This was opriginally published on my Blogger blog on 6/15/12 "The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from." David Bowie Recently I came upon a neat little book called, Steal Like An Artist by Auston Kelon. Auston maintains that nothing is original and what a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. He's got a lot of great quotes in the book too, like this one: "Immature poets imitate; Mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn." T.S. Eliot You could substitute 'miniature artisan' for poet there and that would explain a lot. "Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." Salvador Dali So as a miniature maker the game is pretty much to imitate real life in miniature. We all do that and probably for that very reason - to create a world we'd love to see or be in or own. I ripped this out of a magazine years ago with the intention of one day doing it in miniature. I can't remember the magazine now but hope the shout out to "Patina' makes up for slapping it here without permission. I finally found a Bespaq cabinet that seemed to suit the design. I had to replace the glass with wood panels but in the end my copied design suits the miniature piece. It's not exact but I did steal the original style of the real size piece. Somewhat. And then. I followed through with a chair to match this is now an original piece but I still used the swiped design. There's more. Lots of people really enjoy this next style - which is obvious, but I won't mention their name. They are very touchy and think they invented black and white checkerboard. Bashed Bespaq cabinet and hand painted plates This style has been copied in miniature over and over again - expertly and poorly. I put my pilfered design on another Bespaq piece that has been seriously bashed and you probably wouldn't recognize it. Oh, and yes, the plates are in the same style. I did not think to take a photo of the original but maybe I can steal one. But that would really be stealing. Taking photos and plopping them in your stuff without permission is not nice. Kinda like what I did with the magazine clipping. What could I do? I'm proving a point. "What is originality? Undetected Plagiarism." William Randolf Inge Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil
There are of course those among us who really do steal. I have seen my own things copied other places. Things like my dressed skeletons. I did not think up dressed skeletons. You can find them in real life in some awful places. Dead and still in their clothes. But I had them in 'original' poses. Like this one. I later saw it ripped off on eBay. And of course, neither one of us originated the monkeys from which this came. And hey, those you see everywhere. Some people hang out on other people's websites and copy everything they see. Exactly. Sometimes you see something unique and then you see it again and again. "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." Goethe I have in fact copied full sized original pieces line for line in miniature. But they were antiques and that would, I think, make them in the public domain. I am for sure not the only one. Some of the most sought after pieces are things in miniature based on real stuff that people just need - to evoke a feeling - and in miniature that would be totally unique and 'utterly different'. I think. What do you think? Tell me. I can take it. Oh, and all the quotes I used in this blog came out of Austin's book.....
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I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. Oscar Wild You don't need the expense of traveling to miniature shows when the very best miniatures are no farther than your keyboard. We all came to earth with gifts and one of mine I know for sure is that I can find the best things in just about anyplace. And I know who has what gift. So when it comes to miniatures I am pretty good a ferreting out great stuff. To add to my own collection. And here are some tips to help you find treasures of your own: 1) Don't Overlook EBAY. There are wonderful artisan miniatures available there every day often going for way below original cost. Check under "Artist Offerings" in Dollhouse Miniatures (under Dolls and Bears). But don't neglect the larger category because many things there are not followed by most. 2) Check out the Artisan. If you see something on a popular miniature website and are not thrilled with the prices, go directly to the artisan (Google). You may well get the better price. Plus you can find wonderful things from artisans who might not be dealers at the shows you attend. 3) Auctions. For years I thought I would never be able to afford the wonderful miniatures that were coming up for auction. I did not even know how to sort out bidding on those auctions. So, sadly, I passed up bidding and lost some fabulous stuff. Eventually when an auction got to be too tempting, I jumped in. While things are usually sold in lots and you might be interested in only one item, charge in and get the lot. You can later sell off the unwanted bits and in the end come out ahead with your prized item costing nothing. 4) ETSY. While I find ETSY to have a lot of miniatures less than top, artisan quality (lots of decal-ed plates and crockery, computer printed books, paper watering cans etc), there are quality pieces there, you just have to look. As new artisans emerge with wonderful things you can score amazing miniatures for great prices. These artisans eventually move on for some reason, often showing up on eBay where there is great competition for their work. Strike while the iron is hot. (And hey, nothing wrong with decals and computer printed stuff, I use and make it myself, but that stuff will not bulk up the pocketbooks of your heirs). 5) THE CAMP. This is a Yahoo group consisting of over 1800 members at the time of this writing. It's a great place to share anything and about miniatures and ask for help with your projects or locating an item. Lots of help from many well informed artisans and collectors. When one finds something fabulous its gets shared and you can find great deals and great artisans by work of mouth. I believe it to be the ultimate miniature online group. Join here. 6) Facebook. While not for everyone because I have heard that joining scares some people into believing their information might be shared, its still one of the biggest if not THE biggest social media sites. (1.65 BILLION active users as of 7/16) There are many miniature groups there and you will find wonderfully talented artisans coming out of the woodwork from all over the world and many sell their work. I would start with IGMA: The International Guild of Miniature Artisans. Go HERE. 7) Pinterest. Another social media venue full and I mean FULL of miniature eye candy. Again, you can find wonderful creators of minis there and many do sell their work. You can also leave a message asking to place an order. 8) Show schedules with dealer links. Whether you go to shows or not, you can always visit the show's website. There posted are dealers for upcoming shows with links directly to the artisans. Click around and you will find something to please you in your budget directly from the artisan. Since you saved a pile of money not traveling to the show, spend away. 9) Blogs. Yes, there are millions of blogs these days. Just another sign of the times that the internet is where it's at. It can happen this way; you find something on Pinterest that links to a blog. That blog lists favorite blogs that happen to follow -miniature related, of course, and you can scr0ll through several at a sitting, see what the owner is doing and how they do it. Many show step by step photos of their own personal projects. But in and among this information is reference to items they collected and where to find the artisan. You also find direct links to the artist's website or selling page. (eBay, ETSY, Shows). 10) And last but not least, the newest hot spot - INSTAGRAM. I must admit that I have an Instagram account that only has 6 photos. Shame on me. But Instagram is rapidly surpassing Facebook as the place to be. So it follows there are minis there and you can find minis and their makers. I have been featured on THE DAILY MINI myself which started as an Instagram account and now has 62,000 followers and lots and lots of great minis with links to find them. So you might want to start there. Here ya go. And PS, I intend to blast my own INSTAGRAM account. This piece is from my old Blogger blog and was published in March of 2015
Did I miss anything? Found anything wonderful yourself off the beaten path? Tell all below. I get that a lot. When I see someone whom I haven't seen in awhile I often get asked, "Are you still doing your little miniatures?." I usually just say, "yes", and move on. I can already feel the condescension so I cut that short.
"Talking about art is like dancing about architecture." David Bowie It FEELS like they are thinking, "what a silly thing for a grow up to be doing". Or, "she must be crazy, playing with toys". At times I have tried to explain but their 'enthusiasm' seems kind of dismissive. I actually hate that question and I really want to respond, "It's my fucking JOB!" Its how I pay the bills. How I have done it on my own when there was no other income forthcoming. And I am talking NYC bills. So yes, it is my J.O.B. And I happen to love my job. It's all I want to do. And I consider myself damn lucky to be able to enjoy myself all day every day. How about that? How's your job going? Hmmmmm? That question has been irritating me for some time and I have been meaning to vent about it and I think here is the best place. Because other miniaturists might read it and get it. And I do love my tribe. My tribe of miniaturists. Miniaturists who love miniatures and collect them and miniaturists who consider them art, miniaturists who create, miniaturists who deal with the business of miniatures selling their work or that of others, or both, or antique miniatures, or who build houses or make dolls or furniture or silver or glass. In miniature. So there. (If you get it, then share this with some of your friends who don't.) PS. If you don't get my newsletter, please do. I'll be sharing how I manage to keep bumping up my income as opposed to starving. If you sell your work, of course. And maybe you will someday. Plug in your email up top and get a freebie or two. And don't you just love this fabulous illustration that proves my point by Arielle Rosenstein , a gal after my own heart! "The reinvention of daily life means marching off the edge of our maps."Bob Black I have a feeling if you are like me, you march off the edge of your map daily. By that I mean, we start off with one project and by the end of the day, we are way off the trail. A long way from where we started. I wake up thinking about miniature and pretty much go to bed the same way. This usually entails what I plan for the day and then what I never got to that day. I was working on some chairs recently that I wanted to reupholster and had all of that spread out on one work table. Choosing fabrics for several pieces had me stumped so I looked for a distraction. Then some tea sets I had ordered caught my eye. These were meant to be made up into magically pouring tea sets like this: Oh, there's some finished chairs. Here's another one. *The customer who won this on eBay said she was disappointed with 'the quality of the chair," (Bespaq) because "It's light weight and cheap and small (again, Bespaq) and not worth what I paid for it. "I thought it would be oversized and not so cheap looking", (once again, Bespaq). I told her to return it for full refund. Never heard from her again. When this happens I have to think they were trying to either get a partial refund or a full refund and then get to keep the piece. Not. But I digress and am off the path of this blog, as you can see. So here are the tea sets: These are commercial pieces that I bought online or on eBay and the quality varies widely with one set being much too big for 1:12 scale. I have an order for a magical set but couldn't decide which to start with and ended up not starting. BUT. Someone had inquired about a dormouse in a tea pot and I had just gotten this new modeling compound called Bees Putty from Germany. There is sat unopened, but not for long. I sculpted this mouse in the too big tea pot because sometimes too big is just right. And the Bees Putty is pretty neat stuff. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" |