It all began when I booked a very small stand at a doll fair in Brighton in 1983 to try and sell some wooden peg dolls which I had dressed in historical costume. One of the dolls was a Victorian pedlar with a tray of tiny items. I managed to make a tiny wooden doll to go in the tray and sold some of these tiny dolls separately.
The tiny wooden dolls and some tiny pipecleaner teddies I had made, sold very well and a shop in Hastings called Childrens Treasures asked me to supply them by mail order. This encouraged me to work out some other tiny dolls and toys and I created a range consisting of the wooden doll, an 18th century dressed version, a golly, a skipping rope and of course the pipecleaner teddies. I supplied Childrens Treasures and Kristin Baybars dollshouse miniatures shop in London for many years whilst working as a bank clerk.
I left work to start a family in 1992 and now have three girls aged 16, 14 and 11. I then started to increase my range and exhibited annually at the Hove miniatures fair. I have also attended the Alexandra Palace Dollshouse Fair since it started in 1995. When my third daughter started school in 2003 I was able to turn the miniature making from a paying hobby into a small business. I have also had a stand at the Excel fair for the last four years and this year at the new Sandown Park venue.
Luckily I have a very supportive husband who accompanies me to the fairs and who has designed, built and adapted my stand over the years as my range of miniatures has grown.
