Campers were asked to tell us what Your Favorite Medium is to work in and why. Not sure what a ‘medium’ is? Check out this list of Arts and Crafts mediums.
Here is what they told us:
From Marilyn Hughes:
My favorite medium is polymer clay. I have a a whole bunch of it, from different manufacturers and just about every available color. It’s fun to work with and if you mess something up, it’s inexpensive enough to toss and start over.
From Sara Cook:
I'm having a lot of fun with digitally printed fabric. My current project (a sort of thrift/antique store for mermaids, 1/2" scale) includes a clothing boutique, and these are some of the items I've made. I find images of the fabric or items I want, manipulate and scale them in Photoshop, and then send them to be printed on fabric; I can fit several garments onto an 8x8" swatch. When the fabric arrives, I cut the pieces out and glue them together. Sometimes I add some embroidery or embellishments, like the black trim on the houndstooth jacket. I'm working on a biker jacket right now which will either be a triumph or a disaster that we will never speak of again.
From Bev Fleming:
My favorites are knitting, crochet, spinning, doll making.
From Susan Buffaloe:
My favorite medium in fabric. In real life I love to take a length of fabric and tada! It becomes a costume or a dress. I find the same satisfaction in my miniatures.
From Ana Lopez:
I love to work with jewelry making medium. You can get very creative.
From Dia Crissey-Baum:
This is such a hard question! I love working in wood best, I think. Paper is a close second. And a long list of others! And, in real life I really love fabric but not so much in miniature. It just doesn't behave nicely.
From Cindy Bottasso:
My favorite medium is 1/16 matt board cut with my laser using Adobe Illustrator. I love finding a real-sized object, drawing it to 1/4 scale in Illustrator then laser cutting it, and finally assembling the piece. I'm still learning proportions so many times I'll have created a chair that doesn't have long enough legs or a table that's too short but the process is fun. I can't stop making furniture. It's addicting!
From Susan Richter:
I would have to say that my favourite medium is thread. DMC floss, to be exact. I adore counted cross stitch. I find it to be very therapeutic and calming, and can lose myself in the work. Watching the pattern come alive as I create the stitches never ceases to amaze me. I give a lot of my works as gifts to my family. I have also created miniature cross stitched pillows for the National Convention in Charleston in 2018. I was very proud of them. I will most likely have to gain immortality in order to complete all of the kits and graphs that I have accumulated.
From Mae Karoli:
I’m with Barbara Thornton-Hill saying that wood is my favorite crafting medium. Give me a laser cut ¼” house kit or furniture kits and I have a hard time walking away from them. I enjoy making 1” pieces using my Preac table saw. The smell of fresh cut wood makes me happy! The burned smell from some laser cut kits, not so much.
From Kelle Risoli:
My favorite medium is usually paper. By layering, a lot of texture can be added to a project. I have made my own wallpaper, flooring, picture frames, and flowers. Even covered a 1/4” chair with crumpled paper that was inked and it looked just like leather.
Every year I make a Christmas ornament for family. So one year I made a replica of my husband’s family home and gave it to his mother. Pic attached. Scored the roof for shingles and the siding. Used thread for the mullions in the windows.
From Jackie Williams:
The paints I prefer to use are Golden acrylic paint and alcohol ink markers. For sealing work, I prefer Gloss or Matte Duraclear Varnishes by Deco Art. I love to dress my tiny dolls I create that I call my Darlings. I use
fabric and glue and find Bearly Art Precision Glue a good medium to use on fabric if careful to not use too much. In buying kits the preference here is definitely wood laser cut kits sometimes enhanced by the addition of 3D printed detailed items, when needed and supplied by creator of kits.
From Melody Petlock:
It's hard to choose one favourite medium, but I've decided on PAPER! I love paper for wallpaper, flooring, making my own paper clay, tiny food packages with printies, sometimes even upholstery or clothing, all sorts of things, and especially tiny books! Paper is inexpensive and always readily available. Here are some of my tiny 1/4" scale books in progress.
From Pat Creagh:
A medium I have enjoyed is glass. I have collected and displayed leaded glass windows and lamps. As a result of that, I have made leaded glass windows in real life, 1” and 1/4” scale. I have also used parts of a leaded window as the walls of a 1” scale boudoir. I plan on using my camp Make-A-Mini arts and crafts studio to display the making of 1/4” leaded windows and lamps.
From Susan Skinner:
It was very hard to choose a favorite medium to work with but I guess I would say mixed media found objects. I love looking at a bit of plastic or metal or cardboard and seeing something completely different. For example, my daughter brought in old fuses from her car and I immediately saw that when bent a little they were little ladles. In my most recent quarter scale project I made a rake from a pink tag fastener.
From Jackie Browder:
My favorite medium is PLA Filament for a 3D printer. I am a classically trained sculptor, who loved making art from big chunks of red clay (think life sized Greek heads of real people). As I aged, my vision isn't as good, and I lack access to a kiln and a workshop for those fifty pound creations. So, I switched over to the high tech version. I can zoom in as much as I need to see my art better on a computer screen, then hit the print button as tiny as I need. I know that resin is very popular for 3D printers, and can get an incredible amount of detail, but I still prefer the older PLA filament version. Resin is very toxic to skin, eyes, and lungs. While PLA is not easy to recycle, it is made mostly from corn starch. So, it has very little smell, perhaps an occasional whiff of sweetness.
From Vicki Scidmore:
My favorite Medium is Madam Cassandra. Oh wait, wrong medium. I think I would have to choose paint. You can do so much with it from paintings on the wall to making the walls look like different styles with painting as well as using it on furniture, objects, or landscaping.
From Wanda Waterfield:
I guess for me my favourite medium in miniatures is a split between three things. First because of my background in Architectural Technology and Interior Design, my first love in miniatures is definitely building the house/room box and developing the interior design for the projects. In addition, in the past few years, I've really embraced the landscaping of the projects from making flowers, vines, and laying out the gardening of each project.
From Carolyn Eiche:
Though I usually work with a lot of different mediums I would say my favorite is polymer clay. As a kid I was okay in art class but couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler. I really came into my own when I learned how to make miniature food from polymer clay over 30 years ago and started Carolyn's Creations.
From Julie French:
My favorite medium is plain ole acrylic paint. You can transform a piece from rags to riches with the swipe of a brush. You can layer it or texture it to age it. You can elevate a piece to look like it’s pure gold or you can make it whimsical and fun with bright colors or swirls. I love how you can thin it to make a wash or keep applying it to be thick and fill in gaps. It’s the ultimate medium for me.
From Cat Wingler:
My favorite crafting medium is polymer clay.
From Barbara Thornton-Hill:
my favorite medium is “wood”. I love creating with wood and the finishing techniques. Sanding it smooth, creating a beautiful piece with stains or paints, and having a smooth finish is my goal. And I especially love aging wood and creating aged finishes.
From Preble McDaniel:
For me it is incredibly hard to pick a favorite medium because in minis I have used a plethora of them. Just about every medium on the list has been used by me one time or another. Forced to pick, the top one would be celluclay. This is an example of when I used it in a new way that just looks so great to me. The celluclay is used to look like rock in this micro mini house on a cliff.
From Terry Unnold:
My favorite medium is PaperClay. I have been using it to create brick and stone finishes for interiors and exteriors for many years. This is my favorite example, a little Storybook Cottage that I taught as a workshop to the Fitch House Miniature Club about twelve years ago. The clay is easy to work with, paint, and clean up.
