Author: hellesminiatures

I´ve been busy producing lots of birds for exhibitions and  lots of orders, but now it is time to show my new miniatures. You will find new birds if you look a the menu; birds.

I  ´ve also created some new characters.

It´s a while since I published pictures, but now I´m back with new items. Some new birds are born and there will soon be pictures of some birds of prey. Look for Birds in the menu.

Miniature making is like a Cornu Copia. When one idea is completed, a new idea will come

Today I will show the steps from raw stone to sculpture. Sometimes the stone itself determines the outcome of the final product.  At first I wanted to make a vase but the first shape was a bit too big. I looked at the piece and imagined a body. Why not make a torso. This stone was rather soft so it was easy to cut.

Raw stone

sawing for a suitable size

filing a shape

draw and carve the lines

using different files and sandpapers

polishing with beeswax

The difficulty with a soft stone is that it will easily fragment when carving so you                have to be very careful.

The Torso is about 3,5cm

A lightbox with a mirror makes a feeling of depth. The pictures are taken from an angle that gives the box a different shape. It´s in fact a rectangle.

A new soapstone bench with table, 1:12 scale. The stone has  a variety of colours. When you are working with the stone you can´t see the actual colours. They appear when you polish the item with beeswax polish. It´s really amazing.

As i love birds I had to make an outdoor scene with mallards and swans. The pond is in 1:24 scale. Ithink I will put light to the scene to get a feeling of evening  to it. I used resin as water.

I´m very happy to have recieved a space at the Kensington Christmas Show. Maybe I´ll see you there.

Making faires, trolls and witches is one of my favourite activities. Combining soapstone, light and a fairy in a garden scene is an attempt to create a sense of mysticisim.

Some work among many others is the painting below. The troll couple was a present for my daughters wedding.

After a long break I´m back with new items.  The first thing I want to show is my light pedestal, which has been developed thanks to Jennifer Smith (small scale lights). I usually use them for the translucent soap stone items, but they can be used for anything that turns out well with light.

By putting the power switch on the inside and leaving only the button visible on the outside looks much better.  The pedestal light comes in two colours, Bright White and soft yellow. On the pictures below I´ve put the same resin object with different lights.

During the London Dollshouse Festival I got inspired by a lot of visitors  when we talked about ancient soap-stone works. The philosopher below has got a brother that I call “The tired guy”. They are both inspired by ancient sculptures from Africa.

The philosopher

The tired guy

The first face is is inspired by an Art Deco sculpture and the others are my own creations

Art Deco. 5 cm

Raw stone face 3,5 cm

The preacher 4 cm

lady 2 cm

lady 2,5 cm

January 27th was a very special day.  I had the opportunity to be one of the exhibitors at London´s Dollshouse Festival at the Tower Hotel in London. I was overwhelmed by all the positive feedback on my items, so my husband and I had a great day at the show. It was though an adventure to bring all the items by plane, but we managed with the project.

And the best of all! I´ll be back in London for the Kensington Dolls House Festival Christmas Show in December. I really look forward to this event. Next step is to produce a lot of new soap-stone items and lots of birds. I´ve already got started.