18 June 2020 V2

Miniature Time Traveller Magazine Issue #18 25 Verna Stanhope plays by no miniature rules! To visit Verna Stanhope’s home in Levin is an experience really out of this world. You had a small taste of her collection in the February and April Issues but it could not convey the size and scope of one miniaturist’s long time interest. It would be a marvel if you could total up all the individual pieces that Verna puts together to produce her interesting room boxes and houses. No rules! If a doll or figurine appeals, it has to be found a place. These room boxes cover all bases, whimsical, historical, pure fairyland fantasy. How marvelous it must be to have the freedom to have the space to create and display, and an imagination that can run freely with no constraints and no dictations. Looking at these scenarios anew, the number of items in some of them are staggering. Nothing is sacred. Dolls and animals get butchered mercilessly, to be reconfigured with wire and glue and modelling paste to fit in Verna’s scenes. A mistress of illusion indeed! Levity in Levin