Meet our Members - Margot Ensink

My name is Margot Ensink. I live in The Netherlands in IJmuiden. I am a miniature doll dresser since 2000.I do not cast and pour the dolls myself, but buy doll-kits and with permission of the maker, dress them and sell them. I use old and new materials of fine quality. I use patterns, but most of the time i alter them.

I sell my dolls at dollshouse fairs in The Netherlands and Spain and through my website www.labellebrigante.nl.

My fascination with a world in miniature started with my fathers train hobby . Also on holidays he would take us to museums and beautiful historical and magical places. I get my inspiaration from books, movies, paintings, museums, visiting old houses, vintage textiles and old laces. My father has always been highly supportive, he bought me my first Lundby dollhouse.He built me a dollhouse from a Honeychurch kit, and from his travels never failed to bring me tiny presents. 

 

Recently i started a blog http://labellebrigante.blogspot.com . It`s great to get comments, share a wonderful hobby and make new friends. My e-mail is info@labellebrigante.nl

As i love horses and riding them, i am fascinated by 18th century highway men. The name of my tiny business: La Belle Brigante, means something like the beautiful highway girl in italian and french mixed.

 

Meet our Members - Courtney Strong

Hello, I am Courtney Strong, a food artisan specializing in smaller scales.  

Miniatures have been a part of my life since I was four years old, when my grandmother built me my first dollhouse.  Over many years we had a wonderful time together furnishing and accessorizing.  My passion returned as an adult and as I was putting together a new house with my childhood items, it occurred to me that I could make my own cakes.  I decorated cakes professionally for almost ten years, which provided me then and now, with  much inspiration.  Creating my cakes, I soon discovered the online world of miniatures, which has brought a great amount of joy to my life every day. 

I didn't think it could get much better... then I decided to try going smaller than the average miniature.  I ventured into the smaller scales, where I have really stayed.  My favourite scale to work in is 1:48.  I enjoy the challenge of achieving as much realism as possible into my micro creations, be it cakes, desserts or savoury items.  I do work in all scales 1:12, 1:24, 1:48 and 1:144.

Recently, I received the great news that a tutorial of mine has been published in the July 2010 issue of Dollshouse World Magazine. 

www.cdhm.org/user/courtneysminis 

www.twitter.com/courtneysminis 

email:  courtneysminis@yahoo.com

auction id:  cornety (on eBay and Miniatures Only)

Meet our Members - Shelly Norris

 

My name is Shelly Norris, I live in gorgeous Colorado, we are self employed and breed paint race horses.   I have been dabbling in the miniature world for the past 10 years or so, of course, I have a large hand made dollhouse that sits waiting patiently for me to work on but I am too busy jumping from one part of the hobby to another!  I have written several how to articles for both the US based and the English based miniature magazines.  These articles have been from micro minis to 1" scale.  But, I always come back to flowers!  Ah, I love gardens and flowers and vines and hidey holes to sit and enjoy those flowers plants and trees! My flowers are created by different means, meaning, I use paper, air dry porcelain and wire and glue!  The creation of my flowers involves many different techniques.  I teach classes using the wire and glue to create flowers.  A huge Thank you needs to be mentioned to Patricia Snyder the creator of this method and for allowing me to teach her method not her flowers.  My favorite paper flowers so far have been my Rose Vines and I am loving my Wisteria vines created with paper... my favorite wire and glue flowers have to be the Iris and my Wisteria.... 

 

 

Other items of interest:  Several years ago I purchased the copyright from Viola for her booklet series.  I still sell these.  Most of them have been re written and I can now send them out as pdf files for immediate use.  I also have a Quarter scale booklet for sale in pdf form.  I am working on going as green as possible!

 

The one thing that I have always wanted to accomplish is a hand sculpted doll that looks good, not awesome, good, that is the one thing that I have NOT been able to accomplish.

 

As a note of interest, besides my own website a couple of years ago I started the Miniatures Only Auction site.  This site is for the auctioning of Dollhouse Miniatures scaled 1" and smaller including supplies!  In the last few months the site has really taken off. 

 

The neat thing about the site is that if you are listing a regular auction style listing it is FREE to list.

Email:  Shelly.Norris@gmail.com

Website:  http://alibabasdollhouseminiatures.vstore.ca/
Store:  http://alibabasdollhouseminiatures.vstore.ca/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/EnchantingFlora

Meet our Members - Ana Anselmo

My name is Ana Anselmo and I am a scientific researcher, with a PhD in Environmental Biotechnology and I have a full time job in a public research lab. I was born in 1955, Lisbon, Portugal where I still live.

As miniaturist, I like to see myself of someone that loves to create things to the Contemporary dollhouse and room-boxes, covering all the things that are needed for its decoration, from furniture to decorative accessories, including lights, paintings, fabrics, rugs, etc.

About 2 years ago I decided to create my own pieces, all designed by myself from scratch and I also tried to improve my skills, doing some short courses on woodworking; at the present moment I have done 4 courses, which includes carving, cabinet making (joinery traditional techniques), inlay techniques and wood painting. These courses are for real scale work, but I try to apply the things I learn to miniature furniture at 1:12 scale.

I can't say that I have a specific source of inspiration, but I always look for things in the real world.  I love Arts & Crafts furniture, but also all the philosphy behind the movement in terms of home decoration.  I find Mission and Shaker furniture also very inspiring.  

My work has been featured in several UK magazines, namely Dolls House World and Dolls House & Miniatures Scene and also in the online AIM Magazine.  

Web page www.miniaturesforever.com

Email : anaanselmo55@gmail.com

Etsy shop:  www.miniaturesforever.etsy.com

blog  www.miniaturesforever.blogspot.com