Is really something to celebrate.
I have been to most of them. I started as a visitor in the Eighties, when the show was at the cricket ground. Some of the exhibitors were in a hall, others were on banked seating areas. These included Glasscraft, Geordies like myself, and possibly only the second glass workers in the hobby. They were standing on the steps and behaving like market traders, shouting their wares.
‘Glassware, get your lovely glassware here. Bowls and glasses, get your lovely bowls (pet.)’ There was a commotion as a very alert lady rushed past me (I was further down the steps) to tell the glassblowers off. ‘I know it’s a show,’ she said, ‘but it’s not that sort of show.’
‘Eeh well sorry.’
I rushed over once she’d gone (it was, of course, Muriel Hopwood, show founder) to see what they had. First time out in Birmingham and goodness they were good. There was a lot of glassware in the North East because of a manufacturer of kitchen glass ware that had a big factory and trained apprentices. These Geordies did what a lot of miniaturists were doing at the start of the hobby, they saw a new market and miniaturised skills they already had, to great effect.
Miniatura has continued to encourage very good craftsmen and women, politely, over a hundred shows.
The hundredth show does not mean that Miniatura has been going with Muriel and now Andy, her son, as show organiser, for fifty years. For some time there was a Scottish Miniatura, as well as the two in Birmingham. By then I was an exhibitor and, attending the show, stayed with an auntie of the OH, who lived in Dumbarton. It was a chance for the S&H to meet a great auntie, and she was great and we had a great time. Short of cash, as we were, the show helped with a holiday and definitely paid for a slap-up meal at the Lodge on Loch Lomond.
Some of the best craftsmen in the country have been attracted to the way the show has nurtured them. The motto of the show ‘For miniaturists by miniaturists’ has never deviated. Fees for exhibiting are modest, entry fees to the show for visitors are modest. The venue has never crammed extra people in who just want to make money, there has always been room for wheelchair users to move easily.
The short of show it is, is a show that cares more about people than about making money. I wrote for magazines in the hobby for about fifteen years and in the course of doing so interviewed many exhibitors. I never found anyone with anything less than fulsome praise for the show, the way they had been looked after, and the information and help they had been given. When the show was at the NEC, the NEC started to charge (a lot) for car parking for visitors. Miniatura paid these fees because they didn’t want their visitors to waste their money in the car park, they wanted their visitors to keep their saved-up pocket money for the things they wanted to collect.
It is a remarkable show.
To celebrate the one hundredth Miniatura I am giving a free gift with purchase to the first one hundred visitors who buy something from me on the Saturday and the first one hundred visitors who buy something from me on Sunday.
None of the prices of my wares have changed, some have been the same for thirty one years, and I will make sure there are plenty of items at very reasonable prices so everyone who wishes to do so will get the free gift. The gift is a glazed, hand painted porcelain plate and a slice of porcelain birthday cake with a candle. The gift will come in a box in three scales so you can choose your scale 12th, 24th or 48th to go in your house. I have yet to make the sealed boxes but here in the picture are some of the plates and cakes. I will randomise the selection so no one will get your combination of cake and plate. There are three different types of cake, one has lemon icing, one has pink icing and one is chocolate cake. The cakes and plates are only for this show, I will never offer them for sale, the only way you can get them is to be at the 100th Miniatura and buy something from me.
Miniatura has been described as a collector’s paradise, I hope my free gift entirely fits with the spirit of the show. If you notice whole cakes in the picture above there might be a reason for that and, if you collected one of the leaflets that were on my table last show, you’ll know what it is.
I am not the only exhibitor doing something special. The exhibitors love the show as much as the visitors do. With only two and a bit weeks to go you can almost feel the love, head down, busy.
It’s going to be amazing. The show is open 10 till 4, all the details are at www.miniatura.co.uk
See you there!
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