Dolls House World Magazine Issue 376 Back Issue

“Double, double toil and trouble,” chanted the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I’m pretty sure they weren’t talking about the stress that comes with making minis, but they could well have been.
Take Kitty Wiggett, whose wonderful Hexen House we feature this issue. She told us: “I put an enormous amount of work into ageing the exterior – including moss and vines – only to rip it all off, repaint, and start again.” That’s a double dose of trouble right there. But I don’t think it bothered Kitty too much. She only took up the hobby in lockdown and has quite a refreshing approach.
“Miniatures are the perfect marriage of creativity and absolute lawlessness,” she says. “There is no right way to do a doll’s house, as it’s simply an extension of self.”
Hayley Moore knew exactly the right way she wanted to recreate the drawing room at Castle Howard (featured on our cover). She wanted precise copies of everything from the paintings to the carpet. To do that she chased curators and designers for details of the originals — her determined research leaves me in awe. The end result is stunning and Castle Howard obviously agree as it’s currently on display at the stately home in North Yorkshire.
I don’t think Connie Sauve’s fabulous witch in a bathtub scene will be on show at a country house any time soon. But it has just the same eye for detail. It’s the perfect mix of miniatures from top makers, sitting alongside ingenious pieces Connie has made herself, like the brooms fashioned from twigs she collected on her daily walk.
Just three of the amazing houses and scenes inside this issue, each created with not a little ‘toil and trouble’.