WIP #2 - Finished

At first glance, it seems fairly traditional, right?Well turn it around & look from the other side.... The doll that you see here wigged & dressed was done by my 11 year old granddaughter, Jade!
I'd taken her with me to attend 2 workshops in Quebec this summer. Being a very artistic person, I thought that not only would she enjoy them but we'd have great fun along the drive ...and we did!
Natalie came over from France (www.provenceminiatures.com) and Helena from Belgium (www.dollsinminiature.com) to lead the workshops. I didn't sit by Jade; in fact I left her on her own to do or not, or even how she wanted to work in the workshops.

So the doll and the Halloween goodies on the table inside the pumpkin are all her own doing! All I've done is put everything together and made the surround. Plexiglas cover and the wooden frame aren't shown as I just couldn't wait to show photos ...I am just so proud of my Jade!!!!

And here you can have a look inside the pumpkin where the Trick Or Treat table sits loaded down with goodies

(the white line in the photo is an edge of the glass cover)
Oh by all means, take a closer look at all the little fimo goodies that Jade made... there's a tea service, a haunted gingerbread house, decorated cupcakes in the 2 boxes at the back, a Halloween cake, a jack-o-lantern filled with treats; she made the jar lids and painted all the faces on the goodies.
The spoon in the bead jar and the Spooky Times newspaper sitting on the top step were a prezzie from Ketsia (another workshop participant) and the eyeballs (in the glass jar) were made by Louise Belair at whose house we stayed.The laughing pumpkin is another bead but Jade chose logo at the back and painted the table
Love you, Jade! So so proud!!!

WIP #1 - finished

well... finished except I still have to make a frame & build a plexiglass cover for it. But since Christel sent me that very nice comment I didn't want to keep her waiting.
May I present to you, Haggartha & her new home:

That's right Christel! Bet you never thought to see her ugly puss again did you?
You see everyone, I bought Haggartha from Cristel Hutson at least a year ago.
I can see having spent the past year in a dark cupboard has done nothing for her attitude (Haggartha's not Christel's LOL).Here she is offering up an lovely red apple but look closely at the firepit.... Our delightful hag uses bones to fuel her fire.and if you're really curious about where that bone supply comes from, just look at the other side of her house. Either big rats gnaw on bones or it's Hagartha's delivery boy.


My clay is still drying; I've no idea how long it will actually take and while it did crackle, I think I should have mixed it more and had it smoother.
Here you can see the steps leading down into Haggartha's basement abode. I think the clay could also have done with more acrylic paint to give it a deeper darker brown but live and learn!Since my gourd came with no attached stem I added my own. What you see here is a rubberized "plant stem" that was once part of a Halloween wreath. I added the spider (it's that dark blob). The snake is one of those soft squishy toys that one of the boys left for their Nana to use (they just don't remember it that way); I had my choice of the soft green one you see hanging, a bright pink one or a soft purple one.
I'm not sure if I'll keep the gecko at the base of the stem.

So there you have it!
One less WIP, approximately 3 million left to do!

WIP #1

Both Jade and I participated in the MSAT Dollvention this summer so in other words we made the same items to place on our Halloween goodies table. Not only that but I promised to make roomboxes for both of us.
I just couldn't see making both roomboxes alike so while I decided Jade's would be shown inside a pumpkin, I also decided that mine would show the darker side of Samhain.
At this summer's arts festival, I found a pumpkin shaped gourd that looked for all the world like it was moldy. Unfortunately it's much too small for my table.
Originally I had thought to enlarge the inside by carving into the base and have most of it seem underground. I even thought about using a smaller table. But finally I opted against having anything inside.
The next problem was how to attach a rounded door. In the end, only having the door ajar meant that I didn't need hinges and with the floor painted black, no one can see inside the gourd house.I used Magic Sculpt to secure the gourd to its base. Since I really hate to waste material, I epoxied the stairs and the firepit stones to the base.
Some time ago I stumbled across a website for taxidermists that contained a great tutorial for making dried and cracked riverbed mud. I knew that's what I had to have for my base but no way was I going out to find mud, and then sieve it to a fine powder. Instead I bought a package of natural air-dry clay from the Dollar Store. I'd used it once before and swore never again but for this project it seemed perfect.
I added a bottle of cheap white glue and some Burnt Umber paint and proceeded to mix the three ....and mix ....and mix ...and add more glue ...and mix ....add more paint ....and mix until I thought my arm would drop off.
It was still slightly lumpy but I troweled it onto the base anyway.and then I added a few sprigs of dried moss and a well-weathered log.

All that glue is supposed to make the clay crack as it dries. So keep your fingers crossed and while my mud is drying, I started on Jade's roombox