Tom Bishop Show & Butterly Island

We went to our first miniature show this weekend: "The Tom Bishop San Francisco Bay Area Miniatures Show." This was a small show but reminded us a lot of our first IDEX show in 2001. The room was filled with amazing miniature artists. The level of talent was so overwhelming there were moments when we felt we were way over our heads. I think some of the other artists must have realized this because several times they came over and gave us encouragement. We also received a lot of fantastic advice on how to get our work to museum quality.

We showed our finished house "Spinner's End"and received a wonderful response. It was amazing how many collectors and artists told us that seeing our house was inspiring them to take their own Glencroft dollhouse kit out of their closet and build it too. We also brought some of our tools and clay and worked on our next project "Butterfly Island." Collectors really like being able to handle the Paperclay and see what they can do with it.

Some of the artists really impressed us. Ranbow Hand & Kathy (www.rainbowhandandkathy.com)  The talk of the show was her steam punk style electric chair execution room. Sounds morbid but it was actually really amazing and creative. Marie Petrik was our table neighbor. She made life like paper flowers floral arrangements. Bee Tree Miniatures also had florals but her's were made from japaneze rice clay (www.beetreeminiatures.com.) and Gilbert Mena had miniature paintings that were so realistic  you felt like you were walking through the SF Museum of Art.

We have some more photos and lots of wonderful close-ups of our other cottage "Spinner's End." To see them check out our "Spinner's End" photo album on flikr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83109754@N06/sets/72157630670463182/

Below are some photos of "Butterfly Island." Enjoy the progress images and have a great weekend.

First floor roughly sculpted from contractor's foam. It's now partially covered in it's paperclay finish.

Here's a close up of the grape roots winding around the stairs.

Bogie's not completely happy with the butterfly
stone sculpt and is thinking of ripping it out
and redoing it.

Initial sketch of the butterfly Fireplace

Crazy brick.

The concept of this house is that it was built on a
small stone island in Lake Windslow. Some of the house
is carved out of the stone and some of it is built up
with crazy brick and rock

This island is made of granite boulders and shale rock.