Miniature Enthusiasts of the Central Okanagan

Meet our Members!

Kelly joined the miniature group in January of 2007.  She was drawn into the world of miniatures by her friend Catherine who easily convinced her to attend a meeting.  At the very first meeting she found herself talked into participating in that year's April show despite not actually doing anything in miniature before.  She particularly enjoys the challenge of miniature knitting and crocheting and is going to try her hand at miniature cross stitching in the near future.  Her current projects include a nursery roombox and completing her 1:12th office scene for this year's show.

Harold joined the miniature group in February of 2007.  He decided to join the group after his wife Kelly hurt her wrist and he graciously attended a meeting to help her with the workshop.  He quickly discovered he had a knack for miniatures, most especially in wood working, and became a member of the group.  His current projects include an old-fashioned school room scene in 1:24th and a library room box in 1:12th scale.

A lifelong fascination with all things miniature took a meaningful turn in October 2006 when Catherine began building her swamp witch’s house, Muddy End.  Catherine writes, ‘Before that Thanksgiving weekend, I knew the time wasn’t right to start with Miniatures.  I had a pretty good feeling that once I started, they would become a passionate preoccupation.’  Internet forums and websites inspired her to apply what she had learned working in different mediums such as oil painting, quilting and mosaics.  Using paperclay for structures and sculpting with polymer clay have been areas she has been exploring.  ‘One of my favourite things about miniatures is creating from found objects.  The whole world looks different from a miniaturist’s point of view!’  She joined the Kelowna miniature group in January of 2007.  Muddy End was very well-received at the April 2007 show and she gratefully accepted an invitation to the West Coast Dollhouse and Miniature Show in June to exhibit her work.  Catherine will be teaching a work shop on paper clay in the late spring of 2008.  Her current projects include a 1:12th scale of The Burrow from the Harry Potter books and creating an Alice in Wonderland scene for this year’s show.

Picture and information coming soon.

My interest in arts and crafts began in my teens growing up in New Westminster. After a hiatus from crafts during my marriage, after divorcing I resumed crafting again.  In the 80's I was a founding member and Treasurer of Surrey Arstswest Society before moving to Kelowna.  With so many opportunities available in the Lower Mainland, I took several art and craft classes every for year for over 20 years, gaining knowledge on fine arts such as oil, acrylic, silk, water colour, Japanese block and oriental painting.  Art classes also included monon printing, photography, shiboriu and chigiri-e.  The craft classes included beading, jewelry, macrame and various types of paper crafts such as origami, quilling nad pergamano.  I entered many art shows with Surrey Artswest, sold my crafts at bazaars and Surrey's ARt in the Park.  After moving to Kelowna in 1997, I joined an art group where I met fellow artist Louise Young who introduced me to miniatures and a new hobby began.  Miniatures have given me much pleasure in collecting and searching for that special item for the dollhouse or room box.  Through this new interest and meeting other miniaturists, sharing the enjoyment of miniatures for me is never ending.

Without realizing it, Paul brought out a deep-seated interest in miniatures that Barb didn't know she had since she was a little girl.  Every time Paul and Barb went past a shop with a dollhouse in the window, Barb would tell Paul about the dollhouse she used to have.  She told him often enough that he picked up on her childhood dreams and surprised her with a doll house kit and all the furniture kits needed to fill the house.  From that moment on Barb's interest has been in miniatures while Paul's main interest is in his model train layouts.  He has three different scales "N", "HO" and "LGB" Garden Railway (an outdoor railroad model).   Paul's trains fit perfectly with Barb's miniatures and between the two of them, they have a houseful of miniatures.    They enjoy working with wood in minature and with Paul's help, Barb built her first dollhouse.  They have built several since, prefering to use "Stick Construction"  (meaning by using miniature 2x4's, 2x6's etc.) and they build to scale in 1/12th or 1/24th.  They have made dioramas, room boxes and "put-a-bouts", just to list a few of the different ways, to display their collections and creations. 

Paul enjoys working on his wood lathe, by turning blocks of wood into beautiful wooden bowls, some with matching lids.  He has also turned other wood pieces such as fern tables, double ringed love-goblets and a Wassail complete with matching stemmed goblets.  Barb has learned to do some miniature knitting and has dressed minature dolls, landscaped yards and built miniature rocking horses etc.

In 1987 when Rosemary and her husband Fred moved to Calgary, they discovered they had very interesting neighbours.  Colin and Donna were, and still are, avid collectors of many things, including antique and reproduction dolls and teddy bears, Franklin Mint dolls and other artwork and dollhouse miniatures.  Donna took Rosemary with her to a meeting of the Calgary Doll and Teddy Bear Club and although she enjoyed making and collecting dolls and teddy bears, as well as meeting new friends, she did not feel that she was fully involved.  But then Donna took Rosemary to a meeting of the Calgary Miniatures Club and she was hooked.  It didn't take long for her to realize that this was a hobby in which one could apply all crafts and skills previously learned while still being able to learn and create and also satisfy the urge to collect.  As a matter of fact, Rosemary has become a bit of a packrat, much to Fred's dismay, because almost everything that should be thrown away could possibly have use in miniatures in some form.  Rosemary's philosophy has become, "If it doesn't move, smell, rot or otherwise go bad, keep it, just in case."  She feels very fortunate to have come in contact with some very artistic people who have been willing to encourage, teach and share this wonderfuly hobby.  In addition to becoming a member of the Calgary Miniatures Club, she was also a member of one of the smaller clubs within the group called the MiniWits.  Although the miniatures scene in Calgary has faded somewhat, Rosemary remembers with great fondness all the people who welcomed her into the word of miniatures.

In the nearly twenty years since her introduction to miniatures, Rosemary has experimented with nearly every medium used in most other crafts, although she is finding more and more frequently that she is using polymer clay for a number of items.  Most of her projects have been completed in standard dollhouse scale of 1/12 but she has also completed projects in 1/24 and 1/48 as well as doll's dollhouse scale of 1/144.  Rosemary considers her skill level to be intermediate but believes she still has a lot to learn.  Rosemary does not consider herself to be at all artistic but she has thoroughly enjoyed this hobby and hopes to continue to do so for a long time.  However, she seems to be rapidly running out of room in her home and since building an adddition is not all that practical, plans to downsize her hobby.  She will most likely begin to produce more projects in the smaller scales as they take up less room.

 Julia has been doing miniatures for many years off and on.  Her specialty is miniature bears that she carefully hand sews.  In her spare time she teaches music and is an Associate Angelican Priest.  Julia enjoys the monthly miniature meetings and the friendships she has formed there.