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Hiding Miniatures, a New Twist 1/29/10


Minis On The Edge

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Have you ever created a dollhouse or miniature or a piece of art that you personally fell in love with so you never took pictures of it To share online because you were afraid it would sell or someone else will want it and you'd have to  part with it? Or maybe because that project is your private "love" that you just don't wish to share yet? Just wondering how many people here have experianced this ...

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do you really have to sell it?

Sure, I have dollhouses and art work I won't sell because I want my sons to squabble over them someday (NOT really, but I don't sell my "original" anythings). I make prints of my artwork and sell those, but can't do that with minis. My minis/drawing/knitting are personally rewarding therapy.

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*** do you really have to sell it? ***

Most times yes because it's how I put food on the table and help pay bills. I am known to "not" finish some projects because finished ones always sell. I have 4 unfinished ones because I have a "crush" on them and refuse to let them go :congrats: problem is, I gotta pick one to finish soon cause that guy "Bill" shows up every month :D not sure I can do it since I have not for 5 years now :congrats:

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Yes, "Bill" does get around and is the main reason any of my mini's go up for sale. But only until I am absolutely, completely satisfied with them, and then I really am sorry to see them go and will "forget" to take photos - until "Bill" shows up! Fortunately almost everything I've done so far, I also wrote down the pattern and so can repeat it if need be. Sadly, the creative fun has gone away by the time I'm repeating my own pattern or one I've modified. DARN "Bill" anyway!

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So far I've only had one person ask to buy anything I've built, but not from seeing the picture online. I sold the Westville before I'd opened the box because she saw & wanted to buy the pub (which I really, really don't ever want to sell, but may have to if I ever get another offer! room is in such terribly short supply!). My Haunted House isn't ithe Team Haunted House building blog because a friend fell in love with it and snatched it up before I could take "finished" pictures to post here!

I make almost everything that goes into my houses, so each & every one is an intensely personal statement of who I am whilst I'm building it. Even though I sell items, it's not because of "Bill's" visits, DH & I live within our incomes. Mostly my reason for posting pictures is to show other folks what anyone can make with a little effort and "found" materials.

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But only until I am absolutely, completely satisfied with them, and then I really am sorry to see them go and will "forget" to take photos - until "Bill" shows up!

Okay Mary, now I can not forget to take pictures :D that would make it torture for me to part with! Your work is so pretty. You gotta take pictures. I have only done that to a couple of houses (that were earlier in my Career before digital cameras LOL) . Some times the pictures are not so great but I have to snap shots of them before shipping and even during the building process.

I make almost everything that goes into my houses, so each & every one is an intensely personal statement of who I am whilst I'm building it. Even though I sell items, it's not because of "Bill's" visits, DH & I live within our incomes.

We live within our incomes Momma Holly :D , it's just that my income comes from my selling minis :congrats: . I had a friend email me the other day after she sold one of her creations and she was so down about it and it made me think about myself and how if I don't want to sell something, I don't share pictures of it online and I don't finish the project. I get them to the "Almost finished" state :p It may be corny but I told her that it works for me. Anyway, she is really mourning the loss of her beloved doll she created.

It made me wonder how many of us who create have ever had a "crush" on something we have made and what we do to keep from selling it. I have one friend (Also a doll creator) who has several dolls she will not display in her home or anywhere because she feels they are hers alone to view. Now I had never heard of that before her but on other forums & lists I belong to I am learning that their are people like this about even paintings they have made. They made them strictly for their own personal enjoyment and don't want to share it with anyone.

Now, I have not fallen that far in love with anything I have created so far. But I started thinking I can see how that can happen. The one friend explain to me that she does not want other people opinions or views of her work to "taint" her own story she has created. It made me think about how when most of us build, we have discussed here how we create the story in our head for that creation. Hmmm, this could be a book huh, "the Artist who fell in love with the Art" :congrats:

Well, I better go eat breakfast oatmeal is what I think I am craving this morning :D

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I know exactly what you mean Tracy although I hadn't figured it out till now!!! Even before miniatures I made porcelain dolls and did the shows. My favorites were always the first to sell!!! I would go home feeling bad about it but at the same time it kept a roof over our heads and food in our bellies!!! Since starting miniatures I have had people say with all I make I must have quite a collection. Not true, I have two roomboxes and a very few other pieces that are actually done. Now I am finally making a few more things for me. My mother and baby are the first dolls I made just for me and only ones I kept other than a little doll's doll that I didn't finish dressing(same reason, I didn't want to let her go)! And yes, I have many other unfinished projects possibly for that same reason! One is a bear that I really love and haven't finished dressing and I am sure it is because in the back of my mind I knew as soon as she was she would be gone! Mary is right about repeating something too, the thrill is gone!!! There were a lot of dolls, bears, and miniature accessories that I don't have pictures of that I really loved and miss! My advice Tracy is go ahead and finish them but make sure you are working on a project to sell at the same time so you don't feel like you have to sell the one you want to keep!!! That is kind of what I am doing right now, I am working on dolls for a show and the quilt for me! Thanks for helping me figure out why I wasn't finishing some of my favorite things, now I will have to follow my own advice and finish them while I still make things to sell! The bear is staying!!! LOL Someday when you feel it is safe, I would LOVE to see what projects you have fell in LOVE with!!!

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my income also comes from selling what I make. While I also have a reasearching and writing job online (have for almost 13 years) it is so slow any more that I HAVE to make and sell constantly!! and Hubby is a silversmith (just headed out to Tucson) so again, have to sell what I make. I dont worry about putting pictures anywhere because no one ever asks "can i buy that?" LOL I wish it were that easy! I have to get out there and sell..internet or otherwise. I have fallen in love with many of my pieces but something about what i do, who i am, my purpose in making things feels that when I am done with something it belongs somewhere else....I get to play with it as I make it, and then when it is done it is so separate from me that I know it belongs to someone for some reason. Some pieces i cannot wait to get rid of, some of my dolls, because they remind me of someone i dont want around! LOL and something that helps me is that our house is sooooo small (with three kids and dogs and cats too) that I do not have any room for anything else! I had a really hard time finding a wall i could put my McKinley on! I really do not even have a closet in our house! So I can always tell myself, i love this but where would i put it? and it would get destroyed by animals and kids eventually! So with me I make something, have my fun and adventure with it as I make it, smile, love it, then hope the person who it belongs to finds it!

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When I make up something new, the very first time, I am always, always completely infatuated with it or with the vision of it I have in my head. Then, while I'm working on it I often go through a phase where I think it's the worst piece of garbage in the world (sometimes I'm right and stop right there!), and then when it's finished I'm in love with it again and it's hard to part with it. But, I tell myself I can always do it again - assuming I still have or can get those same materials, not always the case sadly.

I love what Julie said: "So with me I make something, have my fun and adventure with it as I make it, smile, love it, then hope the person who it belongs to finds it!"

And I remind myself that, when I've done something really right and the person it belongs to finds it, I've helped add a little beauty and magic to the world! :congrats:

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I have seldom sold anything I made. I have given away quite a few things as gifts, though. That is very rewarding.

However, when I sold antiques, I did so because I love them dearly and want to keep all of them. I discovered though, that if I kept them around for awhile, wore the jewelry, that eventually the infatuation would wane. Then I'd sell them. I'd change my mind about how to decorate the house and weed things out, or wear out the outfit the jewelry went with, and it didn't hurt anymore to get rid of them. The only antiques I've never considered selling are family pieces.

Even with my dollhouses, I have discovered that for me personally, the joy is in making them. I was crazy about each one when I was doing it,but once it's done, I move on to the next one and hardly look at the old one. We are looking now for some charity to whom we can donate the farmhouse. There are some things I would take out of it and use in another house, but the house itself could go with very few tears if I knew someone else would get some joy from it. I keep thinking maybe our Ronald McDonald house or the new children's hospital. Then I could write it off as a donation and have more money left after taxes to buy another house!

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If I made things as lovely as many I've seen at GL, I'd be a Hoarder and then have my own show! LOL.

My crafts are rather primative sorry to say.But I'm hoping for improvement!!I swear I learn something new here,everyday!!

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It's different when I'm making a house I know I'm going to sell, because even though I take the same time & care with it, I make it to suit the buyer, not me; so I don't have so much of myself invested in it. Tracy, you pour so much of yourself into your houses, it's what makes them so beautiful and therefore attractive to buyers!

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Okay -- here comes the dumbest question on the Forum -- how and where do you sell your minis? Miniature trade shows? e-Bay? I can understand selling the dolls (which I cannot make), but do people actually buy finished dollhouse? For me, the thrill is in building and furnishing one.

If I could stay in my home workshop and create minis for sale -- my cup would be full! :)

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I make dolls but also make gypsy wagons and gourd wagons. I used to sell on ebay, now on etsy. I also started doing miniature shows a couple of years ago. Most of the shows I have done are people who sell retail items. And, if they make things they sell them along with their retail items. I know some shows are all artisans though.

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I've sold a few of mine on ebay....torture :) but my RL house is so small...and i had so many...and they were taking over...and getting a bit scary....but i still didnt want to open the door when the buyers came to pick up :)

But saying that i can now feed my appetite by buying more houses...smaller ones :flowers:

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  • 3 months later...

i have not sold anything yet but have seen a listing on craigslist by a family that is looking for a wooden dollhouse and i am so close to finishing my daughter's orchid that i thought about it especially cause i have other bigger houses i could build for her but i dont think she would forgive me if i sold it as tempting as it is to me

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  • 1 year later...

I couldn't stand it- I had to chime in on an old topic. I just donated my San Franciscan to a charity auction a month or two ago- and it went for so little money it was scary. I LOVED that house, and it was disappointing. But as for parting with things- I had an outfit I made for Sydney my daughter about 5 years ago, and I KNEW it would go well on EBay and we were getting ready to move to Colorado, where I knew she would never wear it again. So I took some lovely photos of it, put it on auction at 99 cents and watched it go into the stratosphere! It was very rewarding and actually the photos of my daughter modeling it are far more precious than the item itself. It has helped my part with the dollhouses a little easier. Here is a photo of that dress:

Kathy

post-5499-0-02589100-1313611857_thumb.jp

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That dress is gorgeous!!! I hadn't seen this topic before but I like it. I just sold my very first micro mini house on Etsy and it was nerve wrecking! I get soooo attached to my work that trying to part with it is like pulling teeth. I wanted to start selling little things here and there but now my hubby loved me selling that little house so much that every time he sees me working on something he asks '"You're gonna sell that right?" dry.gif And my first gut response is "NO! It's mine! Mine I say! Back off you can't have it!" then I calm down and think ok so now where will I keep it? LOL I think the hardest part is setting a price. I'm always afraid I feel it's wroth more then it really is or my work isn't perfect enough for anyone to want. I just have to remind myself the more I get rid of the more room I'll have for that "one" house. This may also explain why I practically NEVER finish anything. If it's not finished I can't get rid of it. HAHA

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I also do alot craft fairs and sell alot of my stuff I have made there is always something that has place in my heart and is hard to part with but I do it so I can buy new supplies and Dora kuhn house! Still I always know what I will watch leave my table first last year it was my favorite dinning table and chair set a woman bought it even before the craft fair opened but made me happy to see it leave with someone who admires something I treasure. This year I am sure it will be my greenhouse! Her is a picture, I spent hours on it and wish I could keep it but if i were to keep all my art I wouldn't have a place to sleep!post-5804-0-53760300-1313617179_thumb.jp

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