For November, since our theme was "Classes, Classes, Classes", we asked you to share pictures
of a completed miniature class you took.
Please be patient with the Create team (we are all volunteers) as it it may take a few days for your pictures to be posted.
You WILL receive a gift but it might take a few weeks.
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From Carol Pitman:
I've attached a couple of photos of the most recent class I took: Kit Kat Miniatures "The Glass Slipper". It was a class offered at the February 2022 Online Houseparty. I painted 22 pairs of quarter scale shoes for this project! The Cinderella doll on the front step is by Julie Stevens.
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From Beverly Fleming:
This was the Thursday Night Project from Portland.
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From Dia Crissey-Baum:
In 2017, I took a class from Michael Reynolds in Lawrenceville, GA to make a very large and fancy roombox. We built, painted, and plastered a room with a fireplace, a big window, and a secret door with a closet. Michael made these amazing resin panels for the walls and ceilings, and putting it together and painting it was fun and not really all that difficult, which meant that I didn't have to do much once I got home but decorate it!
I had been reproducing real-life antique furniture by hand for a while and had some pieces I was proud of I wanted to live in this box, and once I decided what it was going to be I made the rest of the furniture to go into it. It became my Cabinet of Curiosities. It's full of all kinds of unusual things that make me laugh or roll my eyes, and I think it's fun to see what things people see in it when I display it at our local show.
All of the furniture is scratch-built, by me. I'm particularly proud of the recliner that actually reclines, and the portable cabinet in the center of the room. The mosaic table made me say the most swear words because of the Fimo tiles constantly breaking. There are a lot of real animals in it: a black widow spider, a brown recluse, a little snake I found squished and desiccated in my driveway, a giant cicada I found in the pool, a bumblebee, and eventually I'll add a small frog we found in the window at our church. (Don't ask me how it got there; I have no idea!) It has a real mouse skull and a real snapping turtle skull on the wall. (My dad found it at our pond. Its shell is about a foot long!) There are more fake animals, like the alligator hanging from the ceiling (in honor of my favorite author Terry Pratchett), the giant fish with the can of peas in his mouth (like the shark at Joe's Crab Shack, only it's not a beer), and of course the flying pterosaur. I made a bunch of fake fossils and painted all the heads on the walls.
Then I made a bunch of stuff I thought was appropriate for a Cabinet of Curiosities: a shrunken head (that one still creeps my kids out), a wolf with wings (OK, I only made the wings and glued them to a plastic wolf), King Tut's sandals, a charred stool from Pompeii, a collection of artificial eyes, a jar of tribbles, a giant geode, a model of the Millennium Falcon, a skeleton of a mermaid, a mandrake plant, a small Audrey II, a tiny dragon, weird things in jars along the top of the wall ... the list goes on and on. Finally, there's a skeleton in the closet. He's reading a magazine and has a cat sitting in his lap. One thing I didn't make is a polymer clay Covid virus a friend gave me.
There are also things that are meaningful to me, like the portrait of my parents above the fireplace, pictures of my two kids, and an airplane in honor of my husband. Our house doesn't have a lot of room to display all my minis at the same time, but this one stays out, and I even turn the lights on when we have company.
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From Martha Bates:
I was fortunate to be invited to join the Oklahoma City miniatures group participating in a Shaun Crawford 1/4 scale class. We were taught how to paint this structure to look realistic and added doors and the door cover.
At home, I made it into El Chico's Mexican Restaurant after a local establishment and, even though 1/4 is not my normal scale, began to fill it with a bar, restaurant, kitchen, round pastry display, parking lot and landscaping, second floor living quarters, rooftop patio and lots of people! Such fun!
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From Cindy Loman:
This is a class that I did in my local club in September. Assembling the door, shelf and table was the class and then we were to decorate them anyway we wanted. With Halloween just around the corner, it was an easy choice for me.
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From Barb Antol:
The first Create class I signed up for was a folk-art painting class taught by Ginger Landon Siegel. This style of painting was something I had always admired and wanted to try to learn, so the class was a perfect opportunity. It was really fun! The class projects included some wonderful little folk art shelves plus a variety of little decorative items including plates, boxes and wall plaques. We hand-painted the shelves, but the other items used decoupage images which we embellished with texture paint. I really enjoyed the class and ended doing more pieces on my own to create a special little room-box.
Here are some photos of the class pieces as well as the room-box.
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From Cheryl Polito:
When I first started making miniatures in the early 2000's it was only 1/12th scale dolls, but immediately I wanted to take classes and after a wonderful woman named Beth Lane invited me to her house I was hooked. My classes originally were at her house with Dana Burton but after Beth passed I attended a couple more at other peoples house. The first doll is from my very first class with Dana. After that class I taught myself with help from Beth to pour and make my own porcelain dolls. The second doll I can’t remember whose class it was but the doll quickly became one of my favorites. That class was an online class.
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From Jackie Williams:
This was an online workshop from Kit Kat Miniatures (Kathy Abdinoor) for Quarter Connection around Easter this year. I created the Bunny Dolls.
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From Sue Ostheimer:
These are three separate 1/4" scale projects that Sue Herber offered. I took the first class "Arch de Provence" in 2007 at the Philly show, then I bought the second kit "La Petite Maison" in 2008 and assembled it at home, and then I took her class "Cafe Michel", again at the Philly show, in 2009. I just loved learning and doing the aging on the buildings and through the years have had fun adding tiny things inside and outside. It remains one of my favorite minis and all three fit perfectly into a football case for display.
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From Elaine Levine:
The library was done in a class by Samantha Murray and is one of my favorite minis. I made all the books individually.
The fairy tale house is from a class taught by Suzanne and Andrew's. It still needs a bit more landscaping.
The red house is a copy of a very old house in Quebec City and is also from a class with Suzanne and Andy.
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From Margaret Gordus:
1/12“ scale Roombox of “Flower Classes“ taken from Deb Laue of Dragonfly Int. via Zoom.
1/12“ scale Doll Class via Zoom by Deb Laue of Dragonfly Int. and Carrie Lourenge. Carrie taught making & dressing the dolls.
The porcelain face mold is by Cynthia Howe.
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From Terry Unnold:
This mother and child is one of the first doll dressing classes I took with Dorothy Haw over thirty years ago. I just loved dressing and posing the dolls especially the tiny baby! I’m still fascinated with dressing dolls in every scale from 1/144th to 1/6th.
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From Marilyn Nielsen:
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From Ruth Goodger:
This ME scene is a quarter scale class I took from Suzanne and Andrew’s Minis in Seattle.
The messy table is half inch scale. Possibly Karen Cary but I'm not sure.
And here is the scene with my favorite bear.
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From Maria Florencia Alecci:
I completed this flower stand in 1:48 scale at a Philadelphia miniaturia workshop. It was my first time taking a miniature class. It was also my first time working at 1:48. Jodi from Mini Decor & More was in charge of the class and it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to more classes and workshops.
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From Betty Turmon:
This Christmas Room Box is one I made in 2000 at the Gulf South Show in New Orleans. This workshop stands out in my mind because I got to meet for the first time, my quarter scale idols, BJ Houston and Jerry Floor. In my mind they were the pioneers of this scale. I remember how I admired the Painted Lady houses they made of cigar boxes and furniture of cardstock. BJ taught this class and Jerry was her helper. I made all the furniture in this room. No kits were used at all. The fireplace was made in class from cardstock and was one of Jerry Floor's designs. The window treatment was taught by BJ Houston. The dishes were all made by Jerry, something I ordered later when I discovered she made quarter scale China dishes. I learned so many tips from that class and I still I use them today.
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From Pat Creagh:
This class was taken at Retreat Into Miniatures in Wisconsin. It was the first year Bob Mueller designed a 1/4” scale room in a cube from varying Grandt Line pieces and left room for personalization. Great mini memories!
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From Cindy Bottasso:
Here’s the first class I ever took at Country Store Miniatures.
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From Mae Karoli:
These are pictures of “Nana Rose’s House” a class taught by Kristie Norman of Norman’s Country Creek in 2018 at Sweet Tea and Sunshine in Charleston SC. This was the first class I had taken from Kristie and also the first ¼” house kit I had ever made. I have since completed several ¼” houses/buildings. The first floor is electrified with 4 LED lamps on tables and the dresser. Rose’s granddaughter sleeps in the loft when visiting. The pieces of furniture are kits made by Kristie to fit with the theme of the house.
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From Suzie Aguilar:
This is my finished table of “French Pastries” from the one and only class I have been able to take from Carl Bronsdon. I did not know how lucky I was to have gotten into the class at the time. His classes are popular and fill up fast! I took the class at a NAME convention.
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From Vicki Scidmore:
This was the most complicated class I've taken! It is a half-inch trailer from Arizona State Day in 2019. Most of the interior cabinet fittings were included. I gave it barn/cowgirl decorations. It was a lot of work but I am very happy with the results.
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From Carolyn Eiche:
Here's my submission for the November Challenge, "Classes, Classes, Classes". These photos are of my White Rabbit Bakery by Karen Benson. It's from the Online HP this year, Fractured Fairytales. I just finished it this week.
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From Mary Johnson:
I took this "Let It Snow" class online a few years ago. The NAME workshops had filled but a friend & I were able to get kits (without Julie Steven's Hannah & Snowman, so we substituted our own.) I've added extra animals around sides and back -- Barb Meyers howling wolf, (on left of the snowman), deer, raccoons, and others around the other sides.
It has lighting and instead of leaving a blank space under the floor I added a "downstairs wall/entrance". This was a bit challenging and took a while for the large amounts of "snow" to dry, but this fun, creative project is fun to display for Winter.
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From Lesia Lennex:
I'm sharing a wonderful memory with you this month --- the 1/4" scale Sugarplum I made in a workshop at Naperville for the 2004 Armchair Adventures HP. It was my first small scales event and it was absolutely fantastic for the classes, dealers, and happy miniaturists at the event. I furnished the house with one kit specifically built for it (the attic) and the rest was from swaps, prizes from Little Enough News, and kits. This is always one of my favorite houses for many reasons!
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From Carol Shea:
This was the cruise we took with Debbie Young. It was a beach house with surrounding beaches. I tried to collect sand from every island we stopped at for the landscaping. Each island is named on my house. It was a great experience taking a class with her and Jeff. Jeff showed us how to make rubber molds, too.
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From Paula Sklodowski:
I took this beach cottage class from Bonnie Helterhoff in June 2022. It was a pre-show class at the Lakeland (FL) Miniature Show. We each received the 3 walls and floor connected. Then we got a bag of ‘parts’ – the base, the house supports, roof pieces, wallpaper, flooring, signage, accessories and details instructions. While in class, we textured the base, finished the outside, wallpapered, and installed the flooring and one of the windows. The rest was completed at home. The class was great and I had so much fun finishing it at home.
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From Paula Francis:
One of my earliest classes was at a Tiny Treasures State Day in Quincy, Massachusetts taught by Past-President of N.A.M.E., Paul Rouleau. He designed a clock box with a back opening and a hidden alcove for a battery to light it. I remember being so excited to be taking a class from a well known artisan and once I decided on a theme and purchasing the leather and beaded dress from Rainbow Hand, I was well on my way to making one of my favorite pieces. Except for the chair, everything else (horse hair baskets, tomahawk, katchina, skull, bowl, cactus and table) came from a trip my husband and I took to New Mexico. Isn’t it wonderful when we, as miniaturists, can build something meaningful to us but also fill it with special purchases and momentous that give us additional pleasure?
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