Custom 1/12 scale felted animals on a movable metal wire armature



My love for miniatures, animals and dolls has always been very strong. Drawing, sculpting and animation are also part of my passions. Since I am an eternal kid inside, I like to move and play with my miniatures which lead me to learn needle felting so that I can make movable scupltures on a metal armature. My sculptures can take many positions and are made from a mix of wool and silk. They are 1/12 scale and are made to fit in any dollhouse scene. I simply love to do custom sculptures of people's pets and am always looking forward to a new challenge. I also started to make ball jointed dolls which has been a passion of mine since I can remember. I am open for commissions, please contact me should you have any questions or comments.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Montreal miniature show 2016 + fun with miniature knitting

Hello there!
It has been a while since I last posted so although I am late in saying this, hope Easter was fun for everyone and that all chocolates were ever so good.  Mium...
There is also another exciting event soon... The Montreal miniature show is coming fast! It is on April 2nd and 3third.
Holiday Inn Aeroport Montreal, 6500 Côte de Liesse, Montreal, Quebec, H4T 1E3.

Once again, some of my miniature felted animals will be featured at the Montreal show. This time my 1/12 scale felties will be in great company at Marlene Thomas's table next to some amazing quality miniatures! Thank you Marlene for your kindness!
I hope there will be a lot of gorgeous miniatures to see this year, I am really excited:)

On a different topic, I have been working on a commission for a special 1/12 scale bjd for some time now and I can't wait to see it fully finished. I had a lot of fun with designing and knitting my own miniature pattern for it and seeing the finished product made me really happy (this is my first human sweater so I am really enthusiastic about it). I never knew how to knit a V neck before so I had to learn to do it in miniature too. I still think the middle double decrease stitches look a bit sloppy but hopefully I will get better with practice. Here is my knitted sweater. I was relieved to see that the length of the sleeves and sweater is exactly what I had planned but disappointed with the casting off of the neck ribbing that is slightly too tight... Arglhorglglrh

So many stitches, I changed my thread this time, I used Venne Colcoton thread 34/2 which is a lot smaller then the anchor thread pearl cotton #8 that I was using before...

If you want to see a miniature garment knitted with Pearl cotton #8 you can see my older post Great material for miniature knitting

My first V neck!!!!

I was also dying to try my new multicoloured thread so I knitted a quick little dog shirt too. It is meant for a tiny dog such as a Yorkshire Terrier.
Here is the sweater sported by a tiny plastic figure that is roughly the size of the dog that it was meant for.
 It has a little wooden button and is ever so cute!!



Since I am not very experienced with miniature knitting I had to look around to find the best thread for this so I thought I could share my experience. Lise Ashby, whom I mentioned in my previous posts suggested I should work with Venne Colcoton thread and I fell in love with it. It makes for a greater looking miniature garment for sure and is easy to knit with plus has great colours!!! 



One of my favourite colours!!!

 Here is a sample of one of the multicoloured thread I bought... Hoooooooo I can't wait to knit more things!!!!

(Venne Colcoton 40/2 multicoloured thread)


Here is a little comparison

This compares DMC Pearl cotton#12 (bottom sample) with Venne Colcoton 34/2 (top sample)
*Pearl cotton#8 is even bigger than the bottom knitted sample #12*

This one is called flower thread from DMC and it is similar to DMC pearl cotton#12

This one is the Venne Colcotton and is smaller then flower, cotton#8 and #12

Here you can see that the fisrt one is smaller (Venne) the second one feels a tiny bit bigger then all three (Flower) and the third is the DMC cotton#12
This one is sulky thread and it is even smaller.

The Sulky thread I tried was too slippery to knit with, I managed to make a panty but with some difficulty. It is the one I least enjoy knitting with, too bad because the colour was amazing... Here is the info on the sulky thread is used.




All in all from the ones I tried so far, my favourite are hands down the Venne Colcoton, second favorite would be Pearl cotton#12, then flower, then Pearl cotton #8 then sulky. I also like the look of knitting with a thread of floss but it is very tiny and it takes time to split the floss...


If you are interested in the Venne Colcoton thread, here is the link to buy the thread www.helena-petitefashions.co.uk


I would love to hear from other miniature knitting enthusiasts who tried different thread and would like to share their knowledge.
See you next post and enjoy spring!