Hmm, wonder what you're up to here, Matthew, and hope you'll share
it with us when you're done. Does your miniaturizing have anything
to do with the typography thread? I ask because I'd been wondering
if anyone else who confessed to being fascinated by dingbats and
such is also drawn to miniatures, as I am myself, with a pretty
extensive collection of all sorts (from exquisitely crafted silver,
pewter, and pottery to--at the folkart end of the spectrum--Mexican
matchbox shrines). I'm also a longtime subscriber to _Nutshell News_,
the U.S. "little mag" (literally!) of craftspeople, hobbyists (the
"filo" crowd and the dollhouse makers), and collectors, which lists
all the annual miniaturist fairs--most of them in the UK (alas)--
along with articles on renowned craftspeople, retrospectives on
the tradition, columns giving tips to hobbyists (on making miniature
drapes, mirrors that actually reflect, working lamps--including tiny
Christmas tree lights that do--and various household utensils, etc.)
and to craftspeople on hard-to-find items like brass hinges of the
gauge Peter Howard mentioned (and the fine screwdrivers needed to
install them!).
I also recently read an academic (cultural studies) article by a
lecturer in the U. of Tasmania English dept., Elizabeth McMahon,
on the fad there of miniature theme parks (the best-known of which
is a "tudor village") designed and executed by amateurs (i.e.,
hobbyists) on exclusively English-nostalgic themes by Australians
descended from English emigres who in some cases have never seen "the
old country" they're mini-memorializing. They open their little theme
parks to the public, and there's now a fairly thriving tourist industry
in such attractions, which is all the more interesting if you know or
have visited Tasmania because _everything_ there seems scaled down,
including the local mountain, which you can drive to the top of in 15
minutes but on which ill-prepared hikers still come to grief (or so I
heard when I was there last year). What may be of most interest or
curiosity, though (and which Liz capitalizes on so well in her article),
is that Tasmania is reputed to have been Swift's source for Lilliput.
Candice
At 12:10 PM 7/15/00 +0100, you wrote:
>Could someone help me with a detail for a poem I'm writing, please? Would
>human figures about half an inch high be HO or OO scale or something else? I
>vaguely remember the terms on packets of Airfix miniature soldiers I used to
>buy as a kid.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>
>Matthew Francis
>[log in to unmask]
>
>Visit my website at http://www.7greenhill.freeserve.co.uk
>
>
>
>
>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|