Halloween News from 2013

This is another "so sorry but these are retired" kind of post. But in the process of getting everything in order and up to date these had to be included.
This cupboard kit called "Witch's Hollow Cupboard" was designed in 2005. It was a staple in our line of Halloween kits for many years.

 Many of our customers used the area behind the spider web doors, on the bottom half of the cabinet, to add more rooms like a scary dungeon and more creepy bedrooms. That was a brilliant idea!
This is what we did for furniture kits for the rooms. Sort of elegant creepy.

In addition to retiring Witch's Hollow Cupboard, we also retired the little Witch's Hollow Candy Cafe. That was created for 2006. We had to make room for other Halloween Kits.

In August of 2013 we introduced a new series of Teeny Weeny Books.
This is what we wrote in our newsletter...
"Well, my friends (read in a Vincent Price voice) as promised we begin the unveiling of the new Halloween offerings. Our first delicious sampling will set the tone for the upcoming, spine tingling, little miniature morsels soon to be coming your way. If you dare...We present to you a series of small books, Teeny Weeny you might say, of barbarous tales beginning with The Tangled Web, wherein someone or something has gone very wrong. It comes complete with the empty spider chair as well as the forlorn portrait of one who has been scorned."

"Cooking To Kill, a favorite book of mine, is awash with poison and potions, it's setting - the evening of the harvest moon. A sinister witch, her cauldron and pumpkins await your smallest touch."

"We wrap up this Halloween Trilogy with The Bats are Watching, a macabre scene in which the graveyard plays the star role. This Teeny Weeny book opens by lying flat and pulling on the spine to reveal the marked stones of the witch's prey."
"Like our other Teeny Weeny Secret Books, these creepy tombs are undeniably gratifying to collect. They will make you shiver at their teeny size and tremble to think that the interior little bits are also included in each kit. You may not be able to resist."

Hey, this is good news - these three little book kits are still available. I included a link on each one to take you right to the website.
As we travel down memory lane I need to note that we also added two Halloween Holiday Vignette Kits to our selection of scary miniature kits.

 Taryn, our daughter, had joined our company in the previous year and we both wanted to design the Halloween Holiday Vignette. I wanted to go spooky and creepy, she wanted to go vintage and colorful. We decided to have a contest and ask our customers which they liked best. It was almost a tie and we produced the kits for both.

This is Something Wicked.

This is Hiss Boo.
They were kits #1 in the series of Holiday Vignettes for Halloween. We later came out with Part Deux and Part Trois. It was a play on the French word Vignette. It was awkward wording on our part, but we had fun with the names!

Enough with the HALLOWEEN already!
My next catch up post will be about Thanksgiving.
Until then,
Robin

The Doll Hospital

In May of 2013 we introduced The Doll Hospital which was the third and final installment of the Birchwood series. This series is about a little fairy named Edith, her home in an old doll armoire  in the woods, and her adventures in the big world. Her best friend is a turtle named Percy who had a very interesting little home in a birch covered clock. The other important friend in the tale is about a woman named Abby who opened a doll hospital. The three kits were all designed "outside the box", just another way to be creative and have some fun.
Here are some photos...

 These next photos are of Percy's Waterfront Timeshare  (the turtle's home)

 A little out of order but these are from Edith's Home.

 This is the kitchen.

 I loved working on this. The wallpaper and all of the packaging are from an original watercolor that I painted just for Edith (the fairy). The Root Cellar is Edith's studio where she makes all of the lovely pieces of clothing and jewelry that she sells in the Boutique.
Have I sucked you into my fantasy yet?

 Here is the Doll Hospital. Of course it had to be housed in a doll, and why not use an oversized Secret Book? The scale of all the furniture and accessories in all of the collection are quarter inch, give or take, because we are talking about a fairy, a turtle and a person.

 Here are her cute feet! I love the feet.

 Her face is sad. Wouldn't you be sad if you were abandoned, arm torn off, and your belly made into a book?

 Part of the story of The Doll Hospital is on the back cover.

 Her little doll also comes in the kit. I love little wooden dolls, clothespin dolls and carved wood dolls.

A little book kit was offered in 2010 to the folks who had invested in the Birchwood kits. Making a kit for a book was a trip. My desk was covered with folded pages as I tried to sort out how it would all go together. These are some of the illustrations from the book.

 I love these little moles. Aren't they funny? They are helping carry the doll body that was found in the woods, to their friend Edith's new home in an old doll clothes armoire.

 This is a watercolor from Winter 2009. Little fairy Edith decorated the woods with clothing she had made for all of her furry little friends. It was her Christmas gift to everyone who had helped her set up her new home.
This was a long post so I think I will wrap up the story of Birchwood. Sadly, most of the series has been retired. As of Nov. 1st 2017 we still have a few Doll Hospital Kits in stock. You will find them on our website while they last.
If you are interested in a print of Birchwood in Winter, please contact us. The size of the prints are 8" x 10" and can be hand signed if you like. The cost is $20.00 plus shipping.

Hope you enjoyed this stroll down Birchwood lane with me.
Robin

Moving Right Along...

I'll bet most of you never saw this special Secret Book! This was a giveaway in April of 2013 if you purchased $75.00 or more during the special time frame. Too hard to see in this photo but there is even a chalk outline on the floor.

I know, I know. I just keep showing you things you can't have. But if you did get it, now you know how limited it was and when it was produced. If you haven't had a chance yet, visit our website and sign up for our RBM newsletter. You'll be notified of all the special offers, exciting new kits and really fun projects as they are introduced. We also use the newsletter to keep you informed of kits that we are about to retire.

More old news tomorrow.
Sleep tight tonight it's getting cold outside.
Robin

Easter 2013

Yes, I know - all the way back to Spring of 2013. We have lots of catching up to do!
We introduced Carrot Cottage, a limited edition, whimsical kit.

 That was a really cute and fun project to design. But, it was intended to be a limited edition, so it was only available for a year. Carrot Cottage and all the furniture was retired in 2014.

Just a bigger peek at the kitchen. This little piece gave me some ideas about how to approach a design for another kitchen project a couple of years later.

We also introduced another holiday in our Vignette kits called "Hippity Hoppity". This grouping of miniature kits in quarter inch scale consisted of a decorated hutch and a little chair. We didn't suspect at the time that we would be making 8 holiday scenes with 4 kits in each holiday to round out a little room. ("Hippity Hoppity" will be retired in April of 2018)

That's about it for Easter 2013. The next blog post will take us through to the summer of 2013.

Robin

Catching Up!

It's been 5 years since I've last posted on this blog. I think I've been crazy busy. Would you like to know what we've all been doing at Robin Betterley's Miniatures?
If you can stand it, I'm going to give you the condensed version. I'll include highlights from our newsletter. If you really want to stay up to date, go to the website and sign up for our newsletter.

There will have been projects that came along and are now discontinued. I'm not trying to tease you, but I am trying to list some of the creativity, travels, and silly business from the past 5 years. If you have any of these projects, this will help give you the chronological dating of these kits and projects. I'll also try to include any of the free workshops and tips as we go along.

I don't promise that this will be up to date in a week, but I am shooting to get caught up for Christmas 2017.

So...where did we leave off?

In February of 2013 we came out with a new series of Teeny Weeny Books. These are the little, opening books that will work in 1" scale but inside they all have a micro-setting. This new series was called "A Tea for all Seasons" and included four different books. These books were retired this year. (2017)

 We now have over 15 Teeny Weeny Secret Book Kits in our collection and 12 other limited editions have been made for special events.

 Of course, there doesn't seem to be a photo for Summer Citrus in my files. All of these little books also had an interior piece which was a little hutch with a cake. The books are only a little over an inch tall so you can imagine the size of the cakes.

We also planned for a big trip.  We were going to cruise the Danube with Molly Cromwell in December of 2013. We were going to teach a workshop and explore the Christmas Markets along the river. 

Next catch up blog will be about Easter 2013. Oh my, we do have a lot of catching up to do...
Until then,
Robin