returning and some

I've just realized that I've not been here since 2013, in fact I'd forgotten I ever started it but perhaps it's time to re learn how to do it.

Three years later I'm astounded by how much has changed in our miniature world and how I want to resist those changes. Then I have a go and I'm all exited again, I'm of the generation that says I'm not able to learn new things particularly with computers and want to brag I'm illiterate when it comes to that. What phooey, of course I can learn new things, I just have to learn how to read the instructions and, in desperate times, ask for help. Like many I know I look at a page of instructions and then read the first part of the first sentence and then automatically scan down diagonally to the last sentence avoiding all the details, then I say it's too complicated and don't make an attempt.

In class in Denmark I'm always amazed by the Norwegians because they astound me with another way of reading instructions. Everyone gets a series of worksheets but it's only the Norwegians who read all the way through from the first page till the last and then......this is the weird bit.......go back to page one and then pick up the clay and follow what I've suggested they do. It must be the way they get taught in school but it fascinates me how they can do it.

So, two years ago I was chatting to the fabulous Penny Thomson www.penny-thomson.co.uk and she told me she'd set up an Etsy online shop, then confessed that her daughter had helped her. So, without a handy daughter around, I was never going to be able to do it. Till last Tuesday that is, I was about to go out and thought I'd just give myself ten minutes to see what it was all about. Ten minutes later I've nearly set it up and it was much easier that I'd ever projected - and that's my problem, projecting on a negative outcome - I came back later and finished setting it up. The next morning I took photographs of my work, learned how to upload - or should that be download? - them and started the store. Ten hours later the first figure sold, whoo it works! Went out the following morning to get the post box and bubble wrap to come home to find three more had sold. So had to go and get more boxes, yes, I know I could have checked the emails first but I didn't. Later three more had sold so I now have to take more pictures and put them on.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Jamescarringtondolls is where you'll find it, there's some tweeking to do, but thanks to other miniaturists friends who are guiding me I'll get round to it and blow me it's such fun. Another chance to teach an old dog new tricks.

IGMA KENSINGTON WORKSHOPS

Now we're all up and running for the new IGMA Kensington workshops in conjunction with The Kensington Dollshouse Festival.

Reservations and payment for classes can be done securely through the IGMA website www.igma.org via credit cards of PayPal where you'll also find the class descriptions and photographs of the workshops.

Classes will be held at the Kensington Close Hotel and class sizes will be limited so an early booking is recommended

Castine is over and now it's on to Denmark for Miniature iTune but there's some breaking news about next year!

At last the word international in International Guild of Miniature Artisans (IGMA) comes true. In the week preceding the May Kensington Dollshouse Festival IGMA will host a group of three day workshops at the Kensington Close Hotel.

Teachers are to be Bill Robertson, wood and metal working, Geoff Wonnacott, furniture, Annelle Ferguson and Pat Richards, needlework and myself teaching doll making.

All of us have taught for many years in Castine and this is a golden opportunity to discover what The Guild has to offer.

No need to join The Guild and you'll be able to pay for the classes via the KDF website later this year when all the plans are finalized, thanks to Charlotte's support for this new, exciting venture.

brokers

For anyone traveling to sell their work in Philadelphia and Chicago, we've found out the legitimate way to do it. Thanks to Karon Cunningham, a life saver!

It's really easy, once you've done it. You give them power of attorney, a really confusing form until you've found out what to fill in, an inventory of what you're carrying, your flight details and a supporter in The States. The whole thing costs around $250 and that'll include the duty fee for your goods, but if you want the broker to meet you at passport control it costs another $100, but well worth it for the first time at least.

For Chicago

Contact Dawna Moore on ISF@vandegriftinc.com she's so helpful.

For Philadelphia

Contact Micheal Rowles on mrowles@djrlogistics.com again really helpful.

Whoo Hoo!

Get this, a whole new look to the Blog....thanks to Evelyne Martin, my wonder on the web. How come young people know so much?

Mind you, come the day the batteries die and the power goes out, us old ones will still be able to pick up a pencil without instruction, not that I'm looking forward to that day coming soon but it just might and then it'll be our turn.

Bless her heart though, and if you're looking for help she's definitely the one to turn too, see what I mean, I stabbed the wrong key and got the calculator, darned thing, I never trust them but rather rely in mental arithmetic  thank's to Miss Wright in junior school who did a test on that every Friday afternoon before she ended with a story. It was the story that got us to 'suffer' the test, and that's from someone who's baffled by numbers.

You can contact Evelyne through Facebook or through her contact form.

Back On Track

Whoopee! Now, with the help of Evelyne Martin, my new website is up and running and it's all systems go.
www.jamescarringtondolls.com will find all you need to know, and see, about the current range of figures ready for Chicago International. So looking forward to seeing everybody there.

Then it's back for The Kensington Dollhouse Festival on May 11th and 12th before I get on another plane for The IGMA Guild School in Castine, Maine. A full class there too with old, and new friends to teach my new method of sculpting the 1.12th scale figures. Thank goodness I've had a try out for that and, to my surprise, it worked wonderfully. The method is so practical and, almost, foolproof.

This will make Miniature iTune, Denmark a really relaxed class in July. www.miniatureitune.com have all the details. Don't worry there's an English version there too, in fact English is spoken better in Scandinavia, it seems, than at home. Added to that their sense of humour is brilliant.

What a wonderful start to this new year.

Fabulous Fabrics and Tantalising Trimmings

Yes, dear Duffy, our very persuasive show organiser, has talked me into doing it again. You don't dare say no to Duffy!

A private bus will take us into Mahattan and we'll get to shop in the best stores in the garment district, meet the wonderful and knowlegable owners and even get to have lunch (at your expense) before the bus whisks us back to show off all the goodies.

This tour is very popular and has a limited number of students so don't hestitate, go to www.igma.org click on the Show Page and get ready to walk into heaven.

WEB SITE DOWN AGAIN BUT HERE'S THE NEWS

MINIATURE IN TUNE

Yet again we're going to have fun in Denmark, let's just hope my students remember that the best way of getting good marks and get all my attention is to go and get me a regular supply of the wonderful Danish Pastries from the baker.

Here's what I'm teaching this year.

For the first three days I'll be showing how to sculpt in half scale with the added bonus of me directing you to costume. It's restricted to the Medieval Period this year but I hope to do The Tudor Period next year.

It's going to be great fun with new techniques to learn, plus, if students find this scale natural to them, I'll have special things to teach.

Then, for the two day class I'll be teaching

Men's Tailoring

The well tailored jacket, with shirt front, tie and waistcoat. And of course matching trousers.

This will be dressed on a tailoring stand but all the skills taught will be useful for tailoring for your own figures.

For details go to http://www.miniatureitune.com/

Yes the website is in English and, since most of the students speak it perfectly you'll not have any problems with understanding and being understood.

Also teaching there will be Jens Torp - in shorts! - Philippa Todd, Bill Robertson, Ursula Dyrbye-skovsted, and Bjarne Kelde.

It's a fabulous setting with private rooms, en suite. Fantastic food and very friendly atmosphere.

Up and Coming.

Here I am again, just over a month to go before the first fair of the year and I can't see the wood for the trees. OK so there are a range of figures nearly ready but now I can see the gaps and there's going to be no time to fill them. It would be so nice if this was the first time it's happened but we all know it's not. Must give Ann High a ring in the morning to see how much stock she's got done.

Still there's one or two that I'm really quite pleased with, just wait till I've taken pictures of them and I'll share them with you. June Cleaver was fun to do in half scale. Who the heck is June Cleaver you ask? Turns out she was a character in an American sitcom called Leave it to Beaver - really can't think we'd have got away with a title like that in England - wearing a full skirted shirtwaister, apron and pearls. Oh yeah just like my Mum. Friends over the water had just finished a 50s kitchen and challenged me to make the figure so I rose to it and had a go.

Oh yes I've got new lights for my stand too, 50 watt halogen lights that really reach are lightweight and have a wide angle. I really ought to put all the lamps I've bought over the years up on Ebay, I could probably retire on what I could make. But I'm just hoping that these are the final ones, it did take me fifteen years to come up with the stand I use nowadays so I suppose I should be patient.

Now it's time for bed, so good night and I hope your dreams give you great ideas for the morning.

Funny How...

Funny how you search for the answer to problems and then find it when you're not looking isn't it? I wanted to get the answer to painting the 1/24th scale faces with more character so went back to my old life and searched the web sites for character make up. I should heed my own warnings to others though and write down what I'm looking for and not allow myself to get sidetracked with 'oh that looks interesting' resulting in a search for fascinating snippets of information non of which are relevant to what I was looking for.

However this time I found a make up artist called Lars Carlsson, a Swedish artist of the old and new schools. There I found the solution and it's something I already knew in the past and had not thought of it for years....and I mean Years! It's a colour which I have on my pallet already but never thought to use 'there' and wow the difference it makes. What is it? Sorry that's a secret until my class at IGMA 2011.

Here's Miss Havisham, would be wonderful to see her decaying wedding cake in this scale

Kensington is coming up as Charlotte has just reminded us all this morning, thank you Charlotte I now have the image of dozens of makers going into a tail spin with all that work still to do. Experience should tell us all that it'll be fine but non of us ever believe that do we?
I'm feeling quite calm really much to my surprise added on to the fact that I've given up smoking and it's now three weeks. No I can't taste food any better, haven't got any more energy than I had and, yes, I've become slightly snappy at moments, but friends know that's always been there, so all in all nothing has changed except that I've got more time and that's the bonus. It's given me time to have some fun with figures. A good friend of mine, Arley Berryhill, was chatting on email just before Halloween and was saying about how popular witches are in America and had I ever done them. Now Arley does larger scale figures, sorry, fabulous larger scale figures, but he's intrigued by our scale and he suggest that I should do a witch getting dressed at her dressing table. Well we all like a challenge don't we? I had real fun doing this one....

She's called 'Every Witch Deserves Warts' she's had to buy hers because she can't seem to grow enough of her own.

But go to Arley's web site to be amazed at what he does. www.arleyberryhill.com and say Hi from me.

Web site....again!

And here's the current state of play with the web site. Poor Gary is probably pulling his hair out over it but I think he's solved the problem. Turns out the host ( I think that's the group who deal with my username) have become unreliable and I've now signed my life away to another - better - one. Everybody keep their fingers crossed. You never know this could just work.

monthly chat

Don't you just laugh at that title? The intention is to write a monthly blog but I've got no one around to tell me when it's due. When I wrote for Dollshouse Magazine, Christiane, the editor, got so used to having to remind that it was due.......the night before! But the intention is there, let's see what happens.



It's been 'one of those months'. Happens everyso often but I've no memory of how I coped with it last time and have to re learn.....or ask friends. Thank goodness for friends, they can get their own back at me for running their lives.



First of all I had to plan for the two workshops. One in Norway and then, almost straight after, one in Holland before planning for the IGMA Show in Teaneck. Well, things were going pretty well apart from the fact that my small workshop got covered in piles of stuff for each one and the usual happened, chaos, so it all had to get sorted. Just when it did we heard news that the airlines may go on strike. Fine, it wouldn't effect my getting to Norway but then I realised I'd never be able to get back in time for Holland. Well, we all knew that it wouldn't - probably- occur but it wasn't worth the risk and we decided to cancel, such a pity. I was so looking forward to the Sunday class where I'd volunteered to teach some of the school children I'd met last year. Wonderful teaching young people because they have such free spirits and I learn do much from them.



Then there was Holland. Trees's husband is seriously ill so would it happen? Fortunatly it is so I could get organised for that and I had an extra week to do it in. But things were just not feeling right and then I had the breakthrough. Get my workshop and flat cleaned up and sorted! It's the last thing I ever think of and the best thing to do. First of all the flat, because I had so much to do I'd not been putting things away and then couldn't find anything. First rule of clearing up is to get some plastic sacks and start throwing things away. Wierd! Just how many tee shirts does a man need and how many of them are wearable. It's my Mother in the back of my mind telling me that 'I could cut them all up and use them for dusters'. HAH! They've gone! Strange that, I've found room on shelves I never knew I had. Even stranger, having tidied up I found that putting things away when I've used them really works. I know where things are and I can find them next time.



Doesn't work in the workshop though, all dollmakers know that. We use so many different things that we create chaos just doing the first thing. But it does work on the notice board down there. You know the sort I mean, the one covered in inches of 'useful' notes and reminders. Had to brace myself for this but I found most of them were quite irrelevant and well past their sell by date so they either got dumped or put in the file drawer, the drawer I can finally get to because I'd also cleared the space in front of it. Having got a clear notice board I could print out two year planners, one for the end of this year and one for the whole of next year. Wow, I know where I am and what is booked. Better still I can see what space I have in between. Wish I'd thought of this ages ago!



Then there's the website. Seems like the hosts have changed their way of working and my pictures keep vanishing. Gary, my wonderful computer guy, tried to work it out for me and, for a time it worked. New pictures were taken, loaded up and put on showing what I'd got for Teaneck......then they all dissapeared again. Gary, thank goodness has taken over hosting it, and by next Wednesday it should be all hunky dory. I'm putting Gary up for an award, he's the only computer person who, when he's tried talking geek language at me, realises that I've no idea what he's talking about and tells me again, in simple 'press this and then do this' language. I'm sure it makes him feel very superior but he doesn't show it.



Now all I have to do is have some fun, forgot that's what life is all about. There's an evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein on the Proms tonight and I'll know all the words plus chicken salad and fruit for supper. Wow, life is good!

NEW 1/24th scale figures

Well, it's taken years to get round to this scale but I've finally got round to it and, do you know, it's such fun to do.

Many years ago Wendy Chalkey, who used to sell 1/24th scale porcelain figures asked me if I'd sculpt a series of character figures for her so that she could cast them and make more realistic men and women than she had in stock. Aprehensive at first I finally got used to the smaller size and loved it. Wendy moved on to other things but I've kept those initial sculptures in a drawer waiting for the time to 'get on with them'.

The time seems right, with more people moving over to the smaller scale - the collections are getting bigger but the space to put them is getting smaller - and the structures, furniture and accessories are getting more available, and very good they are too. But where are the figures?

What's put me off for years is the dressing 'I'll never be able to get my big hands around the tiny bodies' fine for those that were given tiny fingers. Projecting on the fact that 'I'd never be able to do it and I'd be hopeless at it anyway' I took myself in hand and had a go. And do you know it's real fun to do? So much for projecting eh?

Here are the first ones of The Canterbury Tales.

They are The Friar, The Wife of Bath and the Knight. The tallest one is The Friar at three inches high.

So, pleased with the thought that dressing them was, after all, possible and having learned from a mass of mistakes - allways the best way - I crept back late into the workshop to see if it was at all possible to do a Vicorian figure, yes a lady in a draped bustle! Let's not run before we can work eh? And here she is......

I can't wait to teach these and have put a proposal up for 2011 at The Guild School in Castine. Now I wait and see if I've got it right.

IGMA Information

For anyone wanting information about the

International Guild of Miniature Artisans

living in the UK - and beyond - contact me for a brochure, application forms etc.

By email at jcarrington@dsl.pipex.com

by snail mail at 6 Cheriton Square, London SW17 8AE

or by phone on 020 8675 5716.

NOW YOU CAN PAY DIRECT TO JAMIE WITH A CREDIT CARD

email jcarrington@dsl.pipex.com for details of the safest way to enter your details.