Orlando Miniature Festival

Apologies for being off the radar for a while but we have back to back visitors through February and March, so I am snatching time where I can.  

Nice spacious room especially before the crowds arrive

It seems ages ago now (so much 1:1 life happening in between) since I went to the Molly Cromwell second Florida show of the season, this time held in Orlando.  Anyone considering these two shows and maybe thinking if you have done one you will have done both will be very pleasantly surprised.  Even if the vendor was at Sarasota most of their wares probably weren't.  These are people creating new stuff every minute, so the 'repeat' level is so very low, it would be hard to find.  Half of the room is filled with completely different people with more exciting stuff for the serious shopper to go at.  Again I used every minute of my two day shopping trip in the showrooms going round and round and discovering new bits and bobs on each tour.  There is so much to look at.

Jeremy Paul's breathtaking house

As before, the show is surrounded by really wonderful workshops.  They ran through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday.  Fabulous people making fabulous things.  I would have liked to do at least three of them.  One of these days .....

It is held in a large convention-type hotel, slap-bang centre of Orlando on International Drive; so if your stay is part of a long break in Orlando you can fit in a load of Orlando attractions too.  We took advantage of the great discounted rate for Molly's visitors and stayed in the International Palms Resort.  As before this made our life super-simple.

It was a lovely two days of soaking up the very best of mini-world.

Val Casson's stunning work

I was kind of 'working' too as I was writing a review of the show for DH&MS and scouting out people to write extended pieces on.  I now have three from Sarasota and four from Orlando to do.  Right now I have work going on through the rest of 2013 and into early 2014.  I love doing it, so I don't feel any kind of pressure or concerns. It is a real joy to be writing, which I love, and such a bonus to be writing about another passion - minis.  What could be better?  Even nicer it seems that everyone I meet is gracious and helpful. 

Grandgirl quarter scale

If you are a reader of Dolls House and Miniature scene magazine look out for these people as the articles appear and support them and shows like Molly's.  It is a real worry that another of my  passions - cyber world - is sort of taking over.  It is easier to trawl the web and order on line than travel to shops and shows.  Not only is that nothing like the hands-on experience of what there is to offer out there but so much more will disappear.  There are classes and groups all attached to the physical world of mini collectors which would disappear.  Creating our projects is pretty much a solitary occupation and it is great that there is a chance for some social camaraderie created by the shops and shows.  I also feel very strongly about supporting as many of the smaller shows as you can possibly get to.  I am sure there are many, many people like me who would love to visit the huge shows worldwide but can't afford the travel involved and, in the main, can't afford the very beautiful things that places like Chicago, Paris and Kensington offer. 

As with all these things I am sure you think that you - one person - can't make a difference but four thousand one-persons really does!!

Here are my purchases.  As you can see my 'snatch' supports my argument that it is still worth the trip even if you can't afford a lot of things.  The pleasure is in the doing of it.

All from one supplier.  I am sorry I can't locate his name as I am writing this during our third (!) Orlando visit this season. We are staying with our friends here for a week before they fly home.  My list of what I bought and from whom is back in Naples!  I will try to remember to come back into this post and do a rewrite in a week or so.  (footnote 1 March)  Thanks to Val Casson for letting me know it was from Dominick Manella.  Nice man and lovely old/antique eclectic bits and bobs.

I bought a small Lincoln desk for somewhere?  Pestle and mortar, small sterling silver kettle, sugar sifter and ewer; all probably destined for Chocolat.  Interestingly the sugar sifter was labelled as an English mufineer - ironic in that mufineer seems to be an American name for a sugar-sifter.

The four sticks at the top are very thin two-sided sticks of various grades of sandpaper for getting into those awkward little spaces.  For 15 cents each I thought they were a bargain.

The little palette knife might be useful for Fimo?

The yellow glue spreader has been on my hit list for ages.  We used them by the zillion in school but I haven't seen them any where.  The pointed end will always be useful.  Only a mini person could say that!  The other wooden handled thing is one of those double-ended ball bodger thingies.  I broke my other one, so have paid a bit more for this one in hopes it survives me!

These came from Trims and Things by Drucille Conrad.

You can meet the residents of Starfish cottage over on its blog if you want to.  I even have some bits for the new Quarter projects; their photos are on the quarter scale blog. Better still all my photos from the show are in my web albums (links for all these in the right hand column).