures, and also all family photos, and all photos in general in my life. But most of all it was my portfolio going back 5 years - when I started creating and photographing my miniature work. I felt an enormous sense of panic because I knew I hadn't backed up for 6 months. I was terrified to the pit of my stomach that I could potentially lose 6 months work (for me that represented thousands of images, my book 'The Art of Pixie Dust Miniatures' I had been writing and was almost complete, tutorials I'd created and so forth. Nooooooooooooo, please don't let that work be lost, I kept saying to him! We took it to the best place for data recovery in LA (and don't forget, most of the best computer developments come out of California so I knew I was putting it into very safe hands).

Things couldn't get much worse... or could they...?

I went over to another hard-drive where everything (except the past 6 months) was backed up. Just wanted to browse it and feel a bit better.

... Nothing was there.

My housemate had at some point moved it  / wiped it / who knows. He didn't know where it went. Basically it was gone. The only place my entire miniature portfolio existed was on the hard-drive that stopped working. And that was in the hands of these data recovery guys. I waited for their verdict with my heart in my stomach and sheer dread.

They got back to me weeks later. "It's dead" they said. "No chance of recovery". I was devastated, but wouldn't accept it. I searched out the best recovery places in the world (which also are in the US - although I'd have sent it anywhere). I paid a few thousand and sent it to them. Surely if this was crucial FBI material, something seriously important they'd be able to recover it, was what I kept telling myself. I told them I'd pay any amount, I just HAD to have all my work back (hundreds of thousands of files). I waited weeks... maybe a month. The response was negative. I tried one final place, another few thousand dollars. Nope. They could retrieve absolutely nothing at all either.

And in this time my father died suddenly without warning at the age of 61 as well.

So I gave up on my work for about 5 months. Then I managed to climb back on the horse by applying myself in a new direction. Barely creating anything for Pixie Dust Miniatures or Hummingbird Miniatures, I decided to dedicate my time to the short film I have been planning for a while. I started really creating for it in March of this year. I designed and sculpted the characters for the film, which is called 'Good Witches Bad Witches' and started blogging about them here and showing them on the Facebook page for it. It helped. :)

Eventually I also started getting back to creating miniature food again and slowly and steadily rebuilding my Hummingbird Miniatures portfolio here (and on the Facebook page here) with things such as black forest cakes new mini food jewelry and a massive detailed range of Mexican food - which was soon after published in Dolls House & Miniature Scene Magazine.

Recently I finally started creating for Pixie Dust Miniatures again! I created some Jack o Lanterns and listed them at my shop here. See some photos of them below as well.


So! I rarely (or never) talk about my private life here, but I thought I owed everyone an explanation as to where I have been and why I haven't been responsive or active on this blog, or the Pixie Dust Miniatures Facebook page, aside from Instagram feeds that occasionally show up there.

But I'm back now! I will resume updating this blog and listing new items at the Pixie Dust Miniatures Etsy shop. So thanks for hanging in there!

Lovely to be back. Love to all! Caroline x X x