Tiny Wooden Toys

I had just finished photographing St.Nicholas visiting the children at Court, and he was on his way to the next castle..

When I realized that he couldn't very well have the exact same toys in his sack at his next stop. What to do? I couldn't very well fill his sack with contemporary toys. They had to look at least a bit 'vintage'. Then I remembered the bag of small wooden ornaments that I'd picked up at Value Village a few years ago. I dug them out, but they seemed rather too crudely painted, especially if they were going to end up being photographed in close-ups. 

But I could see the possibilities, so cut their cords off with an exacto knife.

Then I removed all their glued-on props, and spent the next three days repainting many of them. I wanted to turn therm into Medieval style characters, so the first one I tackled was one of the tall soldiers, turning it into a King. The painting may seem a bit crude when looking at them so close up, but it was a challenge considering they were just two and a half inches tall, and my eyesight isn't exactly the best..

Then I wanted to turn the second tall soldier into a knight. So I mixed up a bit of Apoxie and added a bit of tiny armour. After painting him, I glued on a tiny shield made from an oval 'Woodle' cut in half, and painted.

Then I painted the smaller men, turning two of them into knights as well...

I painted the two tiny (one and a quarter inch tall) ladies as a queen and princess...

...and had fun with several of the other ornaments...

At that point I'd had enough. I figured I had painted enough new toys for St. Nicholas' next stop, and decided to leave the rest to be painted at some other time...