In my first post, I talked about finding the inhabitants of my little house-to-be as a first step, so that I would be able to use them in selecting the scale of my miniature art deco house. Now that I've figured out how to post photos from my camera into my blog, I can share my little ladies.
They are gorgeous little resin creations, each about 4" tall. Some seem to be obvious Erté adaptations, while others are less directly copied (or at least I couldn't find the original works), but still Erté inspired.
There were three other ladies available in the original collection of hinged trinket boxes, but I didn't love them as much. One didn't really look art deco to me. Another was topless, which seemed a little much, even for an art deco house. The last one had one breast popping out of her dress, and while she may not have been too revealing by Janet Jackson or J-Lo standards, she wasn't quite what I was looking for.
Nine ladies is plenty for one miniature house anyway. After all, how many little fashionistas can attend a perpetual house party together in harmony? (Even the songwriter knew the limit - - "...Nine ladies dancing....") Of course, I have yet to find any correctly sized and styled gentlemen to invite to the party, so at present the little ladies should have little to fight over.
I'm still deciding about possible repaints, but I'm pretty sure most or all of them will be getting them. At a minimum, the pink lady in the second photo will need a repaint for sure. She was originally wearing some weird bell-bottomed jumpsuit-type outfit that I turned into a dress, using a hardening epoxy clay.
If and when I ever get around to doing repaints, maybe I'll do some comparison photos of each lady - before, after, and the Erté original I think inspired her. Might be interesting.
Last time, I posted some photos of real art deco houses that provide inspiration. My on-line searching has also turned up images of some very cool miniature art deco houses. Mostly they are vintage, not new. Some are old Triang houses and some may be handmade OOAK projects. They're all wonderful. Here are some of my favorites:
I often enjoy daydreaming (i.e., obsessing) over a project as much as actually doing anything on it. Right now, I'm enjoying the daydream of what my miniature art deco house will look like on the outside. I'm amassing a collection of inspiring photos of real, life-sized houses (found on line) to drool over. Here is just a small sampling. Lovely!
I finally found an on-line source for some art deco accessories. Check it out:
http://barbarasabia.com/stainedglassgallery.aspx
This site is amazing. A number of the galleries have stained or leaded glass products for an art deco dollhouse, including doors, ceiling panels, folding screens, and fireplace screens. They are too, too wonderful! My latest idea is to try to get to the Philadelphia Miniaturia (http://www.philadelphiaminiaturia.com/) in Cherry Hill, NJ this November and see some of these things in person! Would love to buy them, but probably won't be able to afford much.
Stay warm!
.jpg)
.jpg)
