So you love miniatures... but don't want a dolls house?

By Robin Britton of Coombe Crafts...

As a miniature maker, I meet lots of people searching for dolls, furniture and other accessories for their dolls houses, shops and room boxes.  I also meet an increasing number of folk who are fascinated with all things miniature - and buy them -  have no dolls house and absolutely no desire to own one, yet can’t quite work out how to show off  the perfect, tiny, object that they have just indulged in purchasing 

I don’t have a dolls house either, and I can’t resist buying another maker’s beautifully crafted item, so I display mine in old printers’ type-setting cases which I hang on the wall like huge pictures.  A friend keeps her mini-collection under a redundant glass thimble collections dome, and someone else is creating one tiny room in an old clock that will live on her mantelpiece.

An amusing conversation piece on a small base (Below left)

A 1/24^th vegetable garden small enough to sit on the bookshelf. (Below right)

"and why does a doll need a house to live in?..."

Miniature knitting could look fabulous mounted in a super picture frame; as could a group of miniature paintings.  A simple table loaded with handcrafted miniature food, or a dresser crammed with ceramics and pot plants would look stunning on a bookshelf…..and why does a doll need a house to live in? 

A little lateral thinking is all that is needed here.  A plain 4” x 6” base , small enough for a window-sill or coffee table is quite big enough to create a small kitchen, sitting room, corner of a garden or artist’s studio….…. and allows you to collect those extra special miniature pieces, that  perhaps, reflect a particular interest or hobby, without having to think about a house. 

Of course, you could just see the perfect 1/24^th house, never furnish it, and sit IT on the bookcase and just love that!

Copyright Coombe Crafts 2008

www.coombecrafts.co.uk

An old printers’ typesetting tray (below left)

Small display unit (below right)