The Village Centre

In the centre of my mini village I put a row of shops and a corner pub.They are kit sets by Kestrel Designs I made up. I think, when painted up, they look very realistic. Positioning the tiny people was fun, making them appear as if they were chatting or admiring goods in the shop windows or sitting on a bench outside the pub or waiting to cross the road.

The N Scale Village Shops

The Newer Part of the N Scale Village

Beside the pub is the old Norman church. I made the gravestones by painting the offcuts of plastic from the kits. Can you see the gravediggers with their shovel and pick?!
   Behind the shops is the bus stop and the newer part of the village. These kit set houses are a mix of brick Kestrel Design bungalows and American kits for weatherboard houses.
   One of the things I really like about this layout is that every time I look at it, I see something different. It has been a project that has given me an immense amount of satisfaction!

The Miniature Village Layout - Left Side

A Wedding Scene in N Scale

Deciding what to put where was all part of the enjoyment when laying out the miniature village. I made a little hill out of paper clay to put the church on and staged a wedding scene there complete with a tiny bride, groom and wedding guests.
   On the left-hand roadway I placed the largest house in the village surrounded by a stone wall. In the garden is the housekeeper's cottage, a garden shed and a veggie garden with two men working in it.

Also along that side of the road are smaller houses and the village hall. I imagined this to be the older part of the village. The houses are all made of brick with tile roofs. Some are built so close to the road that their front doors open directly on to the footpath, as you see in many old English villages.

The Older Section of the Miniature Village

 Next time I'll write about how I set out the middle section of the village with its shops, church and newer houses. I hope you're enjoying the photos!

Making a Miniature Farm

An N Scale Miniature Farmyard

As part of my N scale village I really wanted a section of it to be a farm. That is why the village layout grew and grew - I had to have paddocks and hills and a farmyard and barn!
   On the board that my husband had cut for me, I made hills and hollows out of paper clay. I arranged them so that the back of the board was a bit higher than the front. Then I marked out the position of the house and barn and the farm track and circular driveway. 
   Once the paper clay had thoroughly dried, I painted it with dark green paint, leaving the track and driveway bare. While the paint was still wet I shook grass scatter over it. This was particularly messy! Even though I had put down a double sheet on the studio floor to work on, I still managed to get bits of green stuff everywhere.

Animals and Buildings in N Scale

   I left it overnight then took the board outside and gave it a gentle shake. The bits of grass scatter that hadn't stuck blew away. On the balder-looking patches I sprayed glue and shook scatter over those again. The final touch was to give everything a good swoosh of hair spray.
   For the driveway and farm track I painted glue straight onto the board and, using a teaspoon, gently shook fine artist's sand over them. Once they were dry I could get onto the fun part - the landscaping.
   Fences, trees, bushes, flowers; sheep and lambs, cows and calves; the shepherd and his dog, a tractor towing a trailer of supplies, a horse-drawn hay wagon and the farmer standing at the doorway of the farmhouse.

My Miniature Village in N Scale

An N Scale (1:160) Village

The last time I wrote about my N scale buildings I had decided not to do a village layout and instead keep the little houses and churches in a wall cabinet.
   Well, all that has changed! I've reverted to my original idea and for the last three weeks have been working on my mini village. It was a lot of fun planning the layout - how big to have the farm, where to put the pub and the churches, would I have straight streets or curving ones, was there room for a village duck pond?

Churches, Shops and Houses in N Scale

   And I also enjoyed tracking down vehicles and teeny tiny people to populate it.

Farm Animals and Vehicles in N Scale

   
Over the next few blog posts I'll tell you in detail how I made each part of the village. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Inspired by a Dolls House

I have been reading an article in Writing Magazine (April 2012) about the author Karen Maitland. She writes wonderful mediaeval thrillers. She says that when she is working she becomes "immersed in mediaeval life". This is why, I think, her books have such a great atmosphere with all the details of what life was like in those early centuries.
   But what really fascinated me is that Karen has a dolls house, a mediaeval great Hall "complete with glowing fire and mad monk." She says that whenever she peers inside it is as if she is right back in the mediaeval world.
   What a wonderful way to incorporate your dolls house into your working life!

Readable Miniature Books by Ann Vanture

A Boxed Set of Beatrix Potter Books From Paper Minis

One of my 'good intentions' when making miniatures has been to have all  real, readable books in my mini museum and Edwardian dolls house. 

   Some of them I've bought ready-made, such as the beautiful open books I bought from Barbara Brear of South Africa. I wrote about them in one of the Guest Interviews on this blog.

  Other books I've made from kit sets. I have been very impressed with the kit set books I bought from Paper Minis. The colors were fresh, the pictures and text crisp, and the kits went together easily, as long as I took my time and folded pages carefully!

  I asked Ann Vanture of Paper Minis to tell me about them. 

W.  Where do you source the old books you make your miniature copies from?

 Ann.  I have a huge human scale book collection and I still have lots of books from my childhood. Many of my friends have books in their collection and they have allowed me to borrow these for miniaturizing. A few I have bought and downloaded. I make sure that the books I use are not still in copyright in this country. 

  What many people do not know is that many of the books are actually derivative works of mine. For examples, the Unicorn Tapestries, the Duc de Berry Book of Hours and the 21 Missions books were compiled and authored by me. Many of the books are abridged by me as well in order to fit the tiny format. That can be a difficult task, to be able to keep the story and style intact. Those itsy bitsy Beatrix Potter books are very difficult. By the way, I only publish Potter books whose characters are not trademarked.

    I think many miniaturists only concern themselves with copyright and should also familiarize themselves with trademarking. Where the boxed sets are concerned, I design the boxes myself and incorporate design elements found on and in the books the box houses.

    Every book is re-typeset in order for the collector to be able to read, albeit with a magnifier. Only my Uncle with perfect eyesight is able to read my books without help! And he is 83 years young.

    All artwork is cleaned and color enhanced to make these little jewels complete. Remember these are vintage and antique books and have lost much of their original scrumptious color over the years. Another hurdle is eliminating a child’s added “designs”, usually in crayon.

Mini Dolls House/Bookcase Kits

    Every book I sell either has a storage box or a laminated matching box sleeve, this keeps the books from flopping open when stored away. Some of my favorite designs are the tiny dollhouses kits I designed to double as mini bookcases.

   Thanks, Ann. It's interesting to find out how much work is involved in producing the kit set books.Your books now are in my Edwardian dolls house nursery and in the Rare Books room of my miniature museum. 

Ann Vanture, Miniaturist, of Paper Minis

Samples of Paper Miniatures in Vintage Style Made by Ann

I was thrilled when Ann Vanture agreed to answer my questions about making miniatures from paper. Here are some insights into the inspiration behind her Paper Minis business.


W. What got you started in the miniatures hobby?

A.  My younger sister, Cordelia, is actually the force that got me started on Paper Minis. She has spent years populating a wonderful Victorian house our Father built for her as well as many room boxes. One day she showed me her latest dollhouse accessories purchase. I was impressed, but felt that the little kitchen groceries could be improved. Having worked as a graphic artist for many years, and with Cordelia's encouragement, I quickly became obsessed with creating the perfect 1:12 scale miniature. A task that took many years longer than I thought it would. The resulting Paper Minis' process is my special "secret recipe" -- 10 years to figure out how to bring out color, texture, crisp lines and readable typesetting at a scale 1/12th our human size! If you have been following Paper Minis over the years on-line (from the end of 2002), you know it has been an interesting journey.

W.  What is the most unusual or special miniature you own?

The Bavarian Miniatures From Ann's Childhood

A.  The most special miniature I own is my girlhood collection of furniture and accessories. The kitchen and bedroom sets came from the Bavarian Forest which we bought when I was about 7 in Germany while my father was stationed in France. The tin can curly-q furniture and the cast iron stove and accessories I bought with my own money while visiting the Ozark Mountains with my Grandparents who lived in Missouri, probably when I was  between 11 and 14 years of age. We would go camping each year on the White River in the Ozarks. My years in Europe and those camping trips were the highlights of my childhood. These items have been in storage during my adult years, and my grown daughter Cristen and I hope to make a house for the furniture in the near future.

 

W.  Which part of your Paper Minis business do you enjoy doing the most –  for example: dreaming up an idea, creating a prototype, dealing with customers?

A.  The most enjoyable part of Paper Minis business is the inception (the grand day dream!) of a project and then gathering the design elements. Those design elements might be a derivative element, like using antique photos to cover puzzle blocks, or a design element might be a completely custom artwork. Building that first “draft” is like Christmas morning for me. I don’t get to do that much anymore because of all the administrative tasks required for running a business (3 hours a day in email alone!), so I savor those few moments in a month when I get to be creative.           

A Range of Contemporary Miniatures from Paper Minis

 W.  Do you have a dolls house now? Can you tell us about it?

A.  I do not have a dollhouse, which has surprised many. I get the impression that when people visualize my home in their mind’s eye they see gingerbread inside and out with spiral starlight mints, gum drops and dollhouses on every surface in the house. Over the years I have made many boxes to stage Paper Minis for photos and those are kept in the studio. I am dull as dishwater when it comes to miniatures in my own house. But remember, my daughter and I will eventually have one to display!


Many thanks, Ann, for answering my questions. Let's hope you get your dolls house sooner rather than later!
In my next post, I'll have some information and examples of how Ann goes about making miniature books.