Jane's Tools - Wide range of crafting tools at reasonable prices
McMaster-Carr - they have just about EVERYTHING for fabrication of just about anything.--acrylic rods, plastic sheets, Styrofoam sheets, wire, sheet metal, etc.
beauty supply shops have potential miniature making tools - emery boards in different shapes, sizes and grits, nail tools for positioning, shaping clay and whatever you can think of, tweezers, and clippers for wood and wire. Look at the nail polish (paint), tiny decals and rhinestones. Makeup and powders can be used for tinting, shading and general colouring projects Check the brushes out too!.
traveling with your minis or do you want to organize your tools? Check out the Creative Doll's blog.
Books
Books about miniature tools projects (also books with chapters about them)
Links
links to sites showing how to use tools to make miniatures
Drying Rack for Miniatures - from Joanne's minis. I made something very similar for baking my polymer dolls, using air-dry clay to fit in the bottom of a foil tray with a lid. That way the arms and fee don't burn!
The nail art section in dollar stores, beauty supply stores and any other stores carrying nail supplies are just made for miniaturists. Look for very fine glitter, jewels and other tiny things made to stick on fancy nails and some wonderful tools. For example, a fine detailing brush with a bent head and a ball tip on the other end - makes painting inside micro houses and touching up painted corners easier. (And the ball tip is for dipping in paint to make tiny dots.) Another find (if you use the spaghetti method) was a tool with a tiny silicone tip on each end meant exclusively for picking up the no hole beads to position them.
Paper Mitre Box - from MicroJivvy, prefect for frames and moldings.
Purchased jigs are wonderful but If you want to make your own jig (portable, for your tool kit), find a small metal box with cover, like an Altoids tin, or a medium size flat rectangular box, like those decorative ones for cookies, tea or notecards. Put a piece of graph paper on top covered with some waxpaper. Use a few Legos as your wall or corner, then add some magnets to hold the Legos and your glued item in place until it dries. You can just line things up on the graph paper/waxpaper combo and use rectangular straight sided magnets to hold. Found magnets inexpensively in Harbor Freight. When finished everything stores inside the box. For larger projects, use a flat metal cookie sheet. The Harbor Freight magnets are so strong that if a couple are placed underneath the jig, another few can be used on top to hold the project in place.
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