Happy New Year greetings

A warm and hearty welcome to Barbara, Lainie and Gonda. It's such a pleasure to greet new followers!
I feel we speak the same language.

A very Happy New Year to all of you generous, sharing and encouraging people.

Here is my Clock shop to remind us all of time passing.  This will be my last post this year.
Except for the grandfather clock, which is really a pencil sharpner, I made all the clocks from fimo and ceramic clay.
Will meet you again next year, 2011

Toy shop

In the middle shelf of this little shop window are four Peruvian musicians, the size of a fingernail.  I could not resist buying them at that time and now I only wish I bought more.  I believe they are made of bread dough.
On the shelf, beneath the musicians are a pair of Peruvian traditional dressed dolls.  They come as a brooch.
The little train on the top shelf are tiny pieces of wood painted red with black sequins for wheels.  The monkeys were once a pair of earrings.  The little houses are painted over Kinder prizes.

Mini cafeteria

A warm welcome to Natalia, Neomi, Nuria, Oese, Rosamargarita, Sonia and Rosanna.  Thank you very much for following my blog.

I had a drawer full of these little ceramic teasets and bought these six cute metal chairs from a lady here who recently started importing miniatures from Taiwan and selling them on E bay.  Added 3 pizza separators tables and painted the chairs and tables black.  The tiny coffemaker is a present from my daughter Galia and so is the hutch.  The rest of the furniture is tongue depressors' wood and other pieces of stray wood at hand.  I believe the size is l:24".  The ceramics are my work. I used beads for lamps and vases. Cakes are made of fimo.  The room itself is made of plywood for the wall and floor, foamcore for the walls.  It's covered with clear acetate.

Two more shop fronts

Hope everyone had a jolly good Christmas with family and friends.  I wish we had a little snow here as well but the weather keeps being warm as if no winter is due.

The first is a pet shop.  I made everything inside, the parrots cage and the parrots, the fish tanks (tic-tac containers cut with black lines painted on their edges).  The animals and the chicks are made from little fuzzy balls.

The second is an oriental shop. I made the little carpet, nargilas (oriental smocking devices) from beads,
the knives and shoehorses from fimo.  All the rest were are bought pieces.

Christmas Bells

Christmas bells come in many sizes.  They are very cheap, I bought one dozen for l shekel (The equivalent of 25 cents of a dollar).  These bells if you take out the inside swinging part make very good planters. I painted mine terracotta.

Chrismas tree in Haifa

This Chrismas tree is made of empty water bottles.  It is located in downtown Haifa and in the background are the Bahian gardens on the slope of Mount Carmel.

I wish every one on the
miniatures blogs a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season

Bead furniture

A warm welcome to Lara and Susi, thank you so much for following my blog. 

Years ago I bought this cute set of furniture from some charming ladies of a club in Lima, Peru.  They had made beautiful hand crafts in this club all to be sold and the money donated to the Red Cross.  This was before I even dreamt that one day I'll become a miniaturist.  I kept the set in a drawer and one day,  built this box to exhibit it.  I added the standing lamp, the little petite point carpet and picture which I designed and also the two other pictures. The little beaded dog I bought recently, that's why he's standing outside the box.
 

barbecue scene

First of all, a warm hearty welcome to my four followers, Sabiha, Luna, Casey and Ascension. You have made me very happy and grateful.

The idea for making this scene came when my granddaughter, Tali, brought me the six little cola bottles as a present.  I had two handles from a large bindel clamp leftover from a previous project and used these for the barbecue legs. The shelf and top are made of cardboard.  The table and benches from tongue depressors.  The rubbish can from a plastic creamer. I built the very easy and simple to do structure from a piece of plywood.  One wall attached to the floor and the rest are 1/4" wooden square dowels.  It is covered with acetate to keep out the dust and can also be hung on a wall.

Ikea boxes

I've been very busy spending time visiting the blogs I follow, so much so that I scarcely had time to make my own miniatures, but it was enjoyable, inspiring and motivating.

Here is one Ikea box I made some years ago.  I wish our local Ikea imported more of these boxes.

I did all these man's clothes at a one day workshop with Goldie Hollander. The photo is a little on the dark side.

boxes

I can't resist boxes - wooden, ceramic, metal, etc, as long as these are sturdy enough to hold a miniature scene. Sizes are not a problem when you make your own miniatures, you just have to worry about proportions.

Here is photo of a garden scene I fitted into a ceramic box.  I made everything inside, the terracotta planters, the ladder and wheelbarro and used popsicle sticks for wood.  The plants are bits of plastic artificial flowers and leaves.  Wish I'd taken photos of all the diffenrent sized boxes scenes before I gave them away.  I do not sell but enjoy giving present to people I love.

market stalls (continued)

All the stalls shown are made of balsa wood.  Goldie Hollander, a very talented miniaturist, cut the wood for me and showed me how to make them.

market stalls and stands

I love making stalls.  These are excellent ways of showing lots of little items which I enjoy creating.

Here are a few examples.  Only a few of the items are bought, most I created myself.  All the bags and purses , the wool stuff in the wool stall, the fruits which are made of fimo, the little puppet theatre, etc.

more shop fronts

I am very fortunate to have a daughter who is quite a well known artist and designer.   For a while, upon my retirement, I minded her gallery when she was busy elsewhere.  I had access to clay, glazes and a kiln which enabled me to start creating little ceramic teasets and plates.  This is when I caught the miniature bug and was seriously hooked. No complaints, its a wonderful hobby.  Here in Israel, where I live miniaturing is not yet very popular, there are only a few miniaturists but the ones I met are very talented and creative.

Here are 2 more shop facades.  I made all the stones on the walls from unglazed, fired clay.  By the way, before I learned about polyclay I made my cakes from ceramic clay and they look more or less convincing. The wine bottles are also ceramic.  These were my first attempt.  They turned out somewhat tipsy and out of scale.

My daughter, Nilly Landao, has her own website, http://nillylandao.com.  

miniature shops facades

Wish me luck.  Today for the first time in my long life I start blogging.  The purpose of these miniature shops facades is to exhibit miniatures I created and keeping out dust by enclosing  them inside the windows. I have made 22 different shops all of the can be either hang on the wall or stand on a shelf