My goodness it’s getting exciting!
With less than a fortnight to go you may have been gripped by the strong desire to see this world-famous show for yourself. If so, you’ll be pleased to know that tickets for Sunday can be bought at the door and only cost £7 for an adult, which is a great bargain for a day’s entertainment that the weather cannot spoil. There’s still time, if you don’t live too far away for the post to catch you, to do it in advance, which would only cost £5-50, though there is a £1 transaction fee for cards over the phone. The NEC ticket hotline number is 0121 767 4100
Getting there is easy because the NEC was built with accessibility as a prime requirement. It has its own railway station with trains every 10 minutes from Birmingham New Street, after which, onsite, it’s a 10 minute walk or taxi. Birmingham airport is next door to the site with a free rail link every 2 minutes and a 90 second travel time. All you need to know is at www.thenec.co.uk/travel
As promised last time here is some wonderful new food from Mags Cassidy including this Tudor apothecary table
a new range of Georgian food
and, as it is that time of year, these:
and a half-eaten iced bun with a wasp on it
The far flung exhibitors theme continues with the guest appearance of Janine Crocker on Mary Williams’ stand. Janine is coming from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, has never been to a fair in the US or UK and declares herself to be so excited she could sleep in the car park. Her minis are usually only available online but she’ll be bringing hats with her, which Mary is going to show and I’ll join in, here they are:
and here’s the latest craze, steampunk, again
Janine is planning to see the entire show in detail, meet up with miniaturists in the evening for a small glass or two of red and is in such a tizzy of excitement perhaps she should bring one of her own beds for the car park anyway.
Familiar exhibitors to readers of this column include Julie Campbell who has some fab new glow in the dark ghosts.
Tremendously handy if you have a mini stately home. As would be
Taa daa!
the mystery object for this show, supplied by Phil Grenyer of Glasscraft. Phil spotted the full size original of this item at Wallington Hall, a National Trust stately home in Northumberland. It has a famous dolls’ house, which I recall my grandmother taking me to see when I was a child. When Phil went he spotted this glass artefact in the kitchen and called the curator over to discuss it. He has made the miniature for years now; it will be on his stand for only £5-95, dates from c.1870 and is essential in a house of that era.
What is it?
As you can see it is a glass decanter with a removable stopper
so far so good, until you turn it upside down
when it becomes apparent that there’s a hole in the bottom. Well that’s a bit odd, let’s look again
No doubt about it, what we have here is a glass decanter with a removable stopper and a hole in the bottom.
Fascinating. Now I do hope Janine Crocker is not going to try to fill it with red wine and entertain the rest of us in the car park, in fact I think Mags Cassidy would have a better use for it.
If you need another clue here is Phil with a whole bunch of them on his stand, second row up from the bottom;
and that’s all I’m going to tell you until next week, which will be the last midweek Miniatura before the show.
http://missameliasminiatures.com
and, as always www.miniatura.co.uk
JaneLaverick.com – excited!