Thame Miniatures Fair

Well we had a great fair yesterday in Thame, lovely to meet up with old friends and some smashing customers.

Contrary to the forecast it stayed dry most of the day, even had some sunshine.

There were some quality stands and customers flowed through the door all day long, a very busy day indeed, we shall be back next year for certain.

The above painting, my copy of the 3rd Earl of Bristol (after Thomas Gainsborough) went to a really nice lady, the best painting I have done in my long career of painting and was sort of sad to actually see it go.

It is a painting that I shall not be repeating, but with a few more paintings being sold yesterday then I now have to get the paints out again.

It is the Stafford fair in just under two weeks time and have some real serious re-stocking to do, my miniature bottles and stoneware are proving very popular lately, also I have noticed a real upward trend in 1/24th scale this year, so planning to move ahead in that scale, don't know how much my poor eyes will take though.

This one is a tiny watercolour of Buckingham Palace, it measures just 7/8" x 3/4".

another miniature

Well it's just 8 days now till the Thame Miniatures fair, still busy in the workshop, as always!

Have finished a few new miniatures which will be on our Fair table at Thame, the above is a wall plaque suitable for a church, I can supply these with other inscriptions or even left blank.

This measures just 3" wide and the text has been designed by myself.

Still a lot of new miniatures in the planning stage and hope to get quite a few more new items in production over the next few weeks and with Stafford and Droitwich coming up I really need to get some extra stock made, plus I really want to get the watercolours out again.

And just before I sign off I was asked at the Worcester fair if I could make some Turps & Meths bottles. see pic below, they are now added to our extensive range of hand turned bottles.
They are both under 1" tall.

Another new miniature

Well the new fair at Worcester was quite a success for us, lots of customers through the door, special thanks to those who bought from us, look forward to being there next year.

Now we are coming towards the end of Summer we are busy replenishing our stocks, especially as we now have some of the larger fairs just round the corner we need to be prepared, so lots of time in the workshop over the next few weeks.

Plus I must find time to revamp my website, it is long overdue an overhaul.

Still lots of ideas to come, one of which can be seen above, pub signs or even shop signs, hope to have a selection for the Thame fair which is on Bank Holiday Monday August 27th, will have some blank ones as well so you slip in your own picture.

My mind is still full with ideas, downside is there is not enough hours in the day!

It's a nice sunny day here, perhaps Summer has finally arrived, I won't be holding my breath though.

Moving more toward 1/24th scale

And still going smaller, the last few fairs have seen some good sales on 1/24th scale, so a few new items will now be on our table for forthcoming shows, the photo is of some of my latest work on the lathe, a tad small and not doing my eyes much good. A few ideas are also in progress on this smaller scale and should have a much larger range of 1/24th come the autumn.
And just had to add this painting, I say this in a B&W photo the other day and just had to paint it, it is Lea castle which is no longer there and it once stood at the head of the village where I was born, Cookley.

Tomorrow we shall be exhibiting at the new miniatures fair in Worcester, it is at Perdiswell leisure Centre and hope to see some of you there.

Then it will be a three week gap until the next one which will be down at Thame.