New blog

After lots of years I decided to make a new blog for Petit Brocante Miniatures and stop posting on this allthough Miniature Dreams will still be open for visitors.

I hope you´ll join me on http://petitbrocante.blogspot.com

I will make follow ups on my Facebook posts, deepen the posts with more pictures, thoughts  and some tutorials too. I hope this will be a new place to share our common love for minaitures..

First posts will be about my shop Ballerina...

Happy new year!

 

Last year I wrote an article for American Minituarist about rediscovering my interest for miniatures that I lost somehow for about 20 years and found again back in 2009.

Still can´t figure out how I could live without it for so many years.

The article is reprinted in the new issue of Dolls House World.

 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year with lots of miniatures...

 

Rocking horses...how to...

 

 

It has been a very long time. Hope you are fine and still occupied with miniatures ;-)

I certainly am. Being buisy at work I really treasure the moments I spend relaxing with my hobby. This is the time when I forget all about my duties and I think it is a very healthy process getting problems off your chest for a while.

 

 

I am very happy to have found a few more of the old toys I use for making my vintage rocking horses. The horse body is very special, I think, made of a very early kind of hard plastic.

 

 

I paint several layers of base and then the details. First the strong unblended colors and then the softening process, shadows and light.

 

 

 

I make the tail of linen fibres.

 

Mostly I show my miniature work on Facebook. If you have an account, you might like to follow Petit Brocante. Just click the label on the right side bar. Anyway, see you soon here too!

 

Sacré Coeur

..or Sacred Heart is a new theme I made for Petit Brocante. I´ve allways been fascinated by the strong symbols of christianity, not being a very religious person myself though.

I made a range of Madonna figurines casted in clay, then I blended soft transparent colors from my Winston and Newton palette for them. I polished the figurines to obtain a smooth surface like porcelain and then I added the gold.

The background is an old picture from my collection of items with a bit of kitch...

Wish you a nice weekend with miniatures...

Dreaming of spring

Dreaming of spring and collecting memories of every little sun beam and birds singing, I could recall, I decorated this little birds house...

 

 

 

We had the darkest january since 1965 but luckily human beings have such a strong capacity of imagination ;-)

 

Living with horses

Antique horses are a must in your living, aren´t they?

 

I made one more rocking horse from old toys and a lot of paint added in many layers...

This one is basically dark brown with white and golden details.

 

 

Wishing you a nice time with miniatures!

 

A child and his sheep...

 

I have always been fascinated by the small decorative sheep with legs like drumsticks. Below are some in 1:1. They always have a small ribbon around their sweet necks and maybe a small silver bell also..

 

 

We had some when I was a child and they were used as easter decorations and celebrating spring. Today I´ve learned that they are calle Putz Sheep and orginally was a part of Christmas decorations, and a part of nativity scenes and orginally connected to german immigrants. Putz is German and means to clean or make something neat and nice. I also discovered that putz sheep can be a part of toy sets...and I am not surprised ;-)

 

 

So, I had to make such a set and include it in my Vintage Child Collection for Petit Brocante - as well as in my private collection of course which is steadily growing...

 

 

First step was to design the box...then I went to the sheep... I was exstatic when I found exactly the size I wanted and started to paint and decorate them and the inside of the box. 

I had to add some hay too... 

 

 

And voila!

 

 

A small arrangement

 

Well it started when I had fun adding patina to this small statuette that I made of several parts casted in clay. Studying the patina on garden statuettes used for inside arrangements I had to add a lot of green. That was in fact also inspired by the grapes that I thought would fit the statuette..

 

...And the other grapes had to have something to be shown in...

 

 

And so I made the bell jars for the stands that I allready had...

 

 

Things seem to grow sometimes all by themselves...

 

 

Well, well...

American Miniaturist, February 2014

I am very proud of being featured in American Miniaturist. They asked me to write an article about my work and style and to take some Pictures. And so I did. They gave me 7 pages and the front page, I am very happy with that.
Actually I took a lot of pictures of Petit Brocante, so I thought I would show you some of those pictures that wasn´t published in the magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

More in the magazine...

 

 

 

 

Chest of drawers

 

I like to add paint in many layers, and that was the tecnique I used for this piece of furniture.

I started with a pink base, then a lime green coat, then again brown patina and gold.

 

 

 

For the drawers I used a transfer tecnique with prints of aubusson motives.

And then I added some knobs for the drawers.

 

 

The chest will be listed on Etsy...

 

 

 

 

Fish faucet

Had a lot of fun making the faucet and taps for a new wash table. 

I love when things seem to develop nearly by themselves 

while I am working.

It actually started with the paint. I love the shiny mother of pearl effect. It just says 

VINTAGE and ROMANCE

...and it yells for water and sea. 

So I decided to use it on a wash table.

Then the fish came and told me to paint it antique gold.

It wanted to become a faucet.

And a moment later the taps suddenly 

grew out of a box 

filled with bead parts. 

They wanted to sit on each side of the porcelain sink.

I quickly added a lot of matching items in the colors I prefer. 

And then the photografer came by 

and sealed the moment.

But maybe things went too fast?

I forgot to ask the wash table if it would prefer to belong in a beach house,

And if the background and the accents should have been blue?

I might have to give that a try too...

Winter wonderland

 

 

 

Soon it is december and time for small arrangements to make the

dark and cold days warmer and cosier..

 

 

I decided for a trip in the old wooden sleigh, and added a moleskin fur as a blanket,

and a pillow to keep you warm and comfortable..

 

 

I the woods I found a large christmas tree and filled a big basket with lovely pine cones.

 

On the way back it was dark already,

but I had brought the old, rusty lantern along to show me the way

in Winter Wonderland..

 

 

Wish you a lovely weekend!

Mama bear and the two small bears

 

Mama Bear got her name from two small kids who loved her so very much..

 

 

..that she lost most of her fur, an eye and her ears...

 

 

 

...and got herself a few scratches.

But take a closer look at her comforting lap...

 

 

Two tiny bears have found a place to rest and nap :-)

 

 

 

Mama Bear was mine when I was a little girl, and was passed on to my little brother, who named her. To day she has a place on a  shelf in my living room.

 

I just couldn´t resist the two tiny bears when I saw that Muriel Roche from Le Coffre D´Emilie sells them.

They are so perfect.

 

 

 

 Thank you, Muriel!