Treasure hunting with Mini treasures bag

I like experimenting - I just established a shop in CafePress for Mini treasures wiki. Go and see what there is for you. Have not decided myself yet what to order, maybe magnets and buttons for starters. Mmmm. If your favorite product is missing, tell me and I´ll add that too, I just did not want to choose too wide selection right away. Happy shopping! :)

Interviewing the creator of the wiki page number 333: Linda McD

Mini treasures wiki is growing fast, this week the page 333 was added by Linda who has been very active with the wiki.

Hi Linda! How does it feel to be the creator of wiki page 333? I am very excited about contributing to the wiki because I have saved all sorts of websites, etc for future use, and have never really found the perfect venue. I like that the information is shared and organized. I appreciate how patient you are, and how that makes posting much less intimidating!

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? I am married, no kids, retired. Moved from the suburbs of Toronto to a beautiful small town.

Do you have any other hobbies than miniatures?
Cross-stitch
General Crafts - I am a real Trash to Treasure person. At garage sales I am always looking for something I can turn into something else.
Painting ceramics - plaster houses, repainting figurines
Computer - making up quizzes for holidays, blogging, belong to WAY too many mini digests!

When and how did you start doing miniatures? About 8 years ago. When I moved here the Newcomers Club started an interest group for miniatures. It never did really get off the ground, but I bought a dollhouse kit, joined an internet group and took off.
What is the best thing in miniature hobby and what is inspiring you? Every single miniaturist is different. Some are artisans and others just wanna have fun! I am definitely not an artisan! Love that I am learning something new every day. I copy a lot from others, I think we all do to some extent, but then make it our own. From the first, I was determined to make DIY projects, using found items. I go garage sailing every Saturday during the summer, and collect all sorts.

I really like making dolls, ( I'm no good at it, but I like to create characters doing things) Got a little side-tracked as I am trying to finish other projects.

What is your latest/next mini project? I am thinking about a Remembrance Day scene. That will take a lot of thinking and planning, but I have a kernel of an idea in mind, WW1 era, Canadian history.

How did you find Mini treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? I think you posted the link on one of the digests I follow, Johanna.

What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? I haven't belonged long enough to say.

Thanks for the interview and hope you have fun time in our wiki!
PS. See more pictures of Linda´s projects.

Interviewing the owner of the photo number 500: leneUx8

Hi leneUx8! How does it feel to be the owner of the photo number 500? Believe it or not it felt like winning a raffle! Woooohoo! 500th! I have never been lucky enough to land on significant numbers like that before. Congrats to minitreasures on 500 uploads!!! And to Johanna for being such a great moderator!

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? I am an Industrial Designer who recently left her whole design career in the Philippines to marry her long-term boyfriend of 7 years. Currently I’m starting a new life in California as a happy newbie housewife who's addicted to miniatures and jellybeans. Now I'm trying to create my own line of modern minis in Playscale and listing them in my recently opened Etsy shop-Dragondee or posting pictures of them in my Flickr account. ^_^

Do you have any other hobbies than miniatures? Aside from learning how to cook and trying to meet new friends, I also enjoy doing photography, graphic design, various crafts, and the occasional mini figure modeling in polymer.

When and how did you start doing miniatures? I have always been a miniature enthusiast even at a young age, but it’s only after migrating to California (about 4 months ago) that I started making modern playscale miniatures of my own. Needing to wait a couple more months to get a work permit to legally work in the US, I was stuck at home facing a ton of free time in my hands. Being a natural worker and a believer that life is a game of SIMS, I saw creating miniatures as a way of preserving and upgrading my creative skills and at the same time, actually having fun in the process!
What is the best thing in miniature hobby and what is inspiring you? Having people appreciate your own handmade creations and wanting them for their own collection, I believe, is what really keeps me inspired. Like most artists, you get passionate in creating something when you know it makes people happy. ^_^

What is your latest/next mini project?
Most of my miniature creations go well with Re-ments but not 12” dolls like Blythe. Jackie, a new Flickr friend is requesting slightly bigger furniture for her Blythe girls. ^_^ I’m excited to do that for her next and maybe create a few new designs at the same time.

How did you find Mini treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? I think I found the minitreasures group in flickr first. I joined the group because I wanted to meet people with similar interest. I’ve even become immersed with other crafter’s amazing works that I never knew existed! I love seeing innovative and resourceful creations. Who knew you could turn an old watering can into a room box!

What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? Hmmm…it seems to have everything already. Maybe just a page dedicated to modern miniatures. I think it’s really a new trend for miniaturists, be it in any scale.

Thanks for the interview and hope you have fun time in our wiki! Thank you too! And I am definitely having fun in the wiki. ^_^

Interviewing visitor number 2000: Lovingclaydolls

Hi Lovingclaydolls! How does it feel to be our visitor number 2000? What a nice surprise!

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? I am married with five children and five cats. I'm a doll sculptor and more recently a needle felter. It's a blessing to be able to express my creativity in both mediums. I'm a big fan of Etsy and have a shop there.

Do you have any other hobbies than miniatures?
Facebook, if that can be considered a hobby,lol. I also like history and antiques.

When and how did you start doing miniatures? By accident really ~ When I started sculpting OOAK dolls, making them super tiny was what just came naturally to me. It turned out they were a good size for dollhouses and miniaturist started buying them. After I realized that, I was more intentional about making things 1/12 scale....Although my work is probably still not true 1/12 scale. I just sort of go by what looks right to me. And I bought a very large antique dollhouse collection a couple years ago. Now I have two entire dressers full of doll furniture and no room for my clothes!hehe

What is the best thing in miniature hobby and what is inspiring you? The people of course! I love meeting new people who share a similar interest. And I am amazed by all of things miniature artists can make. The tiny food for example...stunningly realistic!!!!

What is your latest/next mini project? I thought it would be fun to try make some of the foods unique to my area (PA Dutch Country) by needle felting them in miniature. So far I have made a Shoo-fly pie (it's delicious and has nothing to do with flies,lol) and a Whoopie pie. They are in my Etsy shop if you want to see my attempt! : )

How did you find Mini treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? Through Flickr, oh yeah... that's another one of my hobbies! (see lovinclaydolls in Flickr) I love seeing everyone's creations! The log cabin on the 1:144 scale page of the wiki is really nice!

-What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? I guess I would just like to see that people are using and enjoying it.

Thanks for the interview and hope you have fun time in our wiki! Thank you! This was fun!! : )

Flickr pictures in wiki

Setting up a site this huge is a great learning experience for me. As a human being I make mistakes but I try not to make the same mistake twice. I have been using Flickr for years but have not that much moderation - even if I have had the Lundby group there. I basically created that and then forgot about it ;). So I made some wrong assumptions (I e.g. thought that if you have your photo in a group you need to be a group member also).

So now I have finetuned the Flickr processes a little by adding the rules that a new group member needs to approve before joining the group. Earlier this was told only in the group messages - and not everybody reads them. Rules are simple: the member agrees that the pictures in the pool may be used as embedded pictures in the wiki. Embedded means that if you move your mouse (cursor) over the picture you will see its details and if you click it you are forwarded to the picture in Flickr where you can e.g. comment it.

The other day I was sending a private message (via Flickr mail) to group members and people who have pictures in the pool but are not members hoping that they would be aware of the rules now (I hope I did not miss anyone). Here´s the message:

About Mini treasures wiki
*johantti* is a group administrator *johantti* says:

Dear Mini treasures group member

I want to tell you backgrounds of my wiki, minitreasures.pbworks.com/ . I established Mini treasures wiki for dollhouse and miniatures lovers and it´s aim is to connect miniaturists to each others. Maybe an example helps.

Let´s say there are 10 miniatuarists in the world who are currently working on a project to honour Michael Jackson. How on earth they will find each other? But if they were wiki users and some of them created a wiki page for Michael Jackson... Then another one could share her print links there while somebody would add a link to MJ doll maker. And tadaa, a small MJ community is born that can inspire each others. And if someone starts the same project next year the page is still there...

The wiki is still very new and most of the updates are done by me. But I hope that eventually there will be more and more contributors who can promote a)their own hobby, b)their mini business and c)their favorite sites and idols. FOR FREE.

So if you would be making MJ dolls (or looking for soul-mates with similar projects) you could add a picture of it to the wiki page and every time a MJ fan would come to the page they would see your picture. That if anything is a well targeted ad! And I´m not charging anything from you for that. :)

In the wiki I´m using the embedded pictures from Mini treasures Flickr group. Embedded means that the if you move your mouse over the photo you´ll see the originator and if you click it you can comment or favorite in Flickr.

Keep sharing your mini treasures with us in Flickr and also in the wiki (read FAQ for starters: minitreasures.pbworks.com/wiki_faq) :) .

-Johanna

Over 2000 visitors in the wiki

Yesterday was a historical day for in the wiki, the 2000th visitor came in. She was Lovingclaydolls and I´m going to interview her here later :). I also plan to make a habit out of this, so more interviews will come when ever a new thousand is reached. So keep visiting the wiki to get more interviews and if you happen to be the 3000th visitor, inform me :).

Here´s a map of the recent 100 visitors: they come from 5 continents, wow!

Figures of Mini treasures

Building up a wiki or a forum is tough - it takes time before people find the place and start contributing. I know that during the fall more and more miniaturists will find the wiki but what´s the situation now when the wiki is 4 months old?

Let´s see. There are

-already 246 pages in the wiki. Sounds a lot but most of the pages contains only few links - I´m hoping that you will add more links about your favorite subjects eventually.

-22 wiki users (=they have signed in) and every day on average 11 wiki visitors.
-54 members in Flickr group
-40 followers in Twitter
-22 so called Followers in this blog (=they have signed in) and on average 6 blog visitors daily
-12 people in the Facebook group
-12 friends in YouTube

When I started the wiki I thought I could make some small money with it (at the moment I´m between jobs) but soon I decided not to "ruin my hobby". So while I´m looking for work I am using the wiki as one of my portfolios. As time goes by I hope the wiki grows to be a real treasure: the biggest and nicest dollhouse/miniature link collection in the world.

If you want to help me in that you can do it easily. :)

-If you have a web site or a blog, add a link to Mini treasures wiki (see buttons here).

-If you have account in Google/Flickr/Twitter/YouTube/Facebook join one of the fan groups (see the links in the main page) and feel free to promote it to your friends too.

-Get yourself an account from the wiki too and start adding some links every now and then. It´s perfectly ok to promote your own stuff there whether you are a seller, a newbie or an artist - the wiki is meant for all of us who love miniatures.