Introducing Artist Linda Bright - Painter Of 1950s/60s Vintage Dolls Houses

If you take a peek at the newly created and ever growing list of stand holders who will be attending KT Miniatures & Friends Vintage & Artisan Dolls House Fair on Saturday 12th October, then you will see the name of Linda Bright on the list. 

I first came across Linda a year or so ago, when after purchasing a tiny Romside metal door off me for a GeeBee dolls house, she sent me photos of her project fully restored. But this was no ordinary dolls house restoration, and if you CLICK HERE you will see a posting about it all. She had used images of 1950s gardens for inspiration to hand paint flowers over the frontage of a GeeBee dolls house to replace the missing flowers. 

The beauty of her painting blew me away, I had never seen anything quite like this before on a vintage dolls house, and I have been in this business a very long time! It was utterly unique and inspiring.

Well, since then Linda has gone from strength to strength and she is now described on the stand holder's list as being an artist who hand paints vintage 1950s/1960s dolls houses, seller of vintage dolls house furniture and seller of cards of her paintings. In the photo above you can see a GeeBee dolls house where Linda has painted gladioli on the front in tutti fruiti colours.  Plus you can also see one of her paintings of that very same dolls house...all rather lovely, don't you think?

Recently she purchased off KT Miniatures website the wooden back wall of an old chalet style GeeBee dolls house for another restoration project, and then subsequently emailed me photos of what she did with it. Trust me....it is absolutely beautiful and even more unique!

And here it is in all its glory!

She painted a replica GeeBee dolls house lattice window on the upper back...

and an exquisite scene on the lower half. 

Yet again, I truly have never seen anything like this before on a vintage dolls house. The enchanting little scene depicts a rabbit hutch with two pet rabbits,  a vegetable patch and even a watering, plus some wild rabbits. This really works, it seems so natural and adds real beauty to a dolls house that had seen better days. 

Linda has been clever with the frontage too and added more hand painted flowers, but this time she has created them in such a way that they appear to be growing out of window boxes.

Here you can see a fascinating work in progress image of the flowers on the front of the chalet dolls house. 

I am sure you will agree with me that Linda's work is wonderfully innovative and creative, and also so inspiring. She illustrates how one can breathe new life into old dolls houses that have seen better days and make them into an item of beauty. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Linda for allowing us to take yet another peek at her creations on here. I hope you have enjoyed seeing her work as much as I have and found the images inspiring. You can find more about Linda on her Facebook page: 

www.facebook.com/lindabrightartist/

Meanwhile, if you come to KT Miniatures Vintage & Artisan Fair on Saturday October 12th, you will be able to meet Linda in person and purchase some of her beautiful work. 

Celia

I am delighted to announce that the official promotional page for KT Miniatures Fair on 12th October 2019, is now live! Stand holder booking has just begun and already we have an impressive line up. 

KT Miniatures & Friends

Vintage & Artisan Dolls House Fair

Saturday 12th October 2019

Thame Barns Centre.

Church Rd, Thame, Oxfordshire.  OX9 3AJ

10.30 am - 4.30pm

Admission Fee: £3.00 Adult/£1.00 Child/Under Fives Free

KT Miniatures, as organiser, will donate 50% of all profit from proceeds of running the event to the charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young).

Registered Charity Number: 1050845

Come and joins us at this wonderfully unique dolls house and miniatures event, set in a picturesque and historic Oxfordshire setting of Thame Barns Centre...just a couple of minutes walk from the thriving town centre of the Oxfordshire market town of Thame.  This fair is rather special as it will bring together, not only highly talented professional artisans who make the most exquisite dolls houses and miniature related items, but also antique/vintage dolls house traders too, who will have some beautiful old dolls house treasures to purchase. 


CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROMOTIONAL PAGE

With so few combined antique/vintage dolls house and miniaturist artisan fairs in the UK, I'm hoping to create an event that uniquely has a mixture of both, all of whom have high quality wares that complement each other.  

So ...mark the date of Saturday 12th October in your diary now and I hope that you can come!

Celia

Look At The Armand Marseille Dolls Now- They Are In Good Company!

A few months ago, you may remember I put a pair of antique German Armand Marseille Baby Dolls up for sale on this Journal, to raise money for the "Help Save Dolls Houses Past & Present Website Fund". 

http://ktminiatures.blogspot.com/2018/08/three-antique-dolls-now-for-sale-in-aid.html

A very generous lady called Diane Pearson from Westhill in Aberdeenshire bought both dolls and she has just sent me a photo of them in their new home!

Diane has quite a collection of old dolls as you can see, and tells me that the oldest is made from papier mache, dating from around 1860 (she is the one without any clothes on).  So that makes her over 150 years old! The teddy in the photo is also extremely old and made by a company called Farnell, which was one of the very first teddy bear makers in the UK. 

Huge thanks to Diane for letting us take a peek at her collection. The little baby dolls certainly have a lot of friends to keep them company!

Celia

Am Back From Travels...Some Austrian Miniatures

I have just returned from Austria, my first proper overseas holiday in several years, and it has been utterly brilliant. If you have emailed me in the past week or so and not got a reply, that is the reason why. I've now more or less caught up with the backlog of emails, thank you all for your patience. 

The holiday all came about through a chance remark one evening down the pub with an old friend, during a conversation about our "Bucket Lists"...as I have a rather special MEGA birthday coming up later this year.  It emerged that we both had always wanted to go to Austria in the winter. One thing led to another, and hence we found ourselves going right across Germany and down to Austria, and ultimately to Innsbruck by train.

View from our hotel in Innsbruck

The whole eight day trip has been quite an adventure. At times it felt we had literally stepped into a fairy tale land, utterly beautiful and magical. 

A famous Innsbruck landmark - The Golden Roof. 

Kufstein Fortress

Whilst travelling on the Stubaitalbahn Tram, just randomly we saw this model of a miniature building hanging on the side of a house. I have no idea what the significance of the model was, but am glad that I was able to hastily take this pic on my mobile. My pic. is not very clear, and my friend did try and take a photo of it on our return journey with her big posh whizzy camera, but just as she clicked a tram came the other way and blocked her view...much to the amusement of everyone else on the tram!

I can thoroughly recommend The Tyrolean Folk Museum in Innsbruck. We spent a wonderful couple of hours wandering around the place. Many of the miniature items were enclosed in glass cabinets, and therefore difficult to photograph.  Plus as I speak very little German, I could not decipher many of the "description tags", but I will show you some of the better pics anyway. Above is a miniature  nativity scene (situated centrally at the base)....surrounded by various other buildings and characters. The photo just does not do it justice, but it really is beautiful. 

I got a bit excited when I spotted this miniature house from afar, however on close inspection realised that there was a religious connotation to it, as it appears to depict a scene of "The Annunciation" (I managed to decipher the description tag on this one). There seems to be an image of an angel dangling in the air over a doll that supposedly represents Mary? 

But I was fascinated by the construction of the house and the furniture...absolutely exquisite. 

I can't help but wonder if it had originally been a dolls house and was latterly made into a religious scene? 

There were several variations of  miniature Tyrolean buildings with landscaped bases but many of my photos just did not come out due to the glass frontage....however above I have included a couple of images. I have no idea who the maker was or when or why they were made, but they are rather lovely and full of detail! They do not appear to be dolls houses as such but actual models.

Well, my holiday is now well and truly over and am hoping to begin more listing of vintage items to the website over the next few days, once one or two pressing matters have been attended to.  

Celia