Saturday, May 9, 2020
Overcast
8 C 46 F
The World of Miniatures
Last week, I was browsing on the Net, when I came across a most interesting website. It was a website catering to people who have dollhouses. Whether it's repairing them, getting replacement parts, or additional parts for people having dollhouses, it's truly interesting. What especially caught my eye was the fact that dollhouses are a world of miniatures, and everything is small. I wrote the owner of the website, and she gave me her permission to write about here website,
In Celia Thomas' Own Words
"Having been born and bred in Gloucester, and with five older brothers (no sisters) to contend with, I found my beloved dolls house made by my grandfather a haven for me to escape! As I embarked on a career in nursery nursing in the mid 1970s, part of the training was learning the basics of woodwork using “real tools” in order to make children’s toys.
Then for coursework, whilst having to construct a toy out of junk…in a flash of inspiration, I made a fully furnished Victorian dolls house out of a cardboard box and household junk. The seed was well and truly planted!
Over the years my craft skills evolved and were stretched whilst working with children in various establishments in and around London, having met and married Dave by the late 1970s. By the time I had two young sons, I was constructing an endless quantity of children’s dolls houses to earn much needed cash. Then along came my daughter and having scratch built more than 50 children’s houses over the years for friends of friends, etc., I increasingly became more fascinated with producing what goes inside dolls houses rather than the houses themselves. Hence in January 1997 KT Miniatures was born. By then I was becoming a passionate collector of old dolls house items and eventually began to sell these too.
I deal mostly with antique and vintage dolls houses and related old miniature items these days, although occasionally you may find one or two of my vintage style creations for sale on the website. Working from my Oxfordshire home I deal primarily by mail order now. Having once been organizer of the Thame Dolls House & Miniatures Fair along with husband Dave, it was the one fair that KT Miniatures had been attending in most recent times."
The world of miniatures is very interesting to me, because everything is built very small. This "shrinking effect" requires lots of skill and patience, reading and research in order to make exact reproductions of times gone by. It also involves lots of time!
In creating miniature worlds, it's important to pay attention to detail both in the "real "world, and the miniature world.
Below are 4 different flower arrangements in pots.
They're collectors' items that were made by a famous
miniature craftsperson in the 1920's, by the name of Beatrice Hindley.
Below is a photograph of Celia's garden
Below:
The garden
Don't forger that you can click on any photo to enlarge it.
The attention to detail is always important in creating miniature houses or even gardens.
Notice the rusted lock on the door, the peeling paint, the folded grey tin container (Upper hand right corner) for holding a tree, the tiny moss growing between the slate tiles, and even loose rocks on the slate pathway!
Below:
Notice the slug on the leaf, along with
mini droplets of water on the plant.
Below:
The Beach Scene
Judging from the way the people are dressed, the timeframe
appears to be in the 1900-1920 period.
The water appears so real with the small wave crests.
I wonder how that was done?
Below is an enlarged view of the waves.
Fantastic!
The bird certainly has attracted the attention of the little girl!
I also like the weathered appearance of the wood. The bird would have been carved out of a small piece of wood.
Another arrangement with the father and daughter.
Here'a nice old small German bed measuring:
L x W x H
3 7/8"x 2 1/16" x 2 3/4"
98mm x 53 mm x 70 mm
I placed 4 pennies (cents) with a tape measure
measuring 78 mm (3 1/16")
The photograph is NOT to scale, so the
pennies are actually too large in the photo!
So that bed is very, very, small.
Imagine all the work that went into making such a small bed!
The bed and the mop are trues antiques, having been
made in Germany.
that measures the pens at about 3" (76 mm
B
Below is a mop Measuring 4 1/4"
It's from the 1930's!
When talking about how large or small something is,
the measurement is a fraction with the world scale.
The mop would be suitable for a dollhouse at a scale of 1/16th and 1/12th.
That means that at a scale of 1/16th, a life-size mop would be 5 ' 3" (160 mm) high.
Below are 2 very interesting items.
They are miniature dollhouses that appear to be carried in a travel case.
If you look closely, you can see the handles and the clasps on their exteriors.
It takes a lot of patience and time to create doll house accessories in small scale.
Although I don't own a dollhouse or have ever made items for one, making them is "work"!
I know, because being a fisherman, I've made my own flies for fly fishing,
and they are quite small!
So that's it for today,
and thanks for dropping by.
As always,
have a great part of the day or night.
And please be careful during these pandemic times.
You can always reach me at:
toysearcher@gmail.com
Stacey Bindman
