workshop – Anthropology of the World's Fairs

We held a two-part workshop to introduce staff members of the Botanic Gardens to the principles of miniatures and miniature gardening. After an extensive introduction to the concepts governing Miniature Settings— especially style, scale, and story—we worked on using natural materials to construct mini garden twig furniture, including tables, fences, and chairs. The second day focused on using a kit for making a more formal arbor. The kit was created by Nancy Grube and had excellent instructions. After that, adding plants and creating a story that each person wanted to tell with the dish garden resulted in a quite amazing variety of gardens. We loved illustrating the idea that everyone starting with the same materials will produce something unique as long as they make it their own through storytelling.

THE FIRST DAY

SINGAPORE6757 — Louise introducing the concepts of miniature gardening.

SINGAPORE6784 — Construction of twig furniture: fences, tables, chairs, and swings.

SINGAPORE6795 — A finished fence section.

SINGAPORE6797 — Not everyone was able to attend both days and other staff members stopped by to see the work.

THE SECOND DAY

SINGAPORE7215 — Nancy explains the kit instructions.

SINGAPORE7230 — The color-coded instructions. Very easy to follow.

SINGAPORE7246 — The final arbor assembly.

SINGAPORE7260 — And painting to make it look less new.

SINGAPORE7279 — Deb helps with plant selection.

SINGAPORE7295 — Adding plants and accessories.

SINGAPORE7313 — Creating a miniature campfire.

THE RESULTS

SINGAPORE7337 — Muhammad Taufiq Bin Jumal created a garden for his LEGO mini figures. He inspired me to go home and use our LEGO collection to make scenes with gardens.

SINGAPORE7335 — Detail of Muhammad Taufiq Bin Jumal’s garden.

SINGAPORE7338 — Shereen Tan surprised us all with her wonderful fairy garden, complete with a door to the fairy home and miniature accessories.

SINGAPORE7328 — Detail of Shereen Tan’s garden.

Dennis Sng created a camping retreat with a tent and a glowing campfire.

SINGAPORE7332 — Detail of Dennis Sng’s garden.

SINGAPORE7340 — Donna Kok Fee Yin made a beautiful garden that used both the formal arbor and some twig furniture. She will put in a swing hanging from the tree and placed a twig chair under the arbor for a mother to sit and watch her child.

SINGAPORE7333 — Detail of Donna Kok Fee Yin’s garden.

SINGAPORE7336 — Bian Tan delighted us all with his “hurricane garden” in which everything is being blown sideways by the mighty winds.

SINGAPORE7345 — Detail of Bian Tan’s garden.

Pam Goldman and I were students for 4 days in a workshop taught by Rik Pierce before the Philadelphia Miniaturia show .

First, a selfie with Pam and Rik (who is the most patient teacher I have ever met).

We were all building this structure: a medieval hunting folly with a greenhouse attached. Here is Rik’s description of it:

In the 17th and 18th centuries the Landed English would build their ideas of what structures in the Middle Ages looked like. Needless to say their interpretations could be rather fanciful. Our Hunting Lodge would be on a large estate and be used for visitors and guests. It is adorned with Gargoyles and carvings and sumptuously appointed and has a glass Conservatory .

The building should look like this when we are done (most of us did not finish it in 4 days). There was a lot of room for individual interpretations.

IMG_0205 copy — First floor interior detail

The workshop was intense and we were always busy.

We learned a wide range of skills including making paper clay stone walls, wiring, painting techniques, flooring, aging walls and wood, and general construction techniques.