Meet our Members - Peter Tucker

After careers in teaching, psychology and then running my own computer systems consulting company I got smart and started creating miniatures in the late 1990’s.
 

My focus is on 20th and 21 century structures, furniture and lights. Most of my items are one of a kind and are my own design. I have also been a pioneer in several area in miniatures, including the making the first scale working fluorescent light fixtures and using LEDs in lights and room boxes. My work has been featured in magazines and articles around the world including the USA, UK, Taiwan, Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Email: peter@roomboxes.com
Website: www.roomboxes.com
604 224 3928 (pacific time-zone)
3675 West 29 AveVancouver BC Canada V6S 1T5

Meet our Members - Jean and John Day

My husband John and I live in Victoria B.C. Canada.

After receiving my B.Ed in Art and B.F.A., I taught Art for a number of years. Before teaching I had worked at our Museum in the display department painting flora and fauna and helping to create dioramas. I painted Coats of Arms for a Heraldry Company and painted a number of the backdrops for the Miniature Museum here in Victoria. Weaving became a passion for me, for about twelve years and I gave workshops in tapestry weaving .

Then in 1980 I discovered Miniatures. We bought out a miniature shop and I started selling full line miniatures through my home and by mail order. This included my work with porcelain dolls, portrait dolls and original designs for teapots and figurines. I have given many workshops in most of the miniature arts from porcelain doll making and dressing to painting, fimo items and even a fairy theater. I sold at shows and through my mail order business which was called Daydream Miniatures.

More recently I was asked to display one of my miniature dolls at the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec as an original Canadian doll artist, the show ran over five years so that was such an honour. I've also been delighted to have been featured in many publications. After many years looking over a magnifier my back kept acting up and I had to find some other miniatures to design. The computer was the answer, I started web designing and computer graphics mostly using Corel.

Brooke Tucker came to our studio to give a workshop and she thought I should write a miniature book. When she returned the following year to give another wonderful workshop, I  made her a miniature book instead and that was the start of my miniature book making in 2000.  She was such an encouraging miniature artist.  Making mini books turned out to be such a joy for me and has been a wonderful experience and a way to combine my love of collecting antique children's books, photo albums and miniatures. I broke my wrist in 2003 and couldn't make the mini books for a while and started designing fabric panel kits on the computer instead.  I now sell miniature reproduction books and albums from my originals and fabric panel outfits for mini settings, quarter scale furniture and outfit kits, dolls in presentation box kits and many more items.

My husband now helps with my miniature business since he retired and I enjoy working full time with him, we are delighted to sell to dealers too in many locations. We really enjoy every minute of our mini lives together, it give us freedom to travel as well.  I enjoy working on my blogs too and recently I have been offering a watercolour workshop using the techniques I enjoy for my mini and larger paintings. I'm very pleased to be a member of AIM.

Jean Day jday1@shaw.ca and jlday@shaw.ca
Jean Day Miniatures http://jdayminis.com
Jean Day Blog Spot http://jdayminis.blogspot.com/
Etsy Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/jdayminis
eBay store http://stores.ebay.com/J-Day-Minis
Miniature Only Auctions http://miniaturesonly.kaqoo.com

Meet our Members - Tori West

I have been a professional miniaturist for the last 12 years, creating a wide variety of miniature dwellings, furniture, accessories, and animals.  I began my career with animal figures, and was awarded IGMA Fellow membership in 2001 in that category.  Although I still make some animal figures, my creative pathways have greatly diversified.  At the dawn of the new millennium I found what I believe is the perfect craft medium, Creative Paperclay®.  The majority of my miniature creations are now made with paperclay, though I also do metal work and wood carving.  My husband, Steve Weller, and I have created a number of animatronic pieces in miniature, using his skill as an electronics designer.  We have also produced a how-to DVD on using LEDs for miniature lighting.

I have been involved in teaching and doing an occasional show, although the majority of my work is handled through our web site. Some of my teaching experience includes seminars and full length classes at the Guild School in Castine, Maine, and a variety of workshops at the NAME National. In addition, I’ve given many classes to smaller groups and clubs throughout the southwest, and written magazine articles for some of the major industry publications.

In 2010 I am moving in yet another direction. Since I discovered, a few years ago, that I have a major fairy community living in my yard, I’ve been concentrating on creating fairy dwellings and household items for their use. I am also developing artwork depicting the fairies, photographing them, and learning about their lives and habits.

Website -http://www.minimotion.com
Facebook page- http://www.facebook.com/minimotion

Meet our Members - Jane Laverick

When I began dollshousering, over twenty years ago, I wanted miniature porcelain dolls that were as good as full size Victorian dolls in antique shops and museums.  I wanted movable dolls with separate fingers, pierced ears and glass eyes.  The hobby was called dolls' houses – I could see the houses, where were the proper dolls?

So I made them.  After a one day course in the basics I got started and within a few months was making my own moulds and my own original dolls.  I immediately relocated the neck joint to the base of the skull so the head could turn and have been fascinated by jointing ever since.  My early dolls had wired limbs covered with chamois leather; an in-scale equivalent to Victorian leather bodied fashion dolls that have lasted so well. At one show a lady bought a glass eyed man and at the next came to apologise that he was still sitting in a bedroom dressed in a paper bag.  When she kept appearing, still worrying and other customers said they could make wigs but would prefer it if I did it for them, I knew what to tackle next. 

In addition to dressed dolls, I now make fully articulated all porcelain dolls in sizes from 18 inches to 2½ inches, in underwear, with brushable hair, that are lovely for dressing and just as lovely for leaving that way.  I also make wired, solid and simply jointed dressed and undressed dolls in sizes to 7mm. My dolls are made of porcelain; down to 24^th scale adults they have hollow blown glass eyes that are specially made for me, that look at you.  If your friends think you are a strange adult, dressing dolls, the dolls will look at you, and appreciate you.

The latest are 12^th scale dolls with a suitcase full of changeable clothes and 24^th scale flexibly limbed children.  My dolls are for adult collectors who will always find something new; it's the invention I enjoy.

I sell at Miniatura and through my website, where you will also find humorous writing similar to my paper magazine contributions of the last 15 years.

Jane Laverick

www.JaneLaverick.com

email: jane@janelaverick.com