Miniaturisation

A few years ago I took up minature furniture making and then gave it up. I had bought my daughter a Bath Georgian dolls house and also a little hat shop when she was young but it had been put away in the basement unused and unloved. I became waylaid into making dolls house furniture, and in the basement are still the tools I used, small drill, miniature lathe, etc.

My love of history began to niggle as well, so constructing small boxes I created little tableaus that took my fancy, some of which, if I can find the photos, are here. My Saxon -Prittlewell burial, was made quite quickly, using the fine leather out of an old purse, and my piece- de- resistance, a working roman chair; it also contains two Persian silver salt bowls given by my first mother-in-law.




This one is based on Farleigh Hungerford Castle, and the tomb there, the custodian once told me a story about the three little children's stone coffins in the crypt, how once she had stayed the night there for a wager, and that she had dreamt? that one of the children had said she was so cold down there so the custodian covered her coffin with her coat.... believe that and you believe in ghosts..

This a whimsy, with a Harry Potter wizard, and a dried cow parsley stalk for a tree sprayed gold.

This is an extravagance which I still have because it has some good miniature furniture I bought.

Again a historical one which took ages, my young grandson at the time would find a doll, skewer it with the swords and then hang her by the neck with the chain from the dowels I had put in...

Prittlewell Saxon burial - christian/pagan burial, the idea fascinated me at the time, the father had turned to christianity, but his sons were still pagan....