A Tail of Halloween

Okay, so I didn't use Hartung! But, can you believe the sweetness and fun of Mainzer's cats? It took me a very long time to make a decision on what images to use for the little kitty's trunk. As I browsed over and over again, the postcards on ebay, I was simply struck by the wonderful imagination and spunk these two artist's possessed. At great expense, I won and purchased three vintage Mainzer postcards. This one of a Halloween street fair couldn't be resisted! Just look a the little cat in the Dutch costume! I have always loved things Dutch. I think it stems from a pin my auntie gave me when I was a little mouse. It was an enameled pin of a little Dutch girl and boy. I used to look at it for hours thinking about their costumes and where they lived, what Holland was like. So for Halloween, I am sharing this darling postcard by Mainzer, printed in Switzerland. If you have a few minutes, do take a look on ebay and see what these artists came up with.

Kitty now has one half of her trunk painted. I think its always fun to see a work in progress, but its also fun to have a look at the materials and studio where the piece is being created. My work in acrylics hails from a background in oils and a love of watercolor. Acrylic is not the easiest medium to work with since it dries so quickly and builds up a texture. Yet, many layers of thin, watercolor from acrylic can produce the nicest effect on a tiny trunk.

In the front of the trunk, I've painted a little kitty girl handing a freshly picked rose to a mama kitty in a yellow striped apron. This vignette was inspired by one of Mainzer's postcards. The garden displayed kitties pruning, hoeing, planting vegetables, and one silly cat watering another by mistake. In all of Hartung's and Mainzer's paintings, there is always a calamity or two occuring. As I continue to work on this little trunk, it is the sweetness that I am pulling from the pictures to create a kitty child's plaything.

In all honesty, the ginger cat and tabby fur was very difficult to render. The mind plays tricks on you and you have to concentrate on shape and color, rather than what you know the thing to be. Also when painting this small, an artist has to be careful not to overcrowd the scene, yet include enough to tell a story and create a pleasant presentation.

The entire trunk is being painted with this one brush you see in the photo. It is a Windsor Newton Sceptre 0000, synthetic sable. Even at that, I've removed several bristles to give it a finer point. Little pools of watery acrylic have dried on the wax pallette showing the colors, some mixed, used to paint the front of the trunk. It is my dream that one day someone will value my tools and scrap pallettes as much as the finished work. sigh!

Happy Autumn, Happy Halloween! And, back to work for me.

Love,

Miss E. Mouse

Pussy cat, Pussy Cat, Where have you been?

Kittens, kittens everywhere...and, what's a mouse to do? Well, it shouldn't surprise anyone that this little mouse loves cats, and they love her. I just received a fun and exciting little commission to make a tiny cat doll in a painted trunk for a 7" Pipos cat doll. The Pipos is a ball jointed doll, and these little cat dolls are so sweet. You can see a photo of one on my table below. For the past few days I've been sculpting away trying to come up with the purfect size for the little kitty girl to play with. The first attempt resulted in a little cat doll about 2 1/4" and I just wasn't happy with her. I felt that the tiny cat doll should be a more hand held size, rather than a baby doll size. And so, it was back to the drawing board. I finally came up with a tiny one about 1 7/8" tall.

One of the challenges here was baking the Fimo clay without burning it in the oven. Little toys and items I've made in the past were set on a foil lined baking pan, and undoubtedly, each time, the bottoms, where they met with the pan, would burn. Surely you could sand this off, but it was never quite right. So this time, and with the first doll, I experimented a bit. I found a small glass jar with a small opening, and threaded a needle through the holes that I'd used to string the limbs and laid it across the opening of the jar so that the pieces would dangle, or be suspended inside. Voila! It worked. Timing is also terribly important as you don't want to overbake the little pieces. So timed periods of 15 to 5 minutes would continue until the little body parts were hard.

This is such a sweet project because I've wanted to do something like this for several years now. A friend of mine who works in porcelain once gave me some little porcelain people cats that were assembled on pipe cleaner bodies. I hunted and hunted for them, and the post card book of Hartung illustrations (that I would used to paint the illustrations on the trunk), and nowhere could I find them! In retrospect, I think they would have been too large to use, as they were doll house sized dolls. Still, it would have been fun to see them again. I'm certain they are hiding somewhere, but I'm just as happy that I had the opportunity to sculpt the purfect size for the little cat doll.

Now that she is painted, she will be dressed. A little upright doll trunk will be made and then hand-painted will the illustrations I intended. Its not for me to name her...or is it? I'm sure the little Pipos doll will want to give her a name herself. But, then again, she is taking on a certain pursonality.

Next, I'm off to the miniature table saw to begin the trunk! Stay tuned...

Love,
Miss E. Mouse

How Would You Like to Swing On A Star?

How long has it been since I've written? Well, let us consider the time I took from the end of June until now. I guess even a mouse needs to take a vacation once in awhile! And, now my paws are working steadily again and my mind is creating faster than I can work. But, that's the fun in what I do. One idea inspires another. And, finally, Bebe Balancoire is finished. I had to put her aside because I just wasn't confident how to proceed to her completion. Much of it had to do with the presentation of her treasures.

When I looked at the original, it appeared her accessories and clothing were tied into the papers of the sides. When I lined the trunk, the paper was glued down, so how was I to do this? What I ended up doing was making cards exactly like the interior and sewing the items on. This way you could display the piece intact with the cards fitting perfectly, or you could remove the cards to carefully examine the items, or you could even snip the treasures off the cards to play with them and arrange them as you'd see fit. Were I to purchase this, I would keep the cards intact, but one must remember that all I make is made to work and be played with.

One of the last items I made and thoroughly enjoyed doing was the little lamb. As a friend of mine told me, he has a Big Character for such a wee thing. I'd intended to carve him of wood, but I kept jabbing my paw with the X-acto blade and gave up. I finally decided on Fimo, and liteally carved him out of Fimo then painted his tiny features. It took three tries as he fell over in the oven once and got burned on his side, so by the third sculpt I'd made him perfect. I kept the last sculpt from falling over by inserting a 1/4" squared piece of inch long basswood between his legs. This was not the first time I'd scuplted and baked Fimo in a miniature character, but those tiny legs needed the best support. I couldn't help but take a close up of him as, to me, he is the cutest thing about this presentation box.

Lastly, and not true to the original etrenne, I made Bebe Balancoire a gilded stand so she could be posed in a variety of ways. Today she is now up on my website and for sale to a special owner. I'm quite proud of the way this presentation box came out, and its given me the opportunity to experience how to build such an unusual drop-sided trunk.

And, what is next? Well, its fall, and time to think about Halloween and eventually the holidays. Right now I'm making two more peg wooden paper dolls. Both are of the Halloween theme and one is Betty Bonnet, the other Polly Pratt. Both are Sheila Young's artwork from the 1920's, and you may recall that Sheila Young was the turn of the century paper doll artist of Lettie Lane for The Ladies' Home Journal.

Bleuette has been wonderful to create for and I intend to continue making etrennes for her in the future (the new peg wooden paper dolls are for her), but I'm branching off, once again, into the world of the French Fashion dolls. When I consider what I've done for Bleuette, these exact items could well have been made for the French Fashion dolls, however the time frame would have been thirty to sixty years earlier. I find this exciting and inspiring, and look forward to delving into this further. The first thing on my list is to make a chaufferette. This was a wooden box that held hot stones or coals and would sit at the feet of a young lady riding in a carriage. It was a foot heater!

Many of the accessories that were made for the French Fashion dolls came in the form of paper dolls! You'd cut these little accessories out and assemble them by folding and gluing, and many of them came with poorly written directions. So did the patterns used for sewing clothing, so why would this be a surprise? Instruction was much by word of mouth and children were taught the basics early on. I ran across a chaufferette in paper form and could never figure out how to fold it correctly to make the paper one. This frustration gave me notice to make one myself, out of wood, and metal grating, which in the long run would be ten times easier than trying to figure out how to fold one. I will take you along on this creative process next.

In the meantime, please enjoy the completion of Bebe Balancoire and please do drop into my website to see all fourteen detailed photographs of the presentation. www.zhibit.org/houseofmissymouse

The season is changing. Summer is sweeping past us with the browning of grass and leaf, the winds are beginning to blow cool. Fall is in the air. I have a birthday coming up on the 18th and have made myself a promise to make this the best year yet! May yours be, too, beginning today.

Love,
Miss E. Mouse

Enter My Garden

Summer calls and who would not want to step into the most beautiful garden they'd ever seen? Why Alice, of course! And, me! Having just finished the fifth Wee Alice Trunk Set, I am ready to take a little nap, perhaps curled up in a leaf in a shady corner of the garden. However, I do know that if I dally too long, I'll find myself scurrying for something to do.

One of the most unique and interesting aspects of this latest little etrenne, is that I've not created a little storybook trunk set in quite awhile. It was asked of me to use a slightly larger doll, this one being 3 1/4" tall, so I had to build her a little trunk that was larger, instead of one that has always been this doll's exact size. So 4" it became. Also, I wanted to do something different and rather whimsical. I chose the interior paste boards of the book's binding and painted all the little Tenniel characters illustrated. It turns out that including the interior of the trunk, 17 characters in all were respresented! And, then there was the garden.

After having finished painting the exterior of the trunk, it took me several days to figure out just what to do with the interior. Tenniel did not have a proper illustration of the rabbit hole, which I found rather sad. I looked to other volumes of this story by other illustrators, but I didn't feel comfortable mixing images. It came to me, then, to create the little door, or the garden that Alice finds behind a curtain at the end of a corridor. At first, this was going to be just a painted door. I messed with this idea a little, and wasn't happy with the effect. So I made the little door and naturally made a frame, hinged the door and added the door knob with the keyhole, so that it could actually be opened to the lush garden Alice so desired to step into. I used the garden from Through the Looking Glass, but at the height of 1", and the fact that this was the first book I was depicting, I chose not to paint the faces on the flowers. And, that is how this mouse found the proper Tenniel garden!

The other side became a trompe l'oiel of the Tea Party. I included only the March Hare and the Dormouse as the Hatter was already painted on the outside of the trunk. Then, I added a draped tablecloth to set the little porcelain tea set upon. I added a wee illustrated volume of the book by Dateman Books, a Drink Me bottle, the pig baby, and a tiny set of cards so that Alice could play in the settings. I think above all else in this piece, the opening door to the garden was the most whimsical and magical of the design. How many times that little door will be opened and closed, one can only wonder.

Another unique design in this set was having to give the doll stockings and real shoes. In the past I've used a lady white porcelain doll that had shoes painted on her feet. This was actually alot of fun to do and seemed to give the doll more life. One of the lovely things about the little doll is that her head turns! She is then far more poseable than the others I've put in these little settings. Wigging these dolls is a nightmare. Mohair flies as if tiny fairies were fanning the process. Add to that the glue used to affix the hair and you can get into a real frenzy! It took me three times to get it right. A bit of hairspray keeps the mohair from continuing to blow away and keeps the do just right. All in all, I was pleased with the outcome.

And, now with this little Alice Trunk Set behind me, I do believe its time to take a few books off the shelf, trot out into the sun and find myself a corner to daydream in. Next? Oh, Miss E. Mouse always has a little hopper full of ideas. Perhaps it will be to finish Bebe Balancoire! Or begin a little doll in a trunk with a small wardrobe. I know that I've been asked to make a pair of skis and ski poles for a Bleuette, and there is also a peg wooden of Caddie Woodlawn that I'd like to do...

Oh dear! If I don't run out into the sunshine right this minute, my summer will disappear before I know it!

Love,
Miss E. Mouse

Music To My Ears

Hello again! So soon... Well, why not? It has been a most extraordinary month, so busy and yet, so rewarding with accomplishment. I've been winnowing down my own personal doll collection and one of the dolls I sold was a Momo. She's a 14" doll with a Japanese face on a Jumeau or Bleuette-style body (that's taller than Bleuette). When I sent a photo to my friend to ask her if she was interested in the doll, she inquired after the little black shamisen accessorizing the doll.

It turns out my friend is an accomplished musician, and plays a variety of stringed instruments, and probably a few she failed to mention. She also has a phenomenal Asian doll collection, so how could I turn down her request for a little shamisen? A shamisen is likened to a Japanese banjo. It has three strings and is played with a rather large pick. The most interesting thing about this project was that I'd decided instead of making a duplicate of the one I had, I would size the little instrument up to fit the Momo perfectly.

After the pieces were cut and assembled, I asked her if she'd prefer a black one or a polished wood one similar in look to the shamisen she'd just acquired that belonged to her grandfather. Polished wood it would be. So here I strayed once again into unfamiliar territory. Anytime you treat wood, especially Basswood, (which is very absorbent), with a liquid substance, the wood grain puckers up. Not so much with stain as its oil based, but with all other liquids such as paint, gloss, etc. Well, I'd already gone through a stain nightmare with the prie dieu and was highly reluctant to go through it again.

I did alot of research on what kind of gloss I could use on top of an oil stained piece of wood. I went to three different hardware stores and the answer was always the same when discussing the process. I had to sand in between gloss applications. I really didn't think the gloss would adhere to the stain, but after two day's drying time following the stain, the gloss adhered. I did have to sand, and I had to sand twice. I also had to apply multiple applications of the gloss, but the result was a hard, "guitar-like" shine that I was pleased with. phew!

During my research on shamisen finishes, I noticed that the instrument was played with a large and oddly shaped pick. I thought first to cut one out of wood and stain it to match the shamisen, when I remembered that I had some thin pieces of ivory sheets. No more that 2" wide, but about 1/16" thick. This was legal ivory acquired through a proper source, and I had no qualms using it. The first little pick came out adorable, but was only large enough for my older, black shamisen. That was the practice piece. The second one, a bit larger, came out perfect. I did not photograph the second one, but you can see the first in the photo provided with the original black shamisen (7" long).

And, so I've become a carpenter and a musical instrument maker. Another friend of mine inquired about a zither earlier in the year, so I'm hoping to have the opportunity to make her one in the future.

Love,

Miss E. Mouse

A Spiritual Journey - Sentimental, Too

The twenty-first brought us the Summer Solstice, and the first day of summer. The sweetness of the warm days reminds me of dipping my paw in a jar of honey and watching the glistening gold syrup drip slowly down like the days ahead. I'm particularly fond of beehive and honey bee ephemera and tend to want to decorate my hole in the wall with images of this busy little friend. Like the honey bee I am always working. Even if the work is pleasant, its a task put before me that must reach completion. This month I am trying to finish all my commissioned projects so that I can begin something new. As promised, the prie dieu and First Communion accessories were completed and I've selected a few photos to share with you.

The entire collection includes the Gothic prie dieu with four holy vignettes painted down the sides in the oval cut outs, and a presentation box of accessories. Represented on the prie dieu were God the Father, St. Peter, Jesus holding a heavenly orb, and the Blessed Mother Mary in the clouds. These were incredibly difficult to paint. Mainly because I first wanted them to have the same look and feel, although the originals were done by different artists. Secondly, they all had a halo or holy glow to them that had to be done just right. And, third, each had a tiny face about 1/2" to 1/4" big. Its not that I haven't done miniature faces before, but when you're painting religious figures, you don't want to mess up!

The presentation box contained a small gold chest with a sterling silver neckace with a cross on it, a scapular, a folding Stations of the Cross and a faceted garnet rosary. Included with this collection was a white leather covered bible with a gold ribbon page marker. The presentation box itself was a delight to paint although it took me quite some time to figure how to paint the lillies on it so they would stand out. I'd mulled over putting them in an oval, putting them in a leit motif from the middle shape on the side panels, but ended up with the circle. The idea of the circle came about when I was thinking of the communion host a Catholic receives at mass. White would not do however, so I chose a pale sky blue to show off the lillies. I was very pleased with the affect.

Then there was the folding Stations of the Crosss card. I don't know if you've ever tried to fold paper like this before, but it pops out. It won't stay folded. I pressed it under five coffee table art books and it still wouldn't stay folded. My first thought was to encase it in a leather binding like a book, or even make a leather envelope for it. Finally, days later, the idea of the ribbon to wrap around it, with the end tucked in was the decision made. I'd had these teeny tiny gold crosses in my stash and glued two together with the ribbon pressed between them. This made tucking the ribbon in very easy, and gave it a unique look. The purple ribbon was chosen as it is a holy color.

The rosary was probably the most difficult to make. I must have ordered seven different types of beads to make one. I thought 2mm crystal beads would be appropriate, but the spacers were just about the same size. I settled on 3mm faceted garnet beads, and while I felt they were larger than I wanted, the overall affect was perfect. A sterling silver crucifix was threaded on to finish it. Beading the rosary was not easy either! I have to laugh because while I thought this project was going to sail, it was one of the most difficult I've ever done. Of course, I never do anything easy, but this one not only cost me greatly out of pocket, but it was a meditation in sheer patience. Did I mention that I had to cut all the prie dieu's pieces twice? I'd mistakenly stained them first, making the pieces impossible to assemble. I will never do that again! I learned so much with this collection and in retrospect, it was an entirely spiritual journey.

I have never figured out how to properly place the photos I share with you on this blog site. They seem to have a mind of their own where they go. Sixteen photos were take of this collection and I will have them uploaded to my website www.zhibit.org/houseofmissymouse shortly. Please do drop into the Bleuette Collection Gallery to see them.

The Wee Alice Trunk Set is well under way by now, indeed more than halfway done. I just finished painting the last Tenniel character on the trunk and will be doing the wash background to tie them all together. Next I'll wig and dress the tiny doll to be Alice, then put in all the finishing touches. I've been painting for the last three months on these and another project I finished (a Hitty trunk) and I need to rest my eyes, switch gears for awhile.

So what are my plans for summer? I think I need to find a shade tree lose myself in a good book. But, like the honey bee, I will keep busy working on sweet things, yet you can rest assured, a few books will be enjoyed as well.

Love,
Miss E. Mouse

A Painter's Life

I can hardly believe an entire month has gone by since I last posted. A little mouse can only do so much in a day, and the days have have been mighty filled. To be very honest, I've been burrowing and licking my paws alot. I often wonder how other little mice can wake up everyday and be cheery. And, yet, when I'm like this, I often do my best work because it is the meditation or zen of work that gets me through the day. If we don't have occasional blues, the pallette of our life is missing the entire spectrum. I'm a yellow and orange mouse. High creative energy colors, so a swing to the other side of rainbow makes a long trek back to the sun. So what have I been working on? Goodies.

After the Alice challenge, a dear collector asked me to make her one of my Wee Alice Trunk Sets. I love painting Tenniel so accepting this commission was a delight. While the other little storybook trunks I've painted in this genre have been illustrated with entire scenes from the story, my OOAK necessity positioned me in a way to try the front first pages of the book I have, which are little vignettes of the characters with washy backgrounds of the outdoors. On one side, the front has been finished with the characters, and when the other side is complete, the individual background washes with be done together in a connective way. Some of these characters I've never painted before, and Tenniel is always a challenge, a sweet challenge.

The other project I'm working on is for a dear friend who joined the Bleuette Sewing Group not too long ago. The current sewing challenge is First Communion dresses and veils for the dolls from the vintage patterns. Bleuette was Catholic and La Semaine de Suzette (Suzette's Weekly) was published to teach little Catholic girls how to sew and become good mothers and housekeepers. So far, the outfits these ladies have made would make you swoon! Glorious. And, my part is to make an accessory set a little Catholic girl would receive for her First Communion. These items include a scapular (a prayer necklace, worn dutifully, will ensure your escaping the fires of hell upon death), a rosary and other times. I've learned not to give too much away on the Internet so that my work does not get copied (for awhile at least).

The other piece for the First Communion is a Prie Dieux, or kneeler. This is for an individual to kneel upon and say their prayers to God. In the past, many have been made quite ornately, while modern ones are more simplified. Naturally, a Missy Mouse prie dieux would be ornate! I found some incredible cut-work wood, in a Gothic style, that made the perfect "trellis" work to showcase the paintings, or holy portraits. The images came from holy image cards a Catholic could collect. Currently I am working on the Virgin Mary in the clouds. It is the last painting of the four as there are four ovals in the cut-work that accomodate the paintings. These would have been originally done in oil, for the soft blending of fabric folds and the delicate loftiness of clouds. However, my experience with acrylic has given me the ability to create these effects ratherly nicely in this medium. When the prie dieux has been assembled and stained, I will post a photo of it. The doll it is being made for is 10 1/2" tall and made for her specific body type so she can kneel at it comfortably.

Now the challenge for me, is switching from Tenniel to the oils of the holy cards. Two entirely different techniques are required to paint these images. Just as all paintings are a product of the artist's technique, these are as individual as expected. Imagine painting a face only 1/2" long, sometimes smaller.

It is the Memorial Day weekend and the weather finally cooperated for barbeques and picnics. Its been the coldest May on record and at least one resort in the Sierra reopened for skiing and snow boarding this weekend. Mercy! I need summer so I can scamper through the warm lawn again and feel my whiskers twitch in the rays of the sun.

June is just around the corner and its time to think about lakes and beaches, bathing suits and shorts to hike in. May your days be sunny and your disposition merry!

Love,

Missy Mouse