I LOVE it!

....with those words, my customer announced the arrival of her ruins and sent this photo to me:
As an artist, there is no greater praise than to see your creation enjoyed!

Less than 45 Days til Christmas!

I went to my first Christmas show this week. Decorated theme Christmas trees everywhere you looked, two string orchestras ....one with a lady singing Christmas carols, a bit of wine and cheese, hot chocolate or coffee and the aisles overflowing with shopping carts loaded high with purchases. I read in the paper that this season will be the worst for retailers but at the show, you could have fooled me!

These are some photos of the Biltmore House in North Carolina, USA featuring Christmas traditions and folklore of France, Germany, India, Egypt and Italy with elements of the Vanderbilt family’s own Christmas traditions mixed in. On the front lawn, a 55-foot Norway spruce is lit by 45,000 tiny white lights.
Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, America’s largest home is a 250-room French Renaissance chateau, exhibiting the Vanderbilt family’s original collection of furnishings, art and antiques. The Biltmore estate encompasses more than 8,000 acres including renowned gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture.

The Biltmore modern-day Christmas celebration is modeled on the first 1895 Christmas, with an elaborately decorated, 34-foot tall Fraser Fir dominating the Banquet Hall.
How super would that be to miniaturize!

Endings and New Beginnings

My ruined castle is finally finished!


I hope I've given it enough of a damp and dank atmosphere to make Dracula feel at home.


....and the roombox give-away has closed as well. Congratulations go out to Aukje Tibbe in Holland who makes incredible needle point! We've talked about certain things for her roombox ....like steampunk! I had secretly hoped she might go for it and she did.
I am totally excited to start! So stay tuned.

A CSI Moment

This photo probably makes you think of Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffin show. What a nice old lady, you're thinking right?

Her name was Frances Glessner Lee and back during the 1940s she created a series of crime scene roomboxes for the Baltimore Maryland police force. They must have been extremely authentic because the dioramas were used to teach inexperienced police officers about different types of death scenes, as well as encourage them to use careful observation to spot "indirect" evidence for crime reconstruction.



You can read all about her amazing miniaturist career here