This time I'm not talking about finding out that your new friend is also a friend of your first cousin once removed whom you only learned about yesterday or something like that.
I'm talking about the world of miniatures.
As a child, I wanted a doll house so badly, but it was a matter of space and probably money, too. I was lucky, though, my friend had one. You know what's really weird? We didn't even play that much with it. We put the doll parents in bed to get them out of the way (some dolls have a hard time sitting up nicely, but you can never go wrong with making them have a nice nap) and the three children went off on adventure - which sounds much like the Famous Five or the Lockett children and all the others now that I'm thinking about it ...
My friend had a lot of space and we sent those kids out to the Wild West, on mountains and into caves and whatnot. What I loved most about the house (very 70s), by the way, was the white baby grand piano and the Christmas tree.
Then there were the antique miniature shops and the doll house at the "Storchen", our local museum. They are behind glass of course. Even now the toys are my favorites at the museum.
I got a doll house as a grown up, but it was neglected rather quickly as it had to be moved out of reach because of the cats. It was bad enough I had to pick up Steiffs off the floor ever so often, I didn't feel like having to search for tiny items. Eventually I gave the furniture away and only kept very few things, like the cat on the pillow (no surprise there).
That doesn't mean I don't love miniatures anymore, though. Not at all in fact! So when a family member told me she had been gifted some, I absolutely wanted to see them - and take pictures.
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| My favorite is the good old phone book, in this case "Das Örtliche" for local businesses |
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| I love the tiny building bricks, but I love the thread spools even more! |
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| 1. Percolator and pot (maybe for breakfast eggs?) 2. The plates, napkin holder, tray, flower pot, and candle holders are handmade very prettily 3. Various kitchen utensils 4. Two different kinds of flatware, so cute! |
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| The scales work, but the weights are glued in (good idea!). I love that fish pot, can you tell from the close-up? |
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| Americans use Mason jars, Germans use jars made by Weck. That has even influenced one of the words we use for preserving food - "einwecken". Weck jars are wide-mouthed and they have heavy glass lids sitting on top of the jars. They are held in place by clips. The red rings are rubber gaskets used for extra sealing. I also love the old-fashioned butter churn (which really works, I mean it moves, I haven't tried to make butter with it) and the vintage style meat grinder which we call a "Fleischwolf" = "meat wolf" here. |
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| Christmas!! I absolutely love the shiny Christmas baubles. They do hold a little secret. They have a hole at the bottom which tells me that they are made from bead chains like they were and are made in Gablonz (Jablonec nad Nisou), for example. Beads could/can be cut off individually or in groups and then wired together for elaborate ornaments like the ones you can find here. |
I hope you enjoyed this little trip into the miniature world.
In case you are interested in the psychology behind loving tiny things, I picked two of the many articles available on the topic - here and here.
