Friday, January 04, 2008

little mini-pots=BIG bucks?



(pots by Gary Rith, penny by Uncle Sam)

I got a call from my friend Don the other day. His significant other, Justine, has a doll house, and he wanted to know about miniature teapots. I hadn't made any in a little while, and the parts to fix my big kiln havn't arrived yet, so this is a great project, and it got me thinking.
Several years go I made my first mini teapots and cups. The thrill is filling an egg carton with a day's work, and you can charge good money for each item! Because they are collectible. That is especially true if you make something that is an accurate repro of a real period item. That way, a person with a dollhouse or castle depicting life in 1620 can have a realistic tiny little teapot and mug for the table.
The most common size is one inch=one foot. Roughly, that means a teapot needs to be no bigger than a penny! You can see I have a small cupboard up there, maybe 4 inches tall, and the little vase, cups and 2 teapots I finished yesterday. Although the lids of the teapots come off, they are too small to have working spouts. The slightly bigger teapot in front of the cupboard is entirely functional, and would hold a couple of spoonfuls of tea!

So, basically, I am thinking of working on this for awhile here this winter, perhaps making repros from the early 1600s if Greg will help me find some of those pictures again......

NEED I tell you that I dreamt I lived in a doll house????

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

HOLY CR*P those are small and well done! (NOT that I am surprised mind you). that's some detail for so tiny an item dude! Reminds me of a chap at the woodturner's guild making doll house items like vases, stemmed wine glasses, etc on his lathe.. zoinks and zowie scooby!

Ellen said...

SO cute! You know there is a big group of mini makers on Etsy... Seems there is a fairly good demand for them.

gary rith said...

I was thinking, Ellen, that this would be the case. I need to wander around abit and see what others are up to.

cm said...

Well done! I inherited a small curio cabinet from my great-aunt, including a few miniatures. One is a flower vase that I keep meaning to get tiny flowers for.

SuperBaby loved her piggy bank.

Susan as Herself said...

Your dream about the dollhouse was I daresay a premonition of success!!!

I had a dollhose set in American pioneer times as a kid. You would have been my hero.

Mary Ann said...

Hi, Gary. [I lurk occasionally. But I couldn't resist David's encouragement to visit today.]

The teapots are great. I'm working on a miniature garden and got a couple of books about miniatures for christmas including one about dollhouse miniatures using Fimo. I particularly like the mini books and picture frames. I was fiddling with making a mini pot while I visited with company. But it turned out to be a hat. Clearly I need to focus...

Anonymous said...

Wait, is this THAT Mary Ann? Not Gilligan's Mary Ann, but our town supervisor????

I use the same clay and process on the wheel to make little things. It makes a fun break.

Thanks for the visit!