Sydney Fair Displays - Part 1

Two weeks ago, I was at the Sydney Miniatures and Dolls House Fair. I took quite a few photos of displays, and it's taking me a while to edit them for sharing, so here is a first look. 

There were several displays with a garden theme. 

Northside Miniatures (from the north shore of Sydney, I believe) had decided on a miniature gardens focus for their members' creations this year:

Displays by Elizabeth and David Allcroft (grey bowl) and Joan O'Connor (box with steps).

Displays by Pam Lyne (flowerpot at back left), Anne Lampe (glass bowl), Greta Gray (flowerpot in centre), Joan O'Connor (fenced roombox), Faye Ramsay (flowerpot on right).

Display by Pat Nowytager. Sorry, I don't know who made the garden in the bowl on the left.

As you can see, there are a lot of live plants in these displays. Another display with living plants was from Little Wonders of Wollongong - here, the maidenhair ferns make beautiful trees in this hilly landscape!

Displays by Barbara Jones, Sue White, Roslyn Hamilton and Noelene Freestone.

Another tiny cottage by Roslyn Hamilton. The snow globe at the back is by Dennis Hamilton.

I didn't see a name on the two displays below, just a note explaining that 'I' had been rather unpopular for giving members a flowerpot and asking them to make something within a short timeframe ... EDIT: I've now found photos of these on Chells Mini Corner on facebook, with a photo of the sign. It actually says "In July 2015 club members were each presented with a terracotta pot and told to "do something with that." My popularity soared to dizzy heights! Such was everyone's enthusiasm, work didn't begin until much later (Nov/Dec/Jan) and some members have yet to complete theirs. Amazing how different each one turned out."

Barb Loo: Pirates Ahoy!

A clever name - Hobpot Cottage, by Narelle Trembath! Out the front there are Pinecones For Sale.

Another display which used a container as the basis, in this case an Anzac biscuit tin:

I love how there are miniature Anzac biscuit tins in the display!

Anzacs by Maree Flaherty.

Div had gone down a scale this year. In past years, her creations have been in 12th scale, but as she is running out of space, she has started to work in 24th scale! Her display this year was the house of Lucian Gray, an illustrator. She hadn't been able to print out the backstory she usually has, but as you can see, the house and its furnishings are all in art deco style.

This is the only photo I took of the whole house open. It has the protective perspex, as Div wasn't there at the time to take it off. The other photos were taken without the perspex, just before Div packed it up - thanks, Div!

The left side, with studio, bathroom and kitchen.

Lucian Gray's studio

The central hall and stairs.

The upper landing.

The middle landing.

The ground floor hall - left side.

The ground floor hall - right side.

The right side of the house.

The balcony.

The bedroom.

The dining room, with a Bluebox sideboard on the right, and two of Margaret Crosswell's vases on the mantelpiece.

That's all for Part 1 - hopefully I'll sort the remaining photos of displays out soon for Part 2 - before or after I show what I bought at the fair!

A New Year, a summer holiday, and op-shopping!

It's so long since I have posted anything on this blog that I feel I should be wishing you Happy Everything, not just Happy New Year! I do hope that this year brings us all health, happiness, peace of mind, and lots of mini enjoyment - and I hope to keep in touch more with my blogging friends!

I wish my summer holiday could have been longer - but I did manage to avoid the really hot weather that arrived just after I left, so I can't really complain. I had hoped to work on some of my dolls houses in Bathurst which need restoring, but didn't really have time. I did make a start on reorganising one of the rooms where some of my houses live - the former main bedroom of the house - so that they are easier to access, and so I could also fit a couple of new houses in (more about them in later posts).

My sister and I went to a few op shops (thrift stores / charity shops), which we always enjoy doing - and my haul of dolls house related things was better than it often is! Above you can see most of what I found in two op shops. Two things are from the art gallery shop - the little figurine may go in a house or a dolls house art gallery as a sculpture, and the postcard has lots of great mini portraits! The place mats have a nice woven pattern of green and red through them, and will make good flooring - and the silk tie will come in handy for bedding or cushions or curtains ....

My sister found the Blue-Box dolls house in one of the op shops - I have several other Blue-Box houses, but not this one, so I was thrilled to find it! It cost the princely amount of $4!!! (much less than its original price of $27.00, probably in the late 1970s - I have an ad for this dolls house from 1978, though I'm not sure when it was introduced or last available).

The mat is missing, but I think all the other pieces are there (plus a couple of extras) - hopefully I'll have time to photograph it all next time I'm there.

(The box does not have the Blue-Box name on it, strangely, but it is impressed on the bottom of the house.)

In another op shop, we had taken our finds (mainly books) to the front counter, and I had a look in the glass cabinet there, where small things are kept - and was amazed to see these two containers of miniature plastic plants!

The Britains flowers even have the planting tool (it's the long blue piece with a label about complaints attached to it). (These are two views of the same container here, by the way.)

 

 

Silver birch trees with moss foliage, and plastic conifers - are these also Britains?

In the op shop where I found the place mats, silk tie and Blue-Box dolls house, I also looked through the books. There were quite a few vintage carpentry manuals and children's annuals, both of which can be sources of plans for dolls houses or dolls house furniture, so I had a good look through them - and struck lucky with one, called The Handyman's Complete Carpentry Guide by Andrew Waugh, with furniture designed by William Greenwood. This was published by the former Australian newspaper company Consolidated Press - there's no date in the book, but it was advertised in newspapers in 1954 (and was a "privilege book" (ie offered at a discount) for purchasers of Consolidated Press's newspapers, including The Argus in Melbourne).

The inside covers show some of the items described in the book - including the dolls house (the small thing just to the left of the bed, with a green roof and red walls). (As you can see, this copy of the book was originally sold at Boans, a Perth department store, so it had made its way right to the other side of the country.)

The book gives instructions for building a house, as well as for making furniture, a slippery dip, an extension ladder (!), a sleep-out - and toys, including a dolls house:

The dolls house has a rather strange front, to my way of thinking. The roof is asymmetrically pitched, but the removable front has a "double-gable appearance" - a false roof line matching the steeper side of the roof, as well as the real roof line of the shallower side ... Perhaps they thought it looked better, as the false roof line would be parallel to the porch roof. I don't think that I've seen a dolls house made to this design, but I'll look out for it now - if this plan was followed faithfully, it would be quite distinctive.
The suggested colour scheme for the dolls house was cream coloured walls, apple green window sashes and frames, and a terracotta roof (quite different from the illustration on the inside cover!).

Most of the dolls house furniture is quite simple - it might be possible to identify pieces made to these plans, but some look quite similar to commercially made pieces. The book recommends that the dolls house furniture be "stained and finished with French polish or clear lacquer", with scraps of fabric for the settee, bed and dressing table).

I was very happy with these finds - and I hope to be back soon to show you the two dolls houses which were waiting for me in Bathurst.

Yellow roses and a koala in a cardboard dolls house

This cardboard dolls house caught my eye on Australian ebay:

Golden yellow is one of my favourite colours - and I love yellow roses! They have been "my" roses since, at our childhood home, I had a yellow rose outside my bedroom window, my sister had a pink rose outside hers - and Mum had deep red roses in the front yard!

The bowl of yellow roses is in the children's bedroom, upstairs right.

The parents' bedroom, upstairs left, has a dressing table with toiletries, an abstract rug - and lots of books! I like this house!

The clocks all say the same time, which is good - but they seem to be printed back to front! So it's back-to-front 3 o'clock.

 

This house is nearly complete - it's one of those where the bottom of the box it comes in forms the base of the house. Thankfully, the base is here - but the lid of the box is missing, so there is no information about the maker or the model, nor whether there would have been furniture included. There is one piece that suggests there might have been furnishings - a red and white striped cardboard rectangle, which I have placed in front of the kitchen sink, as a floor mat.


In the kitchen (downstairs right), the cupboards don't look very Australian to me - I thought perhaps it might be American?

But then in the living room (downstairs left):

there's a picture of a koala on the wall:

That doesn't mean it's Australian, of course - I could have a picture of elephants or tigers on my wall, without having to be in Africa or Asia ....

Here is the outside of the house - quite plain, a red brick base, yellow walls with brown timbering, and a tiled roof:

The doors and windows are attached only by one side, so they can open (some have actually torn off, but thankfully all are present).

The end with the kitchen and the children's bedroom has four opening windows (and the number 12, which a former owner has added!). The other end, with the living room and parents' bedroom, has a red brick chimney, with arched window openings on either side of the chimney, in the living room:

One additional feature I like - in both downstairs rooms, light fittings are printed on the ceilings!

This house came with plastic Blue-Box furniture, much of it broken. The red living room wing chairs are a good fit, so I may find others to use in it - and look through my plastic furniture for other suitable pieces.

Does anyone recognise this cardboard dolls house? I'm guessing it was made in the 1960s, largely because of the television, but would love to know a more exact date - and of course, the maker!

(I do still have photos of the displays at the Sydney Dolls House fair to show. I have been without a functioning phone/internet line since late last week, after reporting a crackly line - now it's working again (touch wood), and I was keen to show you this lovely house! The display photos will come soon :-)  )