Thursday, April 16, 2009

Miniatures Museum of The World-Taiwan (3)

MMOT 1st opened its doors to the public in 1997. The founder,Lin Wen-jen, recounted how he used to always buy souvenirs for his children while away on business trips. Their love for miniatures started while he and his wife, Chin-mei were in Amsterdam in the late 80's. So after his retirement, the couple poured all their energies and much of their resources into them. Besides collecting works by artists from throughout Europe and North America, they also began making pieces of their own.

The loving couple have enshrined many of their favourite memories in their miniaturized art work. Lin was once reported saying "In our travels around the world we've discovered that almost all miniatures are done by couples working together. They just chip away at them bit by bit, as if they were working on their own homes."

There were 3 exhibits (A Street Scene, The Butcher's Shop, and Christmas in Norway) that are especially near and dear to the founders for the two of them personally designed and assembled these works from scratch. These exhibits are infused with realism and warmth, and boasting of such fine detail with a clever concept that they are as good as the ones made by great artisans. Here's one of them:

A Street Scene (1:12)

This is a really long street. Probably the longest in the whole exhibition so I took pictures shop by shop. The sequence of the shops featured are as in the exhibition.

Flower Shop-for Sylvia, Eva & Jayne

Toy Shop- for Katie & Mercedes


Candy/Cake Shop-For Rosanna and all cake lovers

I am afraid the other pictures for the cake shop came up blurred.

Residence of "Mr & Mrs Lucky" ( I named them so for are they not lucky to be living here?)
Rosanna, you should enjoy this one as well.The Clock Shop- Mercedes and her love of clocks


The Cheese Shop-Minikat and her rats
Gazebo- for all of us who love to shop
The Bridal Shop
This one is for Debbie whom we hope will work on her "Belle and Beau" soon.
This is my favourite shop of the whole street. It is obviously also the creators' because this is the biggest shop and because it is the end shop, the side window is also exposed to show more bridal gowns.


View from the side window
The End of The Street
I took these trees for their proportion in 1:12 scale.

Winter Garden (probably 1:48) -specially for Jayne
This part of the post is for mini plant enthusiasts or artisans. I took many close ups for Jayne as we all know she is very particular about getting it as real as possible. I hope you enjoy the pictures, Jayne. I think Mercedes who is doing up her garden for an exhibition, Sylvia, Eva and Katie who once made a plant for her skate shop may be interested in these too.
I love this palm tree!


I took the picture above for the banana trees (behind the palm tree) but it didn't come out so well. Pity, because the banana tree is really great.I hope you have enjoyed today's post. My next one will be on the famous Country Tea House and Antique Shop, a Faerie Garden and a very special house that I love. It was built by a housewife and she took 5 years to complete it. There is also a Russian Consulate but with very sparse interior that I may post and if there is space, a few on the French House as well. Only 1200 photos to go. I wonder if Blogger will let me post that many pictures.

12 comments:

  1. Amazing Street Scene. What wonderful shops. Thanks for sharing all the pictures with us.
    I'm in love with the Winter Garden, the attention to every little detail is fantastic.

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  2. Amazing, and yes, you are right! I love the old couple, they make me quiver and since I'm in bed with high fever it also makes me cry a bit. I always become oversentimental when I've got a temperature. Thank you for sharing, they are lovely and I hope you'll be able to post all of them.Hugs

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  3. Oh My goodness! Those plants are amazing! Love the Lucky's little house. Thanks for thinking of us all!
    Mercedes

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  4. Oh Susan....amazing...absolutely amazing. I wish I could have been with you...we'd have had loads of fun...I wouldn't have eaten though lol.

    That garden is out of this world....I can't imagine how many hours it must have taken.

    Do you know what kind of palm tree it was you liked ?

    the street is excellent as well...straight out of a Dickens novel.

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  5. Olá!
    Parabéns pelo trabalho maravilhoso e perfeito.
    É realmente impressionante!

    Leo Furtado
    Brasil
    http://miniaturasleofurtado.blogspot.com

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  6. Oh Rosanna! I get that way too. Funny but I was ill yesterday too and home on sick leave. But I could not do much except sleep and when I heard how much work is waiting for me, I too got very down. All I did yesterday was to do this post. I am just like you when I am not well and can cry over cartoons.:D :D! Hope you are feeling better.

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  7. Hi Debbie and Jayne, glad you guys like the Winter Garden. Actually many many of the plants in there are tropical plants because I find them in Singapore a lot. So I don't really know why it is called Winter Garden. The palm tree is called Fan Palm Tree. They are commonly found here in Singapore in expensive areas because I can imagine they cost a bomb.

    Mercedes, glad you like the plants :D! Can't wait to see yours !

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  8. Hello Leo :D! Thank you for following this blog! I do not read or understand Portuguese and have used Google Translate to translate both your comment and this reply. All the pictures here are from the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan. I will be making more post on them as I have taken 1345 photographs haha! Do come back frequently. I am following your blogs as well and will be very interested in what you are doing!

    Olá Leo: D! Obrigado por seguir este blog! Eu não ler ou compreender Português e têm usado o Google Translate para traduzir tanto o seu comentário e esta resposta. Todas as fotos aqui são de Miniaturas do Museu de Taiwan. Eu vou estar fazendo mais post sobre eles como eu ter tirado fotografias 1345 haha! Não voltarei com frequência. Estou a seguir os blogs tão bem e vai ser muito interessado no que você está fazendo!

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  9. Hi Sans,

    It's al so beautiful, amazing what people can make.
    I love the pictures and post some more, I am waiting of them.

    Love Sylvia

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  10. Hi Sylvia :D. Glad you came & enjoy your trip!

    By the way, Jayne, if you were in Taipei, trust me you will eat :D. Their fried chicken is out of this world! I do wish you were there..so you could help me take all these pictures !!

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  11. Love the toystore....so many tiny toys in there!! And that garden is beautiful!! So many things to see, huh!!

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  12. Katie, there is an incredible toy room where a mini train actually runs! Will post all these at a later stage.

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