Here is Muriel Hopwood, at Miniatura, which she invented. Muriel did not, however, look quite as good as this at the Spring show. In fact she looked like the six million dollar man, who, as I’m sure you’ll recall, if you watched TV in the 70s, was a man barely alive at the start of the show, though considerably improved by the end of it.
The problem was that Muriel was waiting for a gall bladder operation. Gall bladders are one of those amazing parts of the body that you can, in the twenty first century, have removed with no detectable difference, except you don’t feel ill anymore and you have a scar. Modern antibiotics, keyhole surgery and the fantastic skills of surgeons supported by modern imaging devices, mean that many people are able to get drunk at parties and show off multiple scars, yet still be hale and hearty once healed.
The changes in three generations are quite amazing. When my grumbling appendix was finally diagnosed and I was rushed into hospital the Christmas eve I was eight, the immediate reaction of my Victorian grandmother was ‘Oh! The King’s Disease!’ followed by an inclination to have the funeral hymns picked out ready. The King she was referring to was, of course, Edward VII, whose coronation had to be postponed in 1902 so that he could have his appendix removed. Then my grandmother, born 1888, was 14 and obviously at a deeply impressionable age. Death from infection was common at the time; the surgeons took advice from Joseph Lister, the pioneer of antiseptic surgery. Upon his recovery the King thanked Lister, saying he knew without Lister’s work he would not have survived. Fifty seven years later, despite being fairly delirious, I remarked about the gas cylinder fan squeaking like a mouse and cracked jokes right until they got me under. I survived, dear reader ( I know you were wondering) and I have a four inch scar to prove it.
When Bettina Kaminski, maker of the world’s smallest teddy bear, learned of Muriel’s problem at Spring Miniatura she volunteered her knowledge, having had her own gall bladder out last year. She went in as an emergency on a Wednesday, with an inflamed pancreas, had surgery on Friday morning and returned home on Monday, never having felt better. She could have gone home sooner but rarely gets the chance to stay in bed all day and knit! Despite the nurses assurance that she was alone in a one-bed recovery room, Bettina is convinced that she shared the room with a dead Indian in the next bed, which might mean that German anaesthetic is particularly lovely, or the Indian could perhaps not have been a very restless sleeper, or she could, indeed, have shared the recovery room with a dead Indian, in which case she definitely came out best. Anyway she was back at the next Miniatura knitting endlessly as ever.
Muriel, I’m pleased to say, is on the mend at home and enjoying husband Bob’s cooking, (which is mainly fish, as he went on a Rick Stein cookery course) though possibly not as much as the hospital cauliflower cheese, which she reports as being excellent. Whilst recuperating, Muriel might be potting, though new miniaturists may not guess that. It is some years since Muriel, who started Miniatura to give artists somewhere to exhibit in the Midlands, was able to exhibit her own work. As the show grew so did the administration work necessary at the NEC, though Muriel has exhibited in recent years at Scottish Miniatura. Muriel, formerly a pottery teacher, is a virtuoso potter specialising in Chinese export porcelain made so exactly the same as the original, the only difference is scale, the way the kiln is fired, and the fact that Muriel isn’t Chinese. I still think it’s amazing that someone this good:
would give up their own chance to sell at their own show, in order to help other artists. I wish her well and look forward to seeing her in the autumn like the six million dollar man at the end of the show: rebuilt, better, faster, stronger, though not necessarily running round the tables at a hundred miles an hour.
Occasional miniaturists may wish to know that proper Midweek Miniatura will be returning to these pages towards the end of May to give previews of Scottish Miniatura in June, once more in the luxurious surroundings of Murrayfield stadium. If you are an artist exhibiting at the Scottish show and will have pictures of work you’ll be taking, please get in touch.
All Miniatura details as always at www.miniatura.co.uk
JaneLaverick.com – keeping an eye on miniatures and miniaturists.