I found a wonderful couple of artists in Michigan on Etsy that custom-made six coffins for the collection.   Thank you Dan and Neysa!  Three 13″ coffins and three 9″ coffins.  The coffins are called “toe pinchers”.  The craftsmanship is amazing on these coffins and I had a great time staining them.   Ruby red shimmering velvet is used to line the coffins once the vampyres are placed in them.

The vampyre brood has been moved out of the studio and is crammed onto the library table in the living room for the month of October.   Later we will do some serious photoshoots of the collection with select pieces taken out to showcase their beauty.

I’m having a great time searching for, and finding, odds and ends to go with my vampires: Nosferatu, Vampire Grygor, and Vampire Capolan.   Bats, bat cages, keys, skulls, bones, miniature tarot decks, trunks, candles, lockets, rats, etc.  I’m having several custom built coffins made for the 12″ Nostferatu.

It really is an international scavenger hunt conducted on the Internet and in person.

I am having a great time making the miniature maps, documents, bottle labels, relics, etc.

We have done a few photoshoots with John’s big camera and candlelight  Great photos!

Here are a few of the photos from that photoshoot:

 

And with my iPhone here are a few photos showing the details of the collection:

The miniature medieval books arrived today and they are perfect!  I will age the pages a bit more and have slipped in loose pages of my own making.  Later this fall I will design and build the vault and display diorama for Vampire Capolan and all his accessories.

It’s never taken me so long to finish a simple picture book.   After having had the massive heart attack in Iceland last year I do find it more difficult at times to sit for endless hours drawing cute, quirky goslings.  I love Pearl but I will be so happy once she is off to Boston.

Meanwhile…I found a fantastic vampire figure on the internet and absolutely love him!  For the moment I call him Vampire Capolan for some odd reason.  I will give him a more suitable name once I have a chance to give it some real thought.  The details on the vampire and the coffin are fantastic!   And I spent a grand total of $28 for them.

I bought a thin silky piece of blood red velvet to line the coffin to make Vampire Capolan more comfortable.   But something was still missing.   He needed old maps, money, documents, castle plans, letters, envelopes, posters, etc.   It only took me a few hours to find the appropriate images on the internet, reduce them down, print them, cut them out (or tear the edges to give a deckle effect), and antique them.  I also found an artist on Etsy that makes miniature leather bound medieval books!

I also found the perfect miniature wooden trunk in the studio that holds all the papers.

Here are the photos.

 

Finally making progress on getting PEARL finished!

I get weak in the knees for any kind of wooden box.  Especially boxes with numerous compartments, secret drawers, locks, etc.   I found this replica 19th c. Travel Writing Box on eBay and bought it.   It is perfect for what I wanted it for—to hold all my pen holders, nibs, small bottles of inks, paper, sealing wax, sealing wax stamps, and more.

I absolutely love it!