Show Report Morro Bay

[hydroped]

Well we had our anual miniaturs show last weekend. It was my first time to any Miniatures show and when I saw the showroom floor on Friday evening I thought - Wow! this is REALLY small!.. but I had no idea how much stuff could be fit into a small space - they don't call em miniatures for nothing right? Doh!

Friday was set up - the theme for the club display this year was Holidays - so I got to show the Santa House I made for the forum Winter competition. I got lots of great feedback on it and I felt really honored because the folks who said such nice things really had Beautiful!!! displays of their own. They completely blew me away. There were Christmas, Valentines, New Years, Halloween and 4th of July displays. Really awesome stuff and the sellers were pretty impressive too. I didn't expect to find any names there but we had Jan Duda from Janette's Les Petites who makes the most beautiful porcelain character dolls! And she is so sweet too! She also had an amazing crystal ball table there where the crystal ball lit up and changed colors - So did the one that her Merlyn was holding in his hand - they were awesome! IGMA artisan Pat Stebbins was there with miniature flowers with hand cut and hand painted petals and leaves. IGMA Fellow Barbara Stanton was there with her lovely paintings and she even gave my mom a few painting tips! She sets up and you can watch her paint durring the show - it's amazing! And her work is lovely and speaking of amazing paintings -Jon Olson does the most detailed hand painted oil copies of the original masters including some 1" scale coppies of John Singer Seargent who is my all time favorite painter. He did a truly remarkable miniature painting of the Mona Lisa - he also does original paintings and his ocean paintings including tall ships are incredible! There was one dealer (who's name I didn't get) that had the most amazing hand painted, china painted 1" scale plates! There was one portrait plate in particula that was just stunning!! And the prices.. well there were items for sale for 25 cents all the way up into the hundreds of dollars so there really was something for everyone one and every budget.

There were only 29 dealers but I was there for 2 full days and I think there are still things I overlooked. Our local chapter of N.A.M.E was also there with lots of great information to share, and raffles. One dealer commented to me that they don't get rich coming to this show but that they come because of the great food and all the friendly people! And it's true the Santa Maria style BBQ was excellent and everyone had a wonderful time! I bought quite a few magazine back issues, a catalog, some tools and of course furniture - there was a table of estate furniture (second hand and some very antique) which I just couldn't pass up and had to buy a wardrobe from - I can't wait to see this piece finished. It was a long tiring weekend but I'm looking forward to next year!

-David

[Deb]

Well we had our anual miniaturs show last weekend.  It was my first time to any Miniatures show and when I saw the showroom floor on Friday evening I thought - Wow! this is REALLY small!.. but I had no idea how much stuff could be fit into a small space - they don't call em miniatures for nothing right? Doh!

 

<giggling> That never would have occured to me either. It sounds like a great show and a wonderful experience for you. <pouring you a cup of tea> No wonder you're tired, but wow! What a great weekend to have!

BTW, did you bring back any of the bbq for us?

Deb

[Missymew]

David -

Were you allowed to take photos at the Miniature Show? I would have loved to have seen some of the Holidays displays. I'm not surprised that your Santa House drew people's attention. It is very unique ... love those jolly little elves.

Does your mum do painting ... minature or "real people" size? My dad is a painter and has done some beautiful work, but at age 80 he's not painting anymore.

Susanne

[Minis On The Edge]

Yeah where are the Pictures David!! I always ask the person can I take pictures of there items first at the Tom Bishop show. So far, no one has told me no. Which is Great because there are so many inspirational things out there.

[hydroped]

Deb- nope I didn't save any BBQ - what was left went to all the sellers to take with them ;) We gotta take care of the sellers right? Especially since this is such a small show But you're all invited out next year to the show I know - Bad david. ;)

Shalean - mom does full sized paintings but slowly I'm dragging her into the miniatures hobby. She's a very social person (unlike me) and she can't stand being left out of anything consequently she loves to go to the meetings and that means doing mini projects hehehe

Ok Tracy- you asked for it the photos are up in my Webshots album at:

Mini Show 06

I wish I'd asked permission to take more photos but it seemed.. I dont' know.. odd to ask to take pictures of dealers tables and some of them I'm told dont' like that. But I saw one gal taking pictures of the Wright's Miniatures table so I asked and they said sure! Also it's their last trip to California so from now on it's mail order only - and they don't have an internet site they do however have a catalog which doesn't do their items true justice - their mad scientist and doctors stuff is awesome! And don't get me started on the scale pirate treasure - WOW! I really wish I'd bought at least a small bag of gold coins while I was there.. but so much to look at and think about.. and I was trying so hard to be frugal. So now it's mail order <sigh>. But I did buy their catalog! so I have a price list yay!

-David