Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline McFarlane-Watts.
Hi Caroline, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My incredibly niche career started long ago in a village far far away.
I’d made small things out of modelling clay as a child. I believed there were “borrowers” (tiny tiny people) living under the floorboards of my 500 year old Tudor house in rural England, and I believed my sister when she assured me there were fairies living in the copse behind our house. So I made tiny gifts for them.
Roll on several years and a degree in Filmmaking at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a move to Los Angeles, California, I found myself yet again making tiny things.
My career as a movie miniaturist was fun. I loved making things which helped bring other people’s stories and visions to life. But when the pandemic hit and I was obliged to find other ways to make money for a while, I happily threw myself into my small business – Tall Tales Productions. A real cottage industry was born in Los Feliz right around the block from where Walt Disney drew his first mouse. I began mass producing scale miniatures and figurines for the collectors market. Soon enough I was designing, sculpting, casting, painting and shipping figurines to over 50 countries. I love it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think any artist has it all that easy, but I have been fortunate that my path, though zig-zaggy, has been relatively smooth.
I find that when making money as a full-time artist, one must pay great attention to social media and using it well for marketing, good product presentation / photography and networking (being seen). I know some very talented artists who are not brilliant at their own self promotion and are thus not as successful as they ought to be.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Everyone has their “thing”, don’t they? For Georgia O’Keeffe it was suggestive flowers, for Claude Monet it was lily ponds… and for the less high-brow but just as great; Brian Froud it was goblins and fairies, and for Jim Henson it was his unique Muppet animal character puppets. Just to name some iconic creatives.
Well, I like it every time someone refers to me as “the witch girl” because it means that one of my absolute favourite subjects, that of the “fairytale witch”, has become quite linked to my artistic identity.
I’m most proud of my series of witches which I named ‘Good Witches Bad Witches™’ which takes the form of books, character sculpts, collectible figurines and other world building. I never grow tired of creating and writing about more and more of these fun witch characters,
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Passion. If you absolutely love what you do then you never want to stop doing it. That’s how I feel about my career. I realise how lucky I am that I can do something I love and I’m grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tall-tales.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TallTalesProductions
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TallTalesProductions
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/TallTalesProductions
Image Credits
Caroline McFarlane-Watts
