York Show

Last Sunday (9th) I went to the Warners' Dolls House Show at York race course.  It is a favourite of mine as it is a good size show in a comfortable venue.  I shan't blather on too much about the show here - I have just written the review for DH&MS magazine so I feel all written out about it.  Besides which, unless there is something momentous to share,  there's not a lot to say about a show if it is a good one!

I got there half an hour before it opened to meet the organiser - pretty much as always this is just to show your face and reassure him/her that you know what you are doing and won't bother people or do stuff without permission.

I don't get any privileges from being 'staff'.  With the exception of one show I always pay to go in and don't go in until everyone else does.  On this occasion I was first through the door just slightly ahead of the other folk who bought a ticket in advance.  Generally the tickets are cheaper and usually give you access to the show earlier than the general public.

York, like most shows, is a scrum for the first couple of hours and then calms down after lunch.  Everyone is worried about missing that special one-off piece that will be snatched up in the first ten minutes.  I work on the principal that if I don't know it exists then it doesn't!

So, for me, doors open and I am off to do my stuff..... working and shopping.  

First stop was to do a swap with Matlock Miniatures.  I had bought a couple of pieces at Pudsey because I was too keen to wait for the ones I really wanted.  Lynn was really kind and let me take them back and swap them for the real McCoy.

They had made me the right length bar and brought me a prep table which is narrower

than the kitchen table I'd already bought.

The bar was finished for me but the table is ready for me to do.  I don't really mind which way I do this but, obviously, the unfinished piece is loads cheaper.  

This photo gives it weird proportions.  I promise you it is an excellent piece.

The other thing that was waiting for me was the working latch from Sussex Crafts.  Here it is in bits and pieces out of the packet, but I also got the see the thing in action on a lovely privvy door on their stand.

If you want to see that and the other 68 photos from the show there is the usual web album; just click on this link photo album

These packets were all from a vendor whose name I never noted.  To be honest it was a stall I wasn't all that interested in but, you know how it is, you just have to have a look.  The first thing I found was the little statue which I have wanted for a while but didn't want to pay the postage for.  It costs 20p more from Pheonix plus postage - this cost me £2 and it has been 'finished' too.  In Chocolat Vianne makes a similar figure in chocolate for her window display.  Mine is probably destined for that.  I also got some door furniture, knobs for some cupboards and a sliding bolt - all for better than usual prices. 

I love these slightly tatty chimney pots for £1 each.  They just need some smokey insides and they will be great.  Two are to go on one chimney and one on the other for the three fireplaces that used to be in Chocolaterie Maya.

This, I hope, was the good find of the day.  It is supposed to be a cutter for my not-Dremel for cutting grooves.  This cost the princely sum of £1 from my favourite tool supplier - S & M Tools.  Maybe not a great name if you have to Google it?

Any way they are my favourites because - they appear at shows here and there, they are cheap and, best of all, they know their stuff.  Just tell them your problem and they have the tool.

I was told three times (with the added instructions to take notice of what he said) that it needs to be pulled not pushed.  His eyes did roll when I told him I had made grooves with the diamond burrs, so he knew he was dealing with an idiot.

This is my pathetic purchase of the day - 60p worth of red cotton.  

I am hunting for a 'wool' weight fabric fine enough to make two red riding hood type capes for Vianne and Anouk.  The cloaks seem to be very symbolic and memorable in the movie and I want them to hang at the foot of the stairs and/or in the bedroom.  I cannot find any soft, easy to drape, in-scale, warm looking fabric so, in desperation, I bought this but I know I won't use it.  Why do I do that?  I think it is a sort of comfort when you can't find what you want - you have to have something.

In six hours that was all I bought.  Incredible.  I took a wodge of money and spent £26.60! 

The wodge was to buy nine lights for the project and flooring for the shop.  Neither of which I found.  There were tons of lights there on several stands but they are all the same Chinese made stuff.  The exceptions being Small World Products and Ray Storey; both of whom make lovely lights but they are beyond my budget.  On this occasion, though I haunted their stands a dozen times, even they didn't have what I wanted.  I eventually got into conversation with Ray Storey and he said he could make me the simple lights I wanted for about £7 each.  I was doing cartwheels and have ordered them for me to pick up at Miniatura in September.  This does screw up the order in which I intended to work on Chocolat but I really don't care if I get the lights I want.

In the same vein I also asked Kathy Holden at Delph if she could make me a single ring hot plate like the one in this picture.  Not a problem other than I was worrying that it was going to cost a lot of money and I was being just daft spending a lot on a piece of room dressing.  She reckons she can do it for around £8.

Aren't these people just the best!!!

I did buy some not-happy-with-it-as-it-is floor paper.  It is at least a mucky brown and cream colour rather than the spanking black and white you generally get offered and very cheap at £1.20 a sheet - so I can shove it out of sight in the stash if I don't use it.  You can see it roughly in place in the following shots.

As soon as I got back I had to reassemble stuff to see how it was all going.