Sydney Miniatures Fair 2014

After a lovely week in Bathurst (most days were glorious autumn weather, and the leaves on the trees were such brilliant colours, especially against the blue skies), I got the train to Sydney for the dolls house fair.

Staying in hotels in Sydney is new to me - for so many years, my sister has provided a home base there, but now she's in Bathurst, I looked for somewhere reasonably cheap and close to public transport. Strathfield is between Olympic Park, where the fair is held, and the city - and I'd realised that I could also spend some time in the State Library looking at toy trade journals. So I booked the single ensuite room at Whelan's Hotel in Strathfield, which is heritage-listed - just down the road from the block of flats my Australian Nana managed in the 1960s and 70s. I was going to include some photos of the hotel, and my room there, complete with vintage furniture! but I get very frustrated at not being able to position photos across the page, as we used to be able to do on Blogger - I don't want lots and lots of blank space around photos that aren't dolls house-related, so if you want to see my photos of the hotel, you can find them on facebook (I may add them to flickr sometime, too).

I went to the Miniatures Fair on Saturday morning, soon after it opened, and again on Sunday afternoon, until it closed. I caught up with Anna-Maria (The Shopping Sherpa) and Norma of Make Mine Mini - here we are together:

Margaret Webster of Tamworth very kindly took this photo for us, and then Anna-Maria took one of me with Margaret:

(Margaret owns the first dolls house posted on the Mystery Houses page of Dolls Houses Past and Present, and I showed photos of her Milly Molly Mandy room at the Fair last year.)

I also met Emily of Architecture of Tiny Distinction, thanks to Anna-Maria bringing her over to introduce us!

I didn't take as many photos as last year or the year before, but here are some things that caught my eye.

A long street of houses, with two sides:

 

Behind this display you can see Norma (in black with a blue top) standing behind her stall, and over to the left, with the row of bunting, is Anna-Maria's stand.

Visible in the background of this photo are many of the displays. On the far left is Davidia Williams' Shabby Chic Shop:

Davidia told me that she had had surgery this year, and so created something that was quick, rather than one of her very detailed period reconstructions (1960s Waldfrieden and modern 1226 Cliff Drive, Watsons Bay, in 2012; Tamara de Lempicka's 1930's Paris studio apartment last year, or the 1950s Rose Seidler House in 2009).
I guess for her it would take less time than those houses - there's still an incredible amount of detail in it, and I think she also made the Bear Hug shop and Japanese kitchen next to it (though she wasn't there on Sunday when I took these photos, so I couldn't check).

I'm sorry about the lopsided angles - there were two people sitting and talking right next to this display, so I couldn't get right in front of them.

Some exhibitors had made clever use of gift bags:

I love this scene of two little Caco girls making cupcakes!

There was also a Christmas bag room:

The Tamworth group had some shops too, including Margaret Webster's very inviting antiques shop, A Little Nostalgia. Spot the actual vintage items!

[EDIT: I have been asked to remove photos of another creation from Tamworth, a room in a book.]

Also from Tamworth were a lolly shop by Karen Brown:

[I have been asked to remove photos of a country kitchen made by another Tamworth member. It had a gun over the fireplace.]

(There were bushrangers around Tamworth and the New England Tableland in the 19th century, so an isolated country house would have kept a gun handy like this.)

Last year, Margaret Webster had a Milly Molly Mandy room - this year, someone else had Milly Molly Mandy's bedroom:

This one was made by Rhonda McDonald; I don't know where she is from.

Nearby was a witches' room, with a rather sad explanation:

Still in the realm of fantastic creatures was this Hut on Tyrannosaur's Legs, inhabited by Scribes, small genetically modified ground sloths:

This was created by Marilyn Pride, of the Blue Mountains group - I gather we'll see more of it next year.

Its neighbour in the display was a comics shop, guarded by a superhero:

I also photographed Margell Public School, which Anna-Maria bought:

It was created by a teacher who had always wanted to work in a one-teacher school, but never had the chance. (From what I've heard, it's very hard work - all years of primary school to plan for and teach, all the administrative work, and often all the cleaning too. I think a miniature one-teacher school would be much more fun!)

There were many, many more displays, but I hope you've enjoyed this small sample. I have yet to photograph my purchases, which I hope to do in the next few days. I also have quite a few photos from the 1972 and 1973 issues of the Australian toy trade journal, which I've started going through, plus a few more photos of my dolls houses in Bathurst - late April, early May is always such a rich time!

My First Fair!

This year, I managed to get to the Sydney Miniatures and Dolls House Fair - 3 weeks ago now, on the 1st weekend in May. I went on both days - Saturday from about midday, and Sunday late in the afternoon.
Here are some photos of things that caught my eye.

Right inside the door, DolArtistry had a pumpkin or gourd house, with a turtle moving house just to the left of it:


On the maroon cloth, a miniature gourd lady making gourd houses, with other fictional and historical characters nearby:



A great display by Bill Maguire of Leprechaun Models:


Bill was displaying these, not selling them, and he told me that he is also shows them in schools (especially the Tudor houses), and explains to the kids what houses were like then, and where we get words like 'threshhold' and 'chairman'. His card, B. & V. Architectural Models, mentions scale models for things like development applications and architects presentations.


I would have loved to buy one of his houses - they're made of cardboard, so they're light, and they're small scale, so wouldn't take up much room. The Queenslander at the end of the display did not have an accessible interior, but look at the detailing in the interior of some of the other houses:


The roof and the upper storey lift off in this house, giving access to both floors.




An A-frame house with just one floor:


Here are some other exhibits - a garage with a sports car (if this had the name of the exhibitor, I didn't get it, sorry):


A 1/48th (quarter inch) scale tower by Elizabeth Barnes, and a room by Dawn Watson:


A scene by Marion Hesketh:


Jody and Sarah's Rainy Day, by Rhonda McDonald:


A multi-storey building housed in JazWare's Room by Room, which was made by Felicity (aged 12) and Emma (aged 10), and includes the Pendington-Smythe Bakery and the Willow Tree Tea Rooms. Some of the dolls and furnishings are vintage - can you see the little costume dolls in the central room, and the larger one in the bakery?


Diva's display houses deserve a post of their own, so here are some shots of miniaturist stalls.

Right at the back, Geoff Nott and friend were making trees:


I don't know if Geoff Nott has a website - I found some better photos of his work online, though.

Elizabeth Barnes' stall:

(At the back, on the right, is a stall I bought some flowers from.)

And a closeup of her 1/48th or quarter inch scale Senrabe miniatures:


On Adelaide's Miniatures' stall were these great displays:




On Kim's Miniatures' stall was some fabulous miniature marquetry:


The Shopping Sherpa posted about Kim's Miniatures' scrumptious food - you can see the tables with chocolates being made in the middle of this photo. My sister bought some potatoes here - I bought some Nana crochet rugs and some cake tins, which I will show in another post ...

And here is The Shopping Sherpa's stall:


Yes, Anna-Maria and I met, in the flesh! (Thank you, Norma of make mine mini, for taking photos of us!)
I'm oohing and aahing about the towel in the bathroom of her Tomy Smaller Home (which went home with me ...)

More soon - my buys, and Diva's houses!