Oh Look, a Ladybug: Facsimile or a Replica

 It's a question that I have been asking myself for a while, now, as I get more and more obsessed with making my own miniature accessories since moving beyond the "play" dollhouse stage. Encouraged by others miniaturists that I follow--the blog, Instagram, Facebook crowd, and the Youtubers, I am challenging myself to learn more that will help me to pay attention to detail and get better at miniature crafting, but as an amateur trying to get better where do I draw the line between a creating a reasonable facsimile or realistic, detailed representation of an object, be a it chair, a flower, or a bug?

A.A Milne wrote about Winnie the Pooh as a bear of "Very Little Brain: “When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.” 

I could easily substitute When you are girl of "Very Little Artistic Talent" and you make tiny things. . ., well you get the idea. 

So here is an example of a current project--completed when I should have been working on other things. While I have that large farmhouse to complete and the half scale Fairfield to put back together along with various projects for each of those houses, I spent the better part of the day making bees and bugs, specifically ladybugs.  I watched two youtube tutorials that helped me figure out how to make those tiny creatures so essential to a garden, even my miniature garden that I'll be making for the Bellingham Farmhouse. I tried to follow this Youtube tutorial Daniela Minis. 

I began by conditioning my Fimo clay by kneading and rolling in my hands then I ran though my pasta machine at setting 9, the thinnest setting to get two thin sheets.

Since the bees are so tiny, I didn't need a large amount of clay. Once rolled out, I placed the black on top and gently patted it down to work out the air bubbles that you see in the top photo.

Next, I trimmed off the ends then sliced off about a 1/3  of the sheet and laid it on top of the first piece and repeated that again to have 3 layers, lining up the cut edge perfectly. You can begin see the layers that will form the stripped bee body. So far my project looks much like Daniela's. 

I used my old razor blade to cut small slices, making sure to have the striped layers facing the correct direction to ensure horizontal stripes instead of vertical ones, which would look maybe more like a snake.

After cutting thin slices, I gentle rolled each slice my palm to make a dozen bees. But they looked too big, so I dug out my little pot of sunflowers.

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Just as I thought, these bees were plenty large for this flower, taking up the entire center of it.

So I cut thinner slices and rolled more.

Once the bees are formed, wings have to be fashioned. Using transparent white Fimo. I tried roll out two evenly sized ropes, as the tutorial directs. 

With the ropes rolled out and pressed side by side, the tutorial directs pressing the rope flat to get the shape of wings. The rope is baked per your clay directions. For me, I baked everything for about 7 minutest at 275 degrees.

When I sliced the ropes for the wings, I did not get nicely rounded shaped wings. They were way too small and square.  As the saying goes: "Back to square one." I think I will cut wings out of vellum. 

Ladybugs have to be most everyone's favorite garden bug --they eat aphids, you know. So  I really want to have them in the mini garden.  Art by Nell has a good tutorial, but most of it is devoted to making a leaf necklace with a ladybug on it. So you have to watch the half the video to get to her bug--or fast forward, so I sort of went out on my own when I fashioned my ladybugs. This first bug begins with rolling tiny balls from black, the rolling out the red in the pasta machine, #9 setting to get a thin piece.

(Pay no attention to round cut.) With this flattened red, I use a needle tool to cut out a round circle large enough to wrap around the black ball. I used the needle tool to create the separate wings. 

The head for this one is too big. I sould have reshaped it. I tried to roll even smaller balls to make the spots; instead, I tried again following this model. It's a good one if you are making a larger bug because you will have more control over larger pieces of clay. I decided, too, that these bugs would be too large. Nor is the head round; its more of a semi circle. 

I took a second approach to get even smaller bugs by rolling very small balls for the body, using white clay and then slightly flattening them with my finger. Since the ladybugs that live on my sunflowers are more orange than red, I shaved two pastels to try to get an not red a color.

Too tiny to really dust with a brush, I just rolled them around in the chalk dust until they were will covered.

Using the needle tool, I fashioned the head using the needle and sort of pushing the heads against the body then baking for about 5 minutes. I didn't want to burn them.

I did the same with the making the spots: digging a tiny bit of black clay with the end of the needle tool and poking it on the bug's wings.

I think these little bugs will do a good job eating aphids on the mini sunflowers in the mini garden. I am quite fine with making facsimiles that are not botanically correct, perfectly scale lady bugs. I pleased with these little ladies. The bees could use some more work. 

I dug through my punch stash and found a shape that could work for wings, which I like much better than the translucent clay.

                                            

Next step will be to glaze the little critters and add the bee wings.

I think I have answered my own question: A handmade symbolic facsimile or a replica, a carefully construction reproduction or a realistic life-like representation? For the hobbyists, I think a facsimile works fine.  There is great satisfaction in making my own. Were I to enter competition or offer my tiny things for sale, a facsimile would not do. We can expect and appreciate the imperfections of handmade items, but if we are perfectionists then there are other ways to get perfect pieces for our miniature projects: buy handmade items crafted by skilled, gifted artisans or invest in a 3-D printer.

I have no shame in buying from the skilled artist, but I doubt that I will invest in 3-D printer but one would certainly be a great tool to add to the workshop. 

Finally, while I am still very much an amateurish, I try to  remember the old adage, "Practice makes perfect," because the more you make, the better you will get. I know that if I make more bees and bugs, they will be better. I learn from mistakes. 

Most importantly then,  joy and satisfaction of making our own miniatures come through that satisfied feeling of completing a project that we like. We are, after all, our own worst critic, seeing every flaw and mistae  the we make, while others oooo and awe over our creation. I think I found my comfort level where I am fine with bees wings that merely represent a bee's wing. I'll be glad when someone looking at my miniature garden, squeals in joy, "Oh look, a little lady bug!" 

Thanks for visiting.