Human Skull Projects

I've finished two new human skull projects. I really like this museum or curiosity look.

 

This sliced skull opens and closes. 

 

The center piece is stationary, the other two have a wide range of movement. 

 

This hinged skull also opens and is hollow inside. Perfect for storing tiny treasures!

 

 

I have some new wand designs and a few commissions I'm working on now. It will probably be a couple of weeks before my next post.

 

Have a Happy New Year!

Dragon Skull: Work in progress...

I've been traveling and finishing up some old designs that I had laying around. Here's one of those old designs I never got around to:

I still have to make the bottom jaw and do some of the finishing details.

I have some other skulls I'm working on and some old half finished wand designs as well. I'll try to put some pictures of those out this weekend.

Beauchene Skull Finished...

I finished the stand, it's on its way to a happy home!

Beauchene Skull...

I have a new creation for you. This is just a sneak peak, I'm not done with it yet.

It's called a Beauchene Skull, sometimes also referred to as an Exploded Skull. I saw it on TV twice in one week on two totally unrelated shows and just new it was a sign that I had to make one :). It's just my meager attempt though...

I think most beauchene skulls are dis-articulated into 14-22 pieces, mine is only 9 pieces since it's so small. I made it in 1:12th scale. It's made from polymer clay and the stand is brass. I'm still working on the base, so maybe I'll have it out in a few days or a week.

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On another note... Not much has been moving in my Etsy store and I've been feeling like my prices are too high lately. I want to make sure my items are affordable so I'm lowering prices. I am also offering free shipping until 04/01/2011. Just use coupon code DHMBD04012011 when you checkout. I hope that can make a few people out there happy :).

Thanks for following my blog!

Skull Wand Stands

I've been a little slow with emails over the weekend, sorry about that! The weekend just slowed me down to a halt :). I'll get back to those of you who are waiting today.

Here are the skull wand stands I had talked about before.

This one is my favorite, I'll be listing these on Etsy when I'm done blogging.

Here's a little bit of a top view. 

And here's a view for size reference. 

This one is the first one I made , remember I said I wasn't happy with it.

I think the bones that hold up the wand are too tall.

And it feels like it's missing something. 

Maybe a rose, or a spider. Anyway, I'll list this one for less since I feel like it's missing something. 

I also painted the rest of the skull wands I had. I'll be listing these on Etsy as well. Wand 'J' is all crooked though, so he will also be on sale.

I have enough stuff to make 5 steampunk wand & box sets, I'll start working on those this week. I think I have enough stuff to make more wands after that (without the boxes), I'll have to check though.

I also have an idea for an industrial wand, kind of like the steampunk style but more steel and nuts and bolts. We'll see how far I get on that! :)

Skull Wand

My commissioned orders are almost all complete for now, so I will be spending the holiday season bringing out the new wand designs that I have been promising. I will try to continue to list them in 3 ways (wand & stand, wand & box, and just wand) so that I keep an affordable range of prices available to you. If you miss out on a wand you like, let me know and I can make it again for you.

I have put together a quick Wand Price Guide for everyone, take a look at it for prices, wand varieties, and more.

Okay, now for a new wand....

I have been dying to put this design out for a while, (since I did the Pumpkin Wand actually). It is my new Skull Wand.

My daughter helped design this box, I think it's perfectly creepy!

And inside.... laying on a bed of black velvet.... almost like a coffin J.... is the matching wand. 

The wand and box have very simple colors, an off-white with black accents and shadings. 

The skull is not as detailed as some of my others, but this guy is just so tiny! 

Can I say that this wand is my favorite when I say that about each one? J

The wand measures about 1 1/4" long, the box is about 1 1/2" long and 3/8" wide. I have a stand designed already too, I just haven't made it yet. It will have bones and skulls and be creepy J. This wand almost made me want to do a Voldemort wand... maybe in the future...

I am going to try and get the stand finished today so I can list it in Etsy by Friday. My Steampunk wand is also finished, I'm just finishing up the box so I'll show that one here on the blog next and hopefully list it on Etsy at the same time as the Skull wand. I'll do another post when I'm ready for Etsy.

Sharing time!

This is extremely long overdue! I have lots of things to share from many great artists, and I also have a few of my own things to show.

First my collection of Jamie Moore originals J. You might remember me showing the small one up front recently, he was part of a swap Jamie and I did. Then I just had to buy the two boxes you see in the back, after discussing it with my husband... we both agreed we HAD TO HAVE THEM AAALLL! We're a little crazy about Halloween like that! Jamie has an amazing checkerboard on auction at Ebay right now, ending really really soon.

Thanks Jamie! I love them!

Here's something I have had for quite some time now and just realized that I never shared (don't worry, I have already slapped my hand J). This amazing white leather set comes from a contest I won on Kat the Hat Lady's blog. I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am that I now own 3 of her hats! And aren't those shoes just precious!

Love them! Thank you Kat!!!!

And yes indeed! My fingers were quick on the draw and I snagged one of Nikki's skeleton bottles :). My first Nikki Rowe mini, it's so well crafted! She was even kind enough to include some extra tidbits that I can't wait to work with! When my kids saw them we all exclaimed together how we didn't know that acorn caps would look so different overseas. They are acorn caps right J?

Thanks so much Nikki, it's everything I hoped!

It's been long ago that I should have shared this one too. I got this great little book from Kaleidoskopic Romance. Kassandra is a doll to work with and she makes great looking dark-themed items, my fave! Sorry I got him a little dusty, but this book has a beautiful velvet cover and that great steampunk-ish thing on the front.

Thanks Kassandra! Love your Etsy shop!

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Now we are on to some of my creations. I found a wonderful person on deviantART. Demet is from Turkey and makes really lovely watercolor flowers. Demet also has started making mini flowers (which are equally as lovely!), and dabbles in some other arts. I liked Demet's watercolors so much that I asked if I could make them into a mini book... and here it is.

Can't tell from the picture but this white flower is pearlescent.

There are many more pages with brilliant flowers, please visit Demet's watercolor flower gallery to see them all. This book is currently on it's way to Turkey, hope Demet likes it! If you would like to purchase a book like this, please let me know. Lorraine@DflyCreations.net

Moving on... I made some more pumpkins with faces for an order. I love these guys! I like to think that they are a little different than all the other pumpkins out there right now J.

These little guys are on their way to Italy along with some tombstones and wands. I hear they will be decorating a witch house, hope I get to see it when it's done!

Since we are on the subject of pumpkins, I made my pumpkin wand design into a pumpkin staff for Grimdeva of Cauldron Craft Miniatures & Oddities. It grew from 1 1/4 inches to 3 inches. Looks good to me, what do you think?

Yes, those are my giant sausage fingers! J My daughter wasn't around to let me use her slender hands.

Well that's it for now, off to see about making this follow-along thing and test some paint.

Pumpkin Wands

In honor of Halloween, I have designed a pumpkin wand with a matching pumpkin stand. I'm so pleased to say that this wand and stand are 100% original design from me. Usually I look at pictures and gather ideas and inspiration, but not on this one.

The wand sits in the stand perfectly. The stand is tiny and has a pumpkin patch kind of feel to it. Lots of curly vines, tiny pumpkins, and a pumpkin leaf.

I made a lot of these wands since I like them so much, so I will be selling them in different ways. One with the stand, 4 with boxes as you see in the picture below, and 4 just wands. Hopefully the price range will fit many people :).

The wand box features a brown bottom with orange ribbon interior. The top is orange with brown shading and a hand drawn pumpkin. I wanted the drawing to look like one of those old line art style drawings, I think I got close :).

The wand itself is made to look like the shaft is carved wood with some shading to get it nice and spooky looking. Then the hilt is greens and oranges with the pumpkin topper.

These will all be in my Etsy shop very soon. And I have so many more wand ideas now, this style opens up so much!

New wand for Etsy

I have a new wand for Etsy. It's a new design along with a new wand box design.

I had the idea for a while but hadn't had time to materialize it.

The wand is more intricate than my previous wands and makes it look so delicate.

The box has the wand information on a piece of aged parchment attached to the top of the box with a wax seal.

 I think this is my favorite wand so far. I only have one to list on Etsy so it is early bird gets the worm :).

Dark and Spooky

My lovely new friend Phylis that I have been having a wonderful chat with has just boosted us up to 95.... only 5 more followers to my giveaway! Welcome all of you, hope you like my minis. Time is flying! I better start making the giveaway item, (Hint - it is considered furniture).

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Well I'm sure you will see the following items in the future in one of our blogging buddies posts, but I love to show what I've been working on.

Some black candles, no labels this time.

Some dripping candles. I still can't get the lighting right to show the drips, too ugly when the lighting is dark and too shiny when it's bright - and the wax color doesn't help :).

Some maps, they're so tiny but maybe someone will recognise what it is a map of :). When I was about to make these, I had to ask my customer if she wanted them to have clean edges or burned, she decided on clean but then I was too curious to see them with burned edges so I made a batch of each! Hope she doesn't mind the extras :).

Some skulls. Love these guys, they have that grin that just gets ya!

And then some skull and bone sets.

I have extra skulls, I'll throw them on Etsy tomorrow (that might mean late evening today to my friends across the pond).

And then there's pumpkins, saved my favorite for last :). The bigger pumpkins are half the size of my usual pumpkins, they are meant to sit on tables and such whereas my usuals are pumpkin patch size (normal size). And then the little ones in front are really tiny for tucking into spots that need a little something. I had one of the little ones laying around for months and when I made the big ones I decided to make more of the tiny ones just because. They're not much but I hope she can make use of the extras! :)

That's it for today!