Wingardium Leviosa!

I think this is a record in the amount of free time I've had lately. I decided to try my hand at wands today. I think they turned out quite nice.

They are made of toothpicks and either painted black or with a walnut stain. All of them are around 3cm long.

I think this is my favorite. I made the handle from a slightly wider toothpick and the rest from a normal one. I carved the handle with my rotary tool.

These two are also carved but they're not made from two parts. 

The black wand is made with a very thin wire and string. 

Well, 3 different techniques and they all turned out well. I'm going to try making more of these and of course they'll need boxes. 

Until next time!

*Poof*

How to shine your cauldron 101

Lately I've had a little more free time and that means mini making! And I've wanted to try the ping pong ball method for making cauldrons for a long time. So that was number one on my list. I made two different versions, one with legs and one with a flat bottom. I think they turned out great! Now I need to find something to fill them with. I think I'm going to have to order some scenic water for this...

I actually like this one better. I'm still thinking if I want to hang it in the fireplace or not.... Maybe it could be on the table if the witch needs to add ingredients :)

Another project for today were Fimo candles. I've made a lot of these last year but I've used almost all of them so I needed new ones. My Fimo got really hard and I've put off making anything out of it but now I've found this great tip that you can soften Fimo with a bit of oil. I used baby oil and it worked perfectly!

I think I got a taste for mirrors :) I loved the shape of this one and so I just had to make it. Now I'm trying to decide how to finish it. I'd really like to add some embellishments to the frame but I'm not good at carving nor at simulating carving with clay. I was thinking of just staining it with the same stain as the table. More of a medieval look than a fantasy one. Hmm.... Well, if I don't like it I can always make another one since it was so easy to make.

Ok, that was the most projects in one post in a long time. I'm glad I have more time for minis. I'll probably have to start on the house itself again.... I don't know why but I can't bring myself to continue the rooms. Which is silly because I only have to make the upper railing and put the upper floor in. Somehow I don't like stairs at all! 

Oh well, maybe I should think about making a fireplace.... it would be a nice addition, or more of a requirement. 

Well, until next time!

*Poof*

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

Finally I had a bit of time today for some mini goodies. I wanted to make a mirror for some time, but I was thinking of ways I could make a carved one instead of simplifying things. So today I decided to just go ahead and make one. After all, I can always make more :)

I had these little corners for a while now. I think they look great on the mirror!

Overall the mirror is 15cm tall and 8,5cm wide, made out of 3mm thick pear wood. It's meant to be this large and I got the measurements from a friend, who has one life size, and it's gorgeous! 

I painted everything with gesso and then with a black wash. Then I decided the corners could be gilded so I painted those gold, then distressed them and painted another black wash over them. After that I still wasn't satisfied as there was still too much gold showing through. So I painted over them with black acrylics and then dabbed the extra paint off with a paper towel. Turned out quite good actually. 

And a close up of the corner.

I thought about doing the whole mirror in gold first and black on top but I really like how it looks now. Although I might just make another one of these. After all, what sort of a respectable witch would be caught dead without magic mirrors! :)

I did find this great tip on one of the blogs how to age the mirror (which is an acrylic mirror sheet) but it looks like I didn't age it enough as the scrapes don't show on the pictures. I think I will definitely need more mirrors!

I also started a cauldron, made from a ping pong ball. So far it's working out ok. Now I need to figure out what to put in it to make it look like liquid. I tried clear glue, but it's not very good. I filled two mini jars one with white glue and the other with clear satin lacquer. Will see if either of these will do. 

Well, until next time!

*Poof*

More books anyone?

Yay, 2013 is here!! And a new year for mini projects! Lots of them I hope.

I present to you....... dun dun dun dun..... a magical stack of books!

I've recently watched all Harry Potter movies again and I got the idea for high stacks of books. I've made this with books I already had, the red one is real leather, the brown one is made of fabric and the others are from the Dragonskin line. Oh, and these stand on their own, no glue necessary :)

Now here is something new! A book covered in very light colored moss. I found this great moss and I just couldn't resist. And I decided to make this an especially thick tome.... I like to think this is a very ancient encyclopedia of herbology :)

And another green mossy book. This one is smaller than the other one, it measures 1,5cm x 2,2cm

And the two books together. It's very easy to see size difference here. You might have noticed I generally have two sizes for closed books and two for opened. I am planning on making some more sizes, but only after I run out of the blanks I've made over the holidays. I do hope they'll last some time though.

In other news, I managed to make blank covers for over 25 books, so all I need to do now is to decide what to do with them.... leather, Dragonscale line, moss? I think I'll need to try something new.....

Well, hope you enjoyed the first post of 2013!

Until next time!

*Poof*