Meet our Members - Janet Smith

 

Janet Smith, of Desert Minis, Inc.,  specializes in high quality small scale miniature foods, with a goal of including all of the little details that you would see in larger scale miniatures including stems on the apples and seeds in the tomato slices.  We offer family style food (like a sliced ham or pan of enchiladas) to grace your miniature dining room table or single serving plates (like eggs and bacon or a taco salad) for your miniature restaurant or bistro.  We have foods inspired by today's cooking shows, with an emphasis on "plating" and flavors like a plate of grilled salmon with mango salsa, beans with almond slivers and herbed new potatotes.  And we offer an array of fruits and vegetables that can be incorporated into your own arrangements for produce stands or wreaths or centerpieces for your holiday table.  While the focus is on quarter scale, any item sold can be made in any other scale by request.

Contact

Website – www.desertminis.com

E Mail - desertminis@gmail.com

Meet our Members - Jacqui Perrat

“Jax" has been making trees for around 30 years, although mostly for the railway hobby.  She has taught modelmaking at a Further Education College as well as numerous different workshops at shows and clubs over many years.  Clubs are welcome to contact us if they are considering a workshop.

In the 90’s she wrote for a couple of the Dollshouse Magazines on an occasional basis, although offered a regular column she was still in full time employment teaching in the NHS at the time.

Each tree is unique since it is impossible to make two the same, although similar can be done. Sometimes research is required before carrying out a commission in order to make the tree as lifelike as possible when it is a species that has not previously been made.  Each tree is handsculpted over a wire frame, and sometimes the painting can take as long as making the skeleton.  Trees can be impressionistic with foam foliage, or made with individual leaves, sometimes paper and sometimes clay.

In addition to being used for dollshouses, wargaming and railway layouts, Ceynix trees have been used by fashion designer Paul Smith as a Christmas window dressing in his Covent Garden shop, they have been used by and appeared on BBC TV and various local TV stations.  They have also been used on a film set or two as well as museum dioramas.

The tiny railway sets in scale 1/900 are available as a basic set, or with scenery already applied.  An acrylic cover is also available to keep them dust and damage free although if you are putting your own scenery on it is best to do these before deciding on the size of cover required.” 

Contact Details

Jax Perrat

Ceynix Miniature Trees ‘n’ Trains

18 Petts Hill

Northolt

Middlesex

UB5 4NL

Website - www.ceynix.co.uk

Email - info@ceynix.co.uk

020 8864 6596

Meet our Members - Sara Scales and Kate Milton

Myself Sara Scales and my sister Kate Milton are who make up Minidreamz.  Between us our skills are quite eclectic, Kate is the knitter and I have a go at everything.  My main areas though are cross stitch and bead work and am aiming to move into crochet.  I also like to work in felt for mini toys, cushions and and christmas bits.  All our products are hand made.  We are brand new to the business side and have only done to fairs to date but we are now hooked.

I am a contributer to Dolls House World magazine and recently have been given a monthly chat and project page.  The first one of those is in this month coming (october edition).  I have done my chat type page "Twelth Scales" yes I know its corny but it was their idea and also a cross stitch spooky castle picture and a trick or treat bag.  Still waiting to see if they are going to use it all but i have been told I can have two pages.

Contact details

Minidreams Hand crafted dolls house miniatures

Website - www.minidreamz.com

My Blog is minidreamz.blogspot.com  This includes not just dolls house info.

Email - scalessara@googlemail.com

Meet our Members - Troy Schmidt

I am a full time potter. I work with ceramics both large and small and have been making scale miniatures since 1993. I juried into the I.G.M.A. as an Artisan in May 1996 and was elevated to Fellow status in March 1999. Today I divide my time between making miniature ceramics as well as life-size pottery and teaching beginning ceramics classes.

My goal is to create true to scale miniature pottery that is aesthetically pleasing as well as “functional”: walls of even thickness, trimmed foot ring, open spouts, removable lids -- the same qualities I look for in a large pot.

I throw my pots on a full size potter’s wheel or meticulously hand form vessels from slabs of clay; none of them are cast or mass produced by molds.

The potter’s wheel that I use is the same wheel that I have used to make 50 pound bowls. The process of throwing miniatures is very much the same as throwing life-sized pottery except I contact the clay with my finger tips rather than my entire hand and all of the motion of my finger tips is contained within a volume not much greater that one cubic inch. 

  

This reservation of movement calls for a great deal of focus and patience.  Over the years I have developed special tools and techniques to use in place of my fingers to draw up, open and shape vessels on the top of a hump of clay as well as methods of shaping and altering my pots once they are thrown.  After forming my miniatures on a revolving mound of clay, they are allowed to dry until they can keep their form and then they are re-centered upside-down on the wheel and a foot ring is carved on the bottom; like their life-size counterparts -- this attention to detail completes the piece.

Troy Schmidt

Red Dragon Pottery

P.O. Box 1347

Goleta, CA 93116

USA

www.RedDragonPottery.com

Troy@RedDragonPottery.com