Mini Flowers: Someone on SS said they "could not" get the fimo to roll thin enough for the mini flowers. You can get the polyclay pretty thin if you use a pasta machine. You can also (or so I have heard) sandwich the clay between two sheets of wax wrap and then put it through the pasta machine - the clay will then be thinner still. And when you take the clay out of the machine, you can reduce it even more by stretching it gently. With light colored clays, the clay will be nearly translucent - particularly if you are looking at it with the light behind the item. I imagine the same would hold true for cold porcelain ?? I use Cernit by the way.

Lesley, South Africa

Fimo vs. Cold Porcelain: I've worked extensively with both, along with sugar paste - being a "reformed" sugar artist turned miniaturist - I much prefer fimo over cold porcelain - Gary the Yank - the cold porcelain that you buy is MILES apart from the homemade stuff (not to mention the smell of the homemade stuff - if you want a little piece, email me privately and I'll send you some so you can see the difference) - but it dries out WAY too fast, doesn't stick to itself, and is far more brittle than cooked fimo or sculpey - making your flower petals easier to break - I am able to get my rose petals more than paper thin - and you can get more translucency by adding Art Translucent clay or CFC-06 (another brand of transparent clay) - I usually "leach" my clay before I use it - making it VERY firm so I can make tiny, tiny petals.

Sue in NC

"printing what you want": I have a program called "Screenshot". You can highlight what you want to save or print and it works beautifully. Their web site is

http://www.screenshot-utility.com Hope this helps.

Shara Lewis

Circus side shows: In my wanderings, I came across this site re: circus side shows. Some of the pictures are a little grizzly--but it did keep me interested. http://www.sideshow-art.com/

Leslie in WA

Hat Forms: It probably is cheapest if you have a friend who smokes cigars to ask them if they have one, but next to that, you can buy one in a smoke shop and give away or throw away the cigar. I think they are probably about $1.35 for the cheapest one. They are usually glass or metal, however. I suggest the glass ones, which are heavy duty, and not likely to break easily. The metal ones dent. OR you could buy a Pyrex test tube. There are some other things, like plastic toothbrush holders for travel, but they have a more cylindrical shape than the cigar tubes. You can even use large beads, but they are harder to work with, unless you can manage to drill a hole and glue a dowel. And, there is no reason why you can't use a dowel, because some hats have a flat crown. Some people even use styrofoam balls on a stick...easy to insert the stick, etc, but styrofoam dents and also is not as easy to work with as the glass. Finally, some hats need NO form, but can be made from straw, for example, by coiling it into shape.

Rose

Hat forms: I have a hat crown form which was given to me by a friend when I joined my first miniature club, and it still works after 18 years.

It consists of a plastic coin tube, located where you find coin- and stamp-collecting stuff, with a chair glide stuck into the top. The glide, intended to poke into chair legs to keep them from scratching the floor) looks like half a solid white plastic ball with a big straight pin thingy sticking out. The ball shape works for a rounded crown; the other end of the tube is for a flat-topped crown. She kept a corsage pin stored in the tube, and used it to push ribbon into glue to form ruching (easy-peasy way) and for various other purposes.

She also used a macramé board (don't know if they're still around) as a pinning board for hat-making She had various brim patterns on the board, covered with clear Contact paper, as well as another of those ball pins stuck into it to use for molding crowns and forming brims with straw ribbon.

I liked the idea so much I made one for myself, using a piece of ceiling tile to which I had pinned quarter-inch graph paper and brim patterns and covered with Contact paper. Still okay after all these years, although the edges are a mite frizzled.

Wanna in El Paso

Hat forms: The best thing I found was the plastic tubes that they put fresh cut flowers in to help keep them fresh. I picked up a package of 100 from one of the local floral wholesale supply stores for about $7. Included were the rubber lids. I cut up some thin plywood into 2 x 2 inch squares and used small washers and screws to attach the plastic lids to the wood and then put the tubes into the lids. Just put some plastic wrap on the tubes and they work wonderfully!!!!! Oh - I used the 5/8 inch size.

Shara Lewis

Freezer Wrap: I often use Freezer Wrap when cutting out fabric for my tiny doll clothes. Once I have worked out the pattern and size on graph or tracing paper, I transfer the outline to Freezer Wrap. I use a slightly warm iron to press the waxy side of the freezer wrap to my fabric. Then I cut the fabric around the freezer wrap. (No need for straight pins to hold the pattern to the fabric, so no pinholes in the fabric.) The freezer wrap then peels off easily. I feel sure all the miniature doll artisans are aware of this use for freezer wrap.

Nancy Faye Roach - Port St. Lucie, FL

Freezer paper: It's not waxed at all, it's got a thin layer of plastic on one side, which when you iron it (shiny side down) onto the fabric, temporarily adheres the fabric to the melted plastic. If you've ever dripped candle wax on your grandma's tablecloth, you know wax and fabric don't mix too happily. I use freezer paper when I'm going to be tracing a punch needle pattern on floppy fabric, like for the chenille spreads. It keeps the fabric nice and stable while I draw on it.

Bonni in NH

Making 'crumpled clothes: I'm new to miniatures and wondering about making clothing that is strewn across a bed or hanging on a peg. Do you make the object as it would appear in real life and then 'crumple' it up and glue it in the position you want. Are there instructions for making clothing like a 'nightie' to throw across a bed or a robe. etc.

Diane in Hollywood, Fl