Treasures from the Rijswijk dollshouse fair

Hello my dear friends,

Last sunday I went to a miniatures and dollshouse fair in the city of Rijswijk. The first fair for me since the Netherlands went in lockdown due to Covid-19 in march 2020. The first dollshouse fair in general was held  in the town of Houten laat month, but I had other obligations that weekend. So for me Rijswijk is the first since lockdown! It also is the first time I visited the dollshouse fair in Rijswijk. And I loved it.

The weekend prior to the lockdown in 2020 I had visited the last fair in Arnhem. If all goes well the first edition of that fair will be held next march. Fingers crossed. But back to Rijswijk!

When Sun of Nalladris published a picture of a monogrammed 5 piece silver cutlery set on facebook, I asked her if she would like to make those for me too. I need 10 sets for the diningroom of Huis ter Swinnendael. 

She agreed to make them. She has put my monogram (HD) on each fork, spoon, and knife. On all 50 pieces but only visible after magnification. :-) 

Because of the then impending move to our new house, I asked her to keep them until after the move. That way I would not risk losing them because they could not be packed together with the already packed miniatures. But now I could finally hold them in my own hands. Are they not pretty? 

Fun fact: 'my' cutlery was shown on the Dollshouse Nederland magazine. Not as my cutlery, but as decoration for a picknick basket. It was part of an article tutorial on how to make the picknick basket. This way I (and everybody else) could see them before I got them. It was great fun reading the article and knowing secretly that these would be mine soon. :-) 

But I also bought a few things that don't glitter. And they are not made of silver. You may remember these garden urns. They are among the first mini's that I made/ decorated myself in 2017. 

I wanted some trees or topiaries to go in the two on the left. And when seeing all the little trees and plants of Omgardens, I became interested in the little citrus trees they sell. The above picture is for reference. I asked her if she wants to make 2 trees that fit the size of these urns. She accepted and I will get the garden urns with the citrus trees back in march at the dollhouse show in Arnhem. I can't wait to see the result! 

Finaly I bought a vase from Jeffry of Jeffry's Miniatures. And a bust of Hercules. And finally a little garden statue of a putto. I really had to stop there, or I would have bought more! And my budget was already fully spent with these three. 

They are made of resin, and painted to a beautiful finish. And that is what sets these apart. The vase looks like weathered terracotta, and the bust and putto resemble stone. The base of the vase is missing a corner but that broken off corner adds to the realism (he also had a complete vase but I chose this one) of a delicate object. An object that was possibly made in Renaissance Italy and has already an age of almost 250 years in 1805 when we find it in Huis ter Swinnendael. 

Stella, of the Kleine Poppenkast, sells many lovely and wonderful miniatures. Some that I have never seen before were skulls of different animals and human skulls. They are not made of resin or plastic but cut individualy from hartshorn. 

The detailed carving is very good, and very reasonably priced. I bought a human skull for one of the reliquaries I plan on making. It will need some aging though, to pass as a 1000+ year old relic. :-) 

And finally also some wood and brass. The brass weights on the left might be a little large for 1:12 but after I cleaned them I will write their weight onto them. For that I weighed each one and multiplied that by 12 to see what they would roughly weigh in our size. 

Their real weight is not secure which tells me these are purely made for decorative purposes. I rounded off the outcome to workable numbers like 150 grams and 500 grams. So now I will have to make scales too when I start on the kitchen of Huis ter Swinnendael. 

The little turned wooden pieces are intended for several furniture projects that lurk in the background. The two spice mills are yet to recieve a destination. 

I also received a large gift from a good friend of mine. But that will have to wait for its own post in the near future. 

Until next time. 

Huibrecht