This was Minibear Project 4
Unlike many teddy bear artists on average over the last 10 - 15 years, I have made no more than 3 - 9 bears during each year. So although I have been making bears for quite a few years, I have not really made many bears in total. When I first drew a design for what evolved into my MiniBear, I had no idea that I would enjoy making them so much that in less than a year [after creating the pattern], I would have made more than sixty!
With several MiniBear Projects completed, and still making more little bears. Naturally I needed to come up with another idea so I could use the MiniBears I had made already or create new ones if I came up with an idea that needed MiniBears with a specific 'look'.
I designed and added wings to the little bears making them into either Butterfly MiniBears or Fairy versions. Another design happened when I 'tweaked' the basic MiniBear pattern a little and came up with a little mermaid version. Not a bad idea and I made a few individual MiniBear MerBears which I put in a 'watery' setting. Although this was a fairly cute idea, just between you and me, I think the MerBears need a little more work!
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Whilst making different MiniBears, combining fabrics and colours etc., I wondered if a 'shop' might be a good project to work on. It could easily contain any number of little bears and I would also have to do a bit of miniature work to create the actual scene.
My little bears are not made to a specific scale and this is another excellent reason why it is nice to try and make all the acessories I need for a project. It also means that you can use the MiniBears themselves to make sure the accessories are the right size.
Of course, before you make accessories to go into a shop, you have to work out what kind of shop you want to create! Most scenes are designed to be looked at from one angle. I wanted mine to look good from any angle. I should perhaps mention that I have only very basic skills and very little patience so it does seem odd that I would require myself to make as many of the accessories to be included in the project as was possible. Just me being perverse I suppose!
I couldn't decide what kind of shop I was going to make, so I began the project by working on how to make the shop itself.
The first question I had to ask myself was "what should I make the shop out of, wood or card?" Wood was stronger but more difficult to cut and shape with the limited tools I have. Card would be easier to work with but would it be strong and firm enough to be of any use? Typical of me, I began with neither!
I started with a piece of A4 paper which I began folding it this way, then that. Cutting out pieces for windows and doors. and not having the patience to work out plans and measurements to follow, I used the Minibears themselves to gauge the right size for everything. I felt I was working in the right direction when I realised that if I only had one wall, I could have a scene which would have no front or back. One view would be the street view looking through doors and windows, and the other would inside the shop looking through doors and windows to the 'street' beyond. I cannot tell you how many happy hours I spent designing and refining that first shop. Figuring out how to decorate the front, how to put the windows and door in place. Not to mention measuring (by eye) all the strips of wood for the windows frames.
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When I had the base and walls organised, I had reached my second problem, I had no idea what kind of shop I could make! |
A long time ago I used to make clay food for the dollhouses I had, and dreadful though I was at it, I wondered if I could make accessories that would be good enough for a bakery shop. I tried making some miniature cakes and pastries, but there was no getting away from the fact that most of them looked awful. However the wedding cakes didn't look quite so bad so I made some more, including some two and three tier versions. Thus the Wedding Cake Bakery became a workable idea.
I made display tables out of balsa wood which I thought looked better with a mahogany wood stain. A rummage through a box of cake decoration bits and pieces produced two sprigs of white flowers and two white doves - handy to go in my home made flower pots.
The wedding cake shop was coming along nicely but I needed 'something' to decorate the windows with, not to mention trying to come up with a suitable name. Oddly enought this took me quite a time to come up with, then I chose the name 'Wedding Paderia'. 'Paderia' is another name for a bakery.
The topiary trees and the little cat outside the shop were items I bought a long time ago for use in a dollhouse, but everything else I am proud to say I made myself.
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 Love is - finding a suitable wedding cake! |
 Don't be shy, just come in and look around. |
This turned out to be such an enjoyable project that I found myself contemplating another shop even whilst I was still working on the Bakery.
I wanted the same 'two view point' option but was happy to make the shop walls/window/doors in a different configuration from the one used in the Bakery. I found some coloured card which, when folded, I thought looked like a black marble counter top. Could I make an antique shop, or an objet d'art type of establishment? I knew there was no chance of me making statues and other things to accessories such a shop, but this would give me the opportunity to make use of some more dollshouse bits and pieces waiting for an opportunity to be used. I made individual display stands for some of the metal and plastic items I was going to put in the shop. Unfortunately the more I worked on this idea, the more I felt it didn't work and in the end I realised that I really didn't like what I was doing and it would be better to discard the whole idea and start again on something else. Even as I was dismantling the display stands I thought, how much better they might have looked as jewellery display plinths. In no time at all I was thinking if I might be able to make some kind of glass display table and so the idea of a Jewellery shop was born. Oh boy, perhaps it was a good idea, but how on Earth was I going to make accessories for that!!
I would need jewellery display units, counters and of course - jewellery! I have seen some incredible 1/12th scale jewellery made by craft people, but since the Minibears are only 1.75" tall, that scale would be too big. Also in order to fulfil my own requirements I had to at least try and make stands, counters and jewellery myself.
It is a good idea that if you are going to make something for the first time, that you start with something the same as, or similar to, something you have made before. I knew I had made the bakery tables so obviously the first thing I had a go at making were the display cabinets. I had a rough idea of how I could make them, using balsa wood and acetate. If my efforts created something acceptable, then I had a better chance of applying myself to the making of the jewellery. I admit that I was quite pleased with the display tables and made trays for the jewellery to go on inside the tables. Cheeky really because that way if I made items which looked awful, I could try again without having to discard the displays tables themselves. More chance then of completing the project! I glued tiny gems onto the trays to create necklaces and earrings and used fun foam to cut out the display stands for the necklaces. I was not all that happy with the jewellery I made to put into the cabinets, but I thought those I created for the counter top display pads looked better. I used both fine wire and cotton thread for the jewellery - some of which I thought looked surprisingly acceptable.
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Thus the second shop became 'Sparkles' the jewellery shop. Neither the Bakery nor Jewellery shops are 'perfect' but to me, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I am thrilled to bits with all the MiniBear scenes I have made to date and eagerly looking forward to seeing what else I come up with!!