Did I mention that a friend I hadn’t seen for twenty years came to stay to go to the show? It was an amazement that thirty years ago I regularly had people to stay who were visiting the show and did dinner parties and everything. I may have been younger then, possibly, which is why I am only just getting round to this post and I still have to tidy out and reassemble the bags for the next show.
However, having someone else to man the table means I can flit around the hall and take pictures.
First time exhibition from Coolkatzcraft, who you may have seen on Create and Craft TV, exhibiting in collaboration with Studio Partnership, included a range of MDF book nooks and small buildings. For the uninitiated, book nooks are structures small enough to fit into a full size bookcase as dioramas or rooms.
Here is a little shop but there were also scenes of Venice and some promising free standing greenhouses and sheds.
I always make time to see Dave of Teeny Tiny Teddies and friends because I like Dave, who is lovely and I like his teddies, which are also lovely. His wonderful toyshop full of antique tinyness is always worth a look
and he had some very nice little furry friends waiting to be rehomed.
One of the interesting features of Miniatura is how hard people find to give it up. Visitors arrive telling me it’s their last time but I know I’ll see them again. Similarly exhibitors reappear, sometimes reinvented.
Tanis from Tadpoles, who used to do various things in tiny scales long ago when everyone was screwing up their eyes and telling her it was too small, has now moved into model railways.
Why does the train look blurry? The train looks blurry because it’s going round and round.
You can appreciate just how small these working model railways are by the size of the batteries that are powering them. Crikey, small or very small?
Here, for those who ask, is a corner of my stand
with the relief pictures in paper, the edge of the 2inch dolls’ dolls stand and the start of the porcelain 24th scale ornaments, beyond are dolls in three scales.
My stand was two away from Nicola Mascall who does charted needlepoint designs on very fine silk gauze. One day I will finish the large needlepoint silk gauze picture I began over thirty years ago, and have put in a safe place, though that didn’t stop me buying a cushion kit, which I will begin later today. Nicola’s kits are complete, you can open the packet and get started immediately, the cushion kits even have the decorative cord to go round the cushion when you have finished stitching, and they come ready mounted in the frame to hold as you work.
You can see for yourself how fantastic the results are of working needlepoint on silk gauze. Nicola showed a carpet in progress which is utterly breath taking.
Every Miniatura I am reminded if why I love this show so much. It is the quality and variety of exhibits which make Miniatura such a great day out. Every show you will see something you think you could have a go at, something which you just have to collect and something which you could never do if you practised for a million years, starting tomorrow. Miniatura is the show for miniaturists by miniaturists since 1983.
I first visited in the early eighties and thought it was better than Christmas and the happiest day out ever and I still think so.
I love Miniatura, I love the artisans, I love the exhibits, I love the visitors.
www.nicolamascallminiatures.co.uk
www.teenyweenyteddiesandfriends.com
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TadpolesMiniRailways
I am likely to be on my own in the Autumn, so probably unable to scoot around to see the show. You’ll just have to come and have a look for yourself!
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