Gentle and Jolly ladies

The holiday is a pleasant memory - so back to work, some new characters and miniature news. 

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was working on a little 1/24th scale nun - she's now been delivered and Carmen has sent some super pictures of her in her new setting.

 As you can see she's visiting an elderly lady and reading to her. Carmen creates such wonderful scenes and is happy that I share her photographs with you.  It was particularly nice to see Grandma again  in her beautiful home.

A rather jollier lady, in the same scale, is an old fashioned flower lady who would be selling her flowers in the local market - fun to make and a change from....you guessed it....another little gardener!

I'm looking forward to Haddenham Dolls House Exhibition which takes place in Haddenham Village Hall on Saturday 14th November - just a couple of miles from Thame. Easy to get to by road or rail - 280 Oxford/Aylesbury bus or train to Thame and Haddenham Parkway which is close by away with taxi and bus stop just outside.

As well as impressive Dolls House Club displays that are always interesting and inspiring there are several sales tables and a splendid raffle raising funds for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and Thames Valley Air Ambulance. I shall be there with my Coombe Crafts stand alongside KT Miniatures  - Celia Thomas who is Mrs KT being not only my chum, but partner in Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops which will have a table too, no doubt squeezed in the middle! Will be a hectic day but lots of fun.

On our Workshop stand we'll display of some of the unique projects we have created over the last four years and, simply because we are both fast running out of storage space, there will be a few of the unique prototypes for sale.
Thanks to Felicity and Ron who are the organisers of The Thame Dolls House and Miniatures Fair for  continuing this special event following in the very capable footsteps of Freda and George Dorrell who ran it for many years.

Nostalgia in Miniature Workshop news for 2016!! We were thrilled with the success and popularity of this year's 'The Little Vintage Toyshop' workshops and are busy working on The Early 1900s Little German Style Shop for next year.
If you'd like to know more about this one which  will be in both 1/24th and 1/12th scales again, come and have a chat at Haddenham or contact either of us if you would like to go on our Reserve List. This does not commit you to taking up a place but means that before booking is opened on the website in January you will offered a first opportunity to book. Further details can be found on our blog if click HERE. 

Thanks for looking.
Robin

Inspired by Dorset

We've recently spent a very happy short break on the south coast - Somerset, Dorset and Devon all run into and out of each other almost around the next corner on the road - they're all beautiful counties and it's been a treat to spend a while in this very beautiful coastal area.  The camera goes everywhere with me and I appreciate that as I can go a little mad .... I'll stick to sharing the more interesting/quirky and leave out the pretty ones.

Like many mini-house builders I'm fascinated by houses and other buildings and the sea front cottages at Lyme Regis were a positive delight and surprise. They're all so very pretty, but the big surprise was to find that so many were thatched!!

Just loved the street lamps too...

I haven't made a seaside cottage for ages and the last were in 1/24th scale with slate roofs inspired by the ones I knew while I was living in Cornwall, so I'm officially inspired to create a thatched  one in 1/48th scale!

We've been wanting to go to this lovely place for decades and just never got around to it - SO worth the wait.  Of course Lyme Bay itself, the harbour area and the famous Cobb are wonderful and I could definitely picture Jane Austin's ladies tripping through the town and the tragic lady on the Cobb.

The Cobb and harbour

We've all probably made or purchased a post box for our miniature scenes over the years but I was fascinated to discover one of the oldest in this country that dates from 1799 and is still in it's original place  - no red paint here.  I wonder when they were first painted red?

The Jurassic Coast of course is famous for fossils as well as beauty.  I looked....well we might have found one....but I cheated and bought a couple of little ones at the amazing Heritage Centre at Charmouth.

The cliffs and rocks sculped by the waves and weather are beautiful in their own right and as I love pebbles and beach-combing I was in my element. We had a lovely time and were so happy to see the number of school parties and their teachers having a wonderful time out there digging, getting muddy and learning at the same time. Great!
Somewhere in the shed I still have an old stone/pebble tumbler - now the question is, do I really have time to revisit that old hobby? No.o.o.o.....

Given that our fishermen work in such perilous conditions and under all kinds of challenging policy dictats it's always a treat to see working boats and the equipment of their labours as we did at both Lyme and West Bay. Glass, cork and natural rope may be a thing of the past but the modern equivalents no doubt do the job just as well (or better) and look just as striking.

Pity I could snap this without the cars....

You might have noticed something of an obsession with miniature shopes this year - so I couldn't resist taking pictures of this wonderfully preserved draper's shop in Ilminster - just as it was when it opened  in 1870.

Couldn't resist this fabulous statue of a violinist in a lovely garden.
Back to work then...

Thanks for looking.
Robin

The Family from the Farm

Dollmaking has been going rather well lately and more little characters have been heading out to their new homes.

This little post-war family has just moved into their famhouse.  In 1/24th scale, children are always a bit more of a challenge but complete this little group.  Dad's already got his coat and hat on ready to get out there and tend the animals and no doubt when the girls have gone to school, his wife will be working just as hard alongside him.

In the same scale, a wife for the gamekeeper and a nun coming soon......

If you're a regular dropper-in to the blog you might remember I mentioned a surge in sailors this year......obviously these sea-going gents take a trunk with them then tuck away gifts for loved ones on their return journey.

This little 1/24th sailor's trunk contains such gifts and also his trusty spyglass, logbook, uniform and bible.  To judge by the map fixed into the lid, I'd say he was homeward bound via the West country ports. I just have two little trunks in stock - if you'd like details just email me. 

Thanks for looking.
Robin