collectibles | D Thomas Miniatures 23/25

Mar 19, 2015

Eloise Kruger Collection

Eloise Kruger was a prolific collector of miniatures. She was born in the 1930's and became an accomplished accountant during the wartime years.

She began collecting with her friends at an early age but became more serious as an adult, placing more thought around the pieces she acquired while paying careful attention to the historical, architectural and details of each design.

While she favored the Victorian and American Neoclassical periods, the breadth and depth of the almost 20,000 pieces in her collection included many other periods as well including mid-centrury modern, Early American and and Shaker.

In 1997, The Kruger Collection was created at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a gift from the Kruger Charitable Trust.

In addition to providing a showcase for the assorment, the Collection "collects, preserves, researches and interprets miniature furniture, accessories and other examples..." as a means to educate around the disciplines of interior design and architecture.

Her mid-century modern pieces included a gorgeous bright red/corderoy bench.

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She had good taste.

#obeytheminiature

Feb 24, 2015

Miniatures & Gardening ... A Delightful Merge

A very popular subset in the miniatures world is scale gardens/conservatories. One of my all time favorite artitsts is Lady Jane who does absolutely stunning garden scenes. Funny, the same holds true for the category of Gardening (full size!) and interest in creating real gardens and scenes in miniature using live plants and flowers.

Each year, the city of Philadelphia host the world’s oldest and largest indoor flower show presented by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society. The PHS hosts over 265,000 horticultural and flower enthusiasts and features large scale gardens ranging from elaborate landscaped displays to garden club and individual entries of a prized horticultural specimens The theme this year is “Celebrate the Movies,” with inspiration from the films of the Disney and Pixar studios.

The PHS also hosts “Miniature Settings,” a celebration of the miniature garden art form. Miniaturists, miniature gardeners and other miniature aficianados submit miniature setting based on the show’s overall theme which will be judged for miniature craftsmanship, horticulture (sizing, grooming) design synthesis and distinction. Each miniature scene is placed in the Miniature Display Wall to be viewed by thousands of admirers throughout show.

This year I'm excited to be bringing the PHS experience to those who cannot attend! Join me live on the World Wide Web on Monday, March 2nd from 10am to 3pm when I'll be hosting and posting directly from the flower show. I'll be sending out live tweets, facebook posts and Instagramming directly from the venue and conducting interviews with event participants and artists (to be shared later in the week!)

See you there!

Feb 18, 2015

Six Miniaturists to Follow Right Now

There is talent, and then there's TALENT! Over the course of time I spent initially setting up my new shop, I really wanted to make sure I searched out a broad range of interesting, high-quality, super-artistic miniatures for my customers by artists who are super-talented. These artists are from all across the globe and not just in the United States since talent has no boundaries.

Here is a short list of some of those artist I encourage you to look into, if you don't know who they are already and follow them either on social media or through the various shows produced around the world. I'm excited to say I have work from some of these artists available for sale in my shop and invite you to take a look at the offering.

Maritza Moran

Where: United States

What: Hand Painted Furniture and Upolstery

Why: Her delicate and delicious flowers drawn on silk fabrics are absolutely dreamy!