Miniatures Museum of The World-Taiwan (2)

MMOT ranks 2nd in the world of miniatures museum, after the one in the Netherlands and span almost 1000 sqm worth of space. The museum features stunningly detailed miniatures along an aisle that winds its way through. The museum is American-centric as many of the commissioned dollhouses and rooms are made by American artisans, depicting replicas of actual structures, imaginary street scenes (my favourites), classy New York apartments, and whimsical works inspired by fairy tales. In all, there are more than 200 dolls' houses and room boxes, as well as eggshell carvings, model cars, dolls, and much more. Here are more of the exhibits:

LADIES WHISPERING (1:6)-for Eva
70 by 77 by 80 cm
Adnan Karabay (USA)

ROSE MANSION (1:12) -Jean Day
(270 by 62 by 123 cm)
Reginald Twigg '92

This is a massive piece and because it is the 1st dollhouse I saw, I probably took the most pictures of this one. It also really makes me think of Jean and her oak house.

The elaborate re-creation has 20 rooms, fully furnished and "inhabited." As I have stated at My Maharajah's Palace- Day 37, this miniature is a replica of a mansion that stood on a hill in the U.S. city of Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, now no more.

Reginald Twigg, the creator of the Rose Mansion replica, devoted five years to researching and constructing the impressive work of art. He spent 10 days at the Taipei museum putting the finishing touches on the grand display.

The replica stands over a meter tall and two meters wide. Apparently, except for its scaled-down size and the fact that the people and the horse-drawn carriage out front are just models, the exhibit looks almost exactly like the actual residence. The creator made sure the materials used for the parts are similar to the ones in real life. I will point them out as we go through the pictures.

The Exterior-Front

The Front Porch / Verandah

I took this one for the puddle of water.

The Flower Garden?

I read a useful article on The Victorian Home about how all Victorian ladies must learn flower arrangements and they usually grow them in their flower garden. Special meanings were given to different types of flowers and so when a bouquet was presented, there need be no words because your arrangement of the flowers deliver the meaning. If you give someone grass, you are telling the person that he is useful. For a list of flowers and their meanings, you can check out The Victorian Home.

Right Porch-Afternoon Tea

2nd Storey
Porch/ Verandah

Left Side

My Favourite Character- The Trinket Seller

Interiors

Third Floor

The Attic-Nanny's Room?
This is such a cute room because granny is playing with her doll's house.

Nanny's Bedroom?

Powder Room?
I really like the chair behind "belle".

Billiard Room
I think the billiard table is extraordinary work!

2nd Storey
Master Bedroom-Rose's Bedroom
The quilted blanket reminded me of the one that Mercedes made for Sylvia except hers are nicer. This one is corny, don't you think? It's got the USA flag, I believe.

Details
Really like the dresser at the side.

Fireplace at the left side of the room and the beautifully carved mirror above

The Bathroom
Girl Preparing for Bath
This girl is modestly hidden at the entrance to the bathroom and it is not possible to get a picture of her with the entire room. I adore her underclothes and had to show her off here.

Mum's Bedroom?
The 2nd Parlour-Drawing Room?
1st Floor

The Library
I don't really know why this room is called the Library since there are no books that I can see but the banister work in here is magnificent. The piano in here is apparently made with the same material as a real piano.

Dining or Tea Room?
The trivets and plates on this table are all procelain or stoneware.

The Front Hallway
This is a very bad picture because the room was too badly lit but the fireplace is exquisite so this horribly "doctored" picture must be shared.

Now this one is of the other side of the same room. Shared here because you can see me taking the picture in the mirror. I was trying to get a good photo of the clock and didn't realise that the only thing clear in there is a picture of me!

Parlour or Sitting Room?

Another badly lit room.

2nd Sitting Room?
Details

I had to take this one because I was amused by the fact that even museums use blu-tack and they are as careless as me when it comes to application.

Basement

I was hoping to post more rooms but it is already 1.30am here and I really should not overload the page. I don't really know why some of my pictures open to big ones and some don't and I am too sleepy to google . So if anyone of you know, I will really appreciate some tips on how I should do it right. Thanks!

Miniatures Museum of The World-Taiwan (1)

THE MINIATURES MUSEUM OF TAIWAN ("MMOT") is located at Basement 1 of a rather unimpressive office building which in turn is situated along a very unspectacular JianGuo North Road in Taipei.

The ordinary exterior however was deceiving for it belies a world so magical and enchanting, I went back again on my last day in Taipei. I was there from 10.30am to 4.30pm on the 1st day and spent another 4 and 1/2 hours on the 2nd . I took 1345 pictures and left each time only because the battery of my camera went flat. I had so many credit card slips from the museum, they cover the whole of my lap top and small table. Gasp!

Anyway, many of these exhibits remind me of many of you and so I am dedicating the exhibits to those of you I was thinking of when I took the pictures. I must say though that my pictures are a far far cry from seeing the exhibits in person. The lighting, the glass cases and the angle also made capturing the exquisite craftsmanship of many of these work with a camera impossible.

I will post the pictures in accordance to the order I saw them.

DOLLS
(I have only taken those I really liked or for my friends as there were way too many)

Barbie Dolls-
for Katie who loves Barbie Dolls

and for Sumaiya-Close up of The Ethnic Princesses

For Jean Day-Chinese Dolls

for all my friends from Mexico and for Jayne- Mexican Paper Dolls ( I love these dolls)

Tiny Scenes

Old Stove for Sylvia

Teapots Gallery - for Daisy Capri and Rosanna

Blue Kitchen-for Katie from Katie's Clay Corner, MiniKat, Doreen

Gifts, Swaps & Thrills - Sylvia

A record has been broken. The parcel I sent to Sylvia reached her in 3 days ! I was in Taiwan when she received it. And tonight, whilst I was catching up on the posts I missed while away, having just reached home yesterday, I read this one she posted on the 9th April 2009 and the unabashed "cut and paste" of an extract is as follows:

Mail from Singapore and Italy

Today I receive the mail from Sans and Rosanna, soooooooo beautiful!!!!!!

From Sans two lovely but lonely chicks, mother crane has left them in an old shop in Chinatown, Singapore ( and Sans send them to the Netherlands)

One of them is going to live in the Flowershop, the other one in the Big house near me.

They are beautiful and thank you very much Sans!!!!!!!!!!

I saw these orphan babies at an old Chinatown shop lined up in a row waiting . I immediately thought of all the lovely birdhouses Mercedes made for everyone, including Sylvia. I also remembered Sylvia hanging one of her bird houses in the flower shop she was making.

How nice if these chicks should have a lovely home instead of a dusty old shop for shelter ! And so I took these home and promptly wrote to Sylvia. These babies may never grow up to their full potential but they are lovable nonetheless.

To my pleasant surprise, I found the siblings of the baby cranes at the Miniature Museum of Taiwan as well, sitting on a very expensive looking table in a very very classy room. I took pictures so I can show them to Sylvia. As I was trying to find the picture, I realise, to my amazement that I have taken about 1400 pictures at the MMOT alone. For the rest of the trip, I think I took 20!

Well, Sylvia, it may take me a while to find it, but I will post them when I do. One thing is for sure, the chicks that are with you are luckier than those at the MMOT.

Art, Artisan,Artistry-Tree Wizards & Bonsai Priestess

This post is for 2 artisans whom I have the greatest pleasure of knowing ever since I started my mini hobby. Here's to you, Chris aka The Tree Wizard and Jayne, the High Priestess of Mini Bonsais. Jayne is currently also in the midst of making a tree and since I have just finished my tree, this post is about, yes, trees!

PLUS, I have just been over to Chris' dream workshop and I have his permission to show it off on my blog.

But 1st, Jayne, look what the cat dragged in while she went running last week. Fafa is exasperated with me as I kept bringing a few of these home every time I run and there is simply no more place for them any more.

Right after I immortalise them in this post, they are going back to Nature except for the one I want to keep for my willow (so there, Chris! who pooh-poohed my tree because it is not crafted with wires etc etc).

Tree 1- My "Sapling Willow To Be" standing at about 20" (h) and 15" (w)

Tree 2- The Weird and Wonderful Tree 28" by 28'

Tree 3- The Tree B4 All the Other Tree aka Back to Nature Tree

Tree 4- Whopping Whomping Tree at 50" by 50" (the one to scale but can fit nowhere tree but this one is for Jayne)

These are the trees made by Chris:


Here is Jayne's beautiful sapling orange tree:

Jayne has a terrific blog at Tallulah Belle with immense following and you can also view her gallery at her website known as Tallulah Belle Originals. So she really needs little introduction from me.

The Tree Wizard however is a newbie at blogging (I just taught him how to create a profile this morning!! ) and fairly new to the blogosphere. So if I may, I will like to add a few more tit-bits about my very talented friend.

Chris' work has been featured many times in our local papers/ magazines and what not . One of his earliest work (1992) was the construction of a model of an old conserved shop house in Singapore. The following is an article on him from as far back:

Chris is now dying to build a dollhouse modelled after an old conserved building in Singapore and I hope he improves on his blogging skills FAST cos I am sure everyone will want to read about his progress. That beauty featured was built to be blasted for a movie. Yes, I fainted as well when I heard!

Chris is probably the most notable mini tree maker in Singapore. His work was selected as a gift to the President of Singapore in quite a prominent gala event here in 2004 where the National Volunteerism and Philanthropy Awards were given out.

He was also commissioned to re-create the diaorama of the Bali bombing for the government.

Here's a few more pics, this time on Chris' to-die-for workshop where he works, sleeps, cooks and does his laundry:

Although Chris thinks I should trash my tree, he is very jealous of my camels and dolls. So eat your heart out Chris and stop gasping!

Gifts, Swaps & Thrills - Rosanna

Rosanna received her teapots yesterday. This is the post she made about them and I have shamelessly lifted it wholesale from her blog and pasted it here. I am sure Rosanna won't mind.

posta

Finalmente è arrivato un pacchetto anche per me. Grazie (grrrr) alle Poste Italiane sembra che non ci sia mai posta per me, non arriva mai niente.

Oggi invece ho avuto la bella sorpresa di ricevere il pacchetto di Susan di Singapore.

La scatola è già bellissima con una splendida immagine del suo futuro palazzo e dentro c'è un'intera collezione di teierine!

Io le colleziono (grandi e piccole) perciò non poteva scegliere meglio.
Grazie mille Sans.

mail

At last it has arrived a parcel for me too. Thanks (grrrr) to Italian Mail it seems that there is never mail for me, nothing ever finds the way of my home.

But today I had the beautiful surprise of receiving a parcel by Susan from Singapore.

The box itself is beautiful with a splendid picture ot hers going to be Palace and inside there is a whole collection of small teapots!

I collect them, either small and big, therefore she couldn't choose any better. Thank you so much Sans.

It took a week or slightly less for my parcel to reach North Italy from Raffles Place Post Office, Singapore. I am really impressed with Singapore Post. Another gold medal for us *cough.

Anyway, you know what I think is the sweet thing about swaps? Surprise, thrills and the fact that it is from someone far far away. And when your gift makes someone smiles, even for a fleeting moment, or allow her to forget, for the teeniest while, that she is suffering from the meanest migraine, then that is reason enough, to do the things you do, reason enough to make time so you can say to someone "hey, you are in my thoughts..."