The world in small scale will be celebrated with the resurgence of the Annual Festival of Miniatures & Dollhouses.
Hosted by the South Australian Miniature Enthusiasts Inc, the scales will include 1:12, 1:24, 1:48 and 1:144.
Among the displays will be dollhouses, dollhouse rooms and scenes, miniature canal boats and wagons, caravans and gardens, book nooks, miniatures in unusual containers, flowers and floral arrangements. Local and interstate traders will also be on site for enthusiasts to be be able to add to existing dollhouses or find kits to make.
Club members will provide demonstrations to give visitors a visual of what can be achieved. For example, Cynthia Molloy will demonstrate how to make a 1:12 scale room divider. Other members will show how to use a jeweller's saw and one will be making pipe cleaner teddies.
It is the group's main fundraising activity and their last exhibition was in 2019 due to COVID.
Kay Ball is one of the group's members. She likes to work in 1:24 or 1:48th scale, and the smallest she has made is a three-storey house in 1:114 scale.
"I love the planning, the searching for material and the putting single Items together. I don't like the final stage of putting it altogether as I know it is about to finish and I need to find something else to do," she said.
She draws inspiration from various places; for example, she made a miniature English Tudor home after seeing a photo in a magazine.
"The Tudor house is a 1:30 scale facade only and is made to go on a eye height shelf in my hall way out of reach of grandkids," she said.
The most used tools in her kit are fine nosed tweezers and a scalpel.
"I have no favourite material because I may build a house or a chair, and I will spend a lot of time going through my stash of "may be useful one day" items that will give me the effect or shape I am aiming for."
The club meets monthly at the Payneham Community Hall, where they have workshops where members may learn a new skill, make things that go into a lucky dip at the exhibition, or have a 'bring and brag' night where participants show and talk about the things they are currently working on.
"These are favourite nights as everyone likes to see and learn, and especially the brag bit," Kay said.
Next year will be special for the club; it will be celebrating its 40th anniversary and fellow club member, Bronwen Klose, was one of the first members and was awarded life membership this year. She is pictured with a room box she made nearly 40 years ago.
"It is called a Breakaway box as it folds up to be stored as a box, The catch is the items need to be placed in such a position as to fold into each other when folded, but not look out of place when box is open for display," Kay explained.
The festival is on August 13, 10am-4.30pm, August 14, 10am-4pm, Woodville Town Hall, 78 Woodville Road, Woodville SA. Click here for more information.
