Oh it is such a joy to be writing about everybody’s favourite miniature show again. I love writing about the amazing artists, there are some, I’m one, who only do Miniatura. In my case it’s because one original artist producing everything by hand from scratch can only make so much in a year to keep the quality consistent. If you are making miniature art of any kind, it takes a lot to fill a six foot table. I would never do a Miniatura without a lovely table full of choice, because before I was an artist, I was a collector.
I know many of the best Miniatura artisans feel the same way, and I know from visitor comment, that’s one of the things you love about the show. Every single table is worth a really good look and there is stuff here you simply can’t get anywhere else.
Into all of this like a tiny pair of tweezers up the arm of a miniature bear, fits Josephine Parnell.
If you are new to this site you’ll find Josephine in my links, click on the top of the page. She has been there since the beginning and is still making quality everything.
Josephine makes her bears in sizes to be dolls’ house residents and to be toys for dolls’ house residents and just to be brilliantly collectable miniature bears. She also makes bear kits, so the ambitious can have a go themselves. She once even made a kit of me, yes, I exist as a bear kit, which may or may not amaze you.
Here are some of the bears who will be going to the show.
Any of these bears are smaller than your hand, but look at the detail, look at the personality, their faces are expressive, you can tell what they’re thinking, yet they are made of pile fabric. Look at how good the clothes are. Now look at the little bears the small bears are carrying. They are perfect but the size of your finger, jointed, and they have expressions of their own.
This really is virtuoso stuff.
I asked Josephine about her attendance at Miniatura 2021.
Josephine says as long as she can get petrol and Covid stays away she will be attending Miniatura at Stoneleigh Park with her Dolls’ House bears, small and miniature bears, elephant and bear kits. She will also have fabric to make more when you’ve been bitten by the bug.
Miniatura is the only show Josephine attends now. She is sure she’ll leave something behind. (This is a normal exhibitor worry – the first show I did, I left the sign that said who I was on the dining room table, and nearly had to exhibit incognito.)
Josephine will be cheerfully smiling through her mask and answering any bear and sewing questions visitors may have.
Josephine is the expert and has a fund of knowledge which often attracts queues. I have seen proto bear makers with margarine tubs containing failed bears (but no margarine) waiting patiently for the advice which will help.
If you do have to wait to get to this table, I promise you the wait will be worth it. The bear which Josephine made of me has never got into a house. It lives out, on the top of a bookcase, next to the one I made (not well at all, I’m not really a bear artist) from a kit. If you get a bad attack of ‘I can do that!’ after seeing Josephine’s wonderful bears at the show I would urge you to buy a kit, they are very modestly priced, and have a go yourself.
In the spring you’ll either be waiting in the collector queue or the margarine tub queue.
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www.dollshousebears.free-online.co.uk