Miniature Time Traveller Issue 1

Some miniaturists have large work areas, some have the spare room (usually after the children have moved out) and Rio’s workshop is one such small bedroom. It contains two large display cabinets, a sofa and a double wardrobe. This is a rather special wardrobe having been cunningly fitted out with a workbench, good lighting and a shelf for all the little things that constitute ’a stash’. There is an auxiliary bench on casters to augment the space. In the event of a visitor staying overnight, the wardrobe can be shut, and the bemused guest can amuse themselves looking at Rio’s display cabinets (for hours). In them there are a bevy of beautiful women with period clothing from the Victorians, through to the Art Deco era and the modern era. Dotted here and there are little beautifully crafted scenarios and room boxes. Fascinating! GUEST MINIATURIST - Rio Cox continued www.miniaturetimetraveller.com Miniature Time Traveller Magazine Issue #1/7 A common refrain among the families of miniaturists is ‘how does a collection of small things take up so much space?’ The stock answer is always that it takes a lot of little things to make little things, the Stash. Pieces from the $2 shop, buttons, beads, cardboard, jewelry fittings, bits and bobs of metal, screws, washers, ice cream sticks. 12th scale furniture fittings. Not to even mention the unfinished bits and pieces. And there are the tools. Most are specialized tools to handle the scale. There are glues, not just one but several for several different jobs. Common old washing line pegs make great clamps. Card is often used, sometimes laminated and finished with an acrylic paint and PVA glue mixture which hardens it and makes it stable. All of which takes up an amazing amount of space and some sort of system to enable the miniaturist to find exactly what they want right now! Rio is the first to admit she is not good at measuring up and cutting wood pieces or making dolls houses. It is very clear that it is the objects and occupants that get her creative juices flowing and her fellow club members look forward to Rio’s creative projects.