Tuesday, March 30, 2010

newborn


Mama mouse with newborn, sitting in one of a pair of armchairs I made. Standard dollhouse miniatures don't work for mice because their proportions are so different from humans.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

pink girls




Six sisters, decked out in pink. These were for a children's story I was working on.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

reading





She is reading under an ancestral portrait, painted on an earring. The window is a glass button and the fireplace is carved from basswood.

pincushion


Lovesick mouse, pining on a pincushion

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

cart




This reminds me of an old goat cart my father used to pull us in when we were little. The cart is made out of a candy box.

bath time



This is a scene outside the gourd house..I made this maybe eight years ago. The mice are somewhat more primitive than the ones I'm making now.

tray





A tray of mice, ready for their closeups. Or maybe cat canapes.

playdate





The woodstove is a salt cellar

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

photo booth




My Fred Flintstone photo booth

running mouse





I'm trying out a scene for a children's book illustration here. The house is made out of dictionary and book covers. Roof is an old calfskin toiletries case.

napping






Mama will soon be awake

Sunday, March 14, 2010

learning to make chairs



This shows a week's evolution of mouse chairs. They're constructed out of old rulers, which are made from nice old VG fir, and easy to carve. I recently bought a miniature tablesaw so I'll be able to use more accurately milled wood, and the chairs will get less clunky.
The chairback on the far right is made from an earring.

Birthday party

This was in honor of my friend's 50th birthday. The cake stand is made from a part of a chess piece and a filagree earring. The swag is a strand of Pieris flowers.
Happy Birthday, Patty!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

baby carriage






The pram is made from a walnut shell
with a hairpin handle. The wheels are
black wooden discs between clothing snaps and eyelets.

blue door




Close-up of a large gourd house. I carved the door and window from pieces of wood, and used some great hinges from a now defunct miniature store. Front step is half of a wooden box lid that I found at a thrift store.

granny mouse




Inside the gourd house. The other half of the lid forms the hearth.

little mouse alone






The mice are made out of felt and pipe-cleaners,
and their eyes are black beads

guitar playing mouse








The little guitar is carved out of wood, with nylon thread strings.

happy family






This is an interior I've been working on recently. The tabletop is made out of a mousetrap.

Grace Darling




An illustration of "The Ballad of Grace Darling":

"She pulled away on the rolling sea
over the waters blue,
'Help! Help!', she could hear the cry of the shipwrecked crew;
But Grace had an English heart
And the raging storm she braved,
'Help! Help!', came the desperate yelp,
And the crew she saved!"

mouse at home by the fire




My first mouse house. The wood stove is made out of a poppy pod.

mice horsing around




These goofballs were made for a counting book ...this page was:

"Five, six, show off tricks"

Mice in a jar



Felt mice waiting for new homes