Club News
This page will be dedicated to supporting the efforts of the clubs all around the country who do so much to inject enthusiasm into our hobby. If your club is running an event, let us know via our feedback page (you can enter the prize draw at the same time!).
Special thanks to the Glenrothes Wee Hoose Club for their fascinating article on the benefits of attending shows. more...
DAME (Dollhouse and Miniature Enthusiasts) in Northern Ireland are holding an Exhibition in St Patrick's Church Hall in Newtownards Co. Down
Sat/Sun 20/21st Sept 2008 -
Open Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12.30pm-4.30pm
British Toymakers Guild will be exhibiting unique handmade toys by members, some of whom are also exhibitors in their own right at this show. See them at their stand for more information about what the guild can do for it's members or just to be reminded that quality craftsmanship still exists in the toymaking world just as much as it does in the doll's house hobby. Find more about the BTG...
The Lichfield Dolls House Club will once again be operating a workshop at Miniatura where visitors can try their hand at making up a furniture kit. The workshop is in aid of Cancer Research UK and our thanks go to all the club volunteers who will be assisting everyone and to Jennifers of Walsall who has donated all the kits. This feature was very popular last Spring so why not go along and give it a try?
Warley Model Railway Club members will be joining us again. Their display in Spring was very popular and proved that we can all learn new techniques from other related hobbies. The organisers of Miniatura will be taking a stand at the Warley show to encourage railway modellers to engage with the doll's house side of the modelling hobby. We discovered that 1/24th scale miniatures fit very well into 'G' scale railway settings!
Attending the Miniatura (Edinburgh) fair 2008 - Glenrothes Wee House Club
Well, when we were asked by Mrs Hopwood to write a short piece about the benefits of attending the fairs it really got everyone talking (when I say everyone I mean all four of us!
We are a small club but that doesn’t mean we are short of things to say when a conversation is started up about miniatures!!) After lengthy discussions we all agreed that one of the main reasons we attend any of the fairs is that nothing can compare to seeing all the products in ‘real life’. Yes we know that the Internet is very good, you can find almost anything in the digital world, but in our opinion it cannot beat attending the fairs in any contest.
We particularly enjoy speaking to the stallholders, taking the opportunity where possible to quiz them on their vast knowledge and experience of the hobby, we have enjoyed getting to know some of them and are always pleased when we come across people who are not only in attendance for their business but for their own personal interest in the hobby too.
We also really enjoy speaking to the other clubs in attendance, we love making new friends with them and it’s always exciting to see what each club has created for the show. As we have attended the fairs more than once now we find that we are recognising some of the faces and are looking forward to catching up with everyone each year.
We take every opportunity we can to share ideas with the other club members finding out all their secrets and scouring the fair for any hints or tips! We have been lucky enough to be invited to attend the fair as a club for the last two years. We thoroughly enjoy working on our project and find it is the one time a year we have a reason to work on something together. We all find we have a sense of achievement about our projects and look forward to showing the final exhibit at the fairs, we find that we have a genuinely interested audience at the fairs. (It makes a difference after our husbands, partners and friends who have spent the previous few months politely acting interested saying “yes that looks fine”)
Our favourite people at the fairs would have to be the people who come forward and ask us how we made certain pieces. We particularly enjoy telling people how we make the things we exhibit as our club mostly enjoys miniatures and dolls housing as a hands-on hobby not just as a collection. It is fun to pass on our passion about making things for our houses etc to others, especially, first time miniaturists who might not be as sure of what they can achieve. We like to show that although it is nice to have good quality pieces in your house that have been made by true artists and experts, it is not always the quality of the end product that matters when making your own pieces. We enjoy the sense of achievement in trying to make things (as some people may have recognised when looking at any of our people, they’re not pretty but they’re ours!!)
We hope that in attending the fairs we can pass on some of our excitement to others and hope that everyone enjoys seeing our exhibit as much as we enjoyed making it. So far we managed to use the same base for our ‘Hollywood train station’ at the 2007 Scottish Miniatura as we did for our ‘wee theatre’ at this years fair and although it has only been a few weeks since the 2008 Miniatura our wee club is already full of ideas and suggestions for what we can do with the same base for next year in the hope that we will be invited again. And if we are lucky enough to be invited we hope to see you there!!