Meet the people: the weird and wonderful miniature world of Chesterfield’s TwelfthCraft

Derbyshire Times

Down an alley in Chesterfield’s historic Shambles sits a little shop of little things...

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:10 My name's Caroline and this is my shop.

00:13 I've always been interested in miniatures.

00:17 Miniatures encourages you to look and to focus on the scene that you're looking at

00:24 and you notice far more in the world of miniatures than you probably do in real life.

00:31 So, you don't need to buy a house to set up an imaginative scene.

00:38 You can use something like this, which is a Victorian medicine cabinet that I bought from a market,

00:44 which lends itself to an apothecary shop.

00:49 Just light it a few inexpensive little jars and a lot of imagination.

00:57 This is a gingerbread clock case that I bought again from a market and made into a sweet shop

01:05 because a gingerbread clock case has to be a sweet shop in my book.

01:09 You can also use an Ikea bookcase or any bookcase that you've got, put carpet down, wallpaper it

01:20 and you have got little scenes that you can use for whatever purpose you want.

01:28 Miniature scenes can be used to encourage certainly children to look in depth at books that they're reading.

01:37 So, for example, in the window we've got Dr. Dolittle and we've got the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

01:45 and the Owl and the Pussycat, as well as E.T. and a pirate ship that could be Peter Pan.

01:56 But miniature scenes can also be used to trigger memories for somebody who has dementia

02:04 and these are very, very useful just to show somebody an item like a bicycle

02:12 and you'd be amazed how many memories that will trigger and how you can then talk to people

02:21 with something like dementia whose memories are fading and find that all sorts of things come out.

02:29 You can have really lovely conversations with people just through a memory trigger, a simple bicycle.

02:36 So, I also buy items like this which are curios which can be made into miniature scenes.

02:46 So, this will be a ballroom but I have a lot of things like this in stock just to inspire people.

02:54 They're also for sale. Upstairs I've also got grandfather clocks, grandfather clock cases,

03:00 which again can be made into miniature scenes.

03:04 This is an inexpensive little cabinet that I bought again from Chesterfield Market.

03:15 I covered it in the floors in carpet and wallpapered it and it can just be a little house in the corner.

03:24 These are 24th scale which is half an inch to a foot.

03:31 A lot of the other houses are 12th scale which is why the shop is called 12th Craft, one inch to a foot.

03:40 Chesterfield is wonderful. Chesterfield is a wonderful place to live.

03:44 I've lived here for six years and it's the nicest place that I've ever been.

03:50 It's vibrant, the people are friendly, it's exciting and certainly the area where the shop is,

03:59 which is the Shambles area, is an old part of Chesterfield and it needs money put into it.

04:09 It needs investment, time put into it to make it as good as it possibly can be

04:16 and to advertise the fact that Chesterfield does have a really interesting past.

04:21 For example, this shop which was built in the end of the 18th century

04:32 and started its life as a pub called The Puddle Hall.

04:39 These little chairs are a sixth scale and they are antique.

04:44 They are apprentice pieces made as examples of the work that somebody made large scale.

04:56 Some of them, pieces like this, were salesman's pieces

05:01 and they used to pack them in their suitcases and take them with them to show to customers

05:09 who would then buy the full-size pieces.

05:13 So these are sixth scale, two inches to a foot.

05:21 This is a Chesterfield piece, which is a modern piece of furniture,

05:28 but made in the Chesterfield style and this is one twelfth scale, so one inch to a foot.

05:36 And this little chair is a twenty-fourth scale, half an inch to a foot.

05:45 People make miniature houses for escapism or for...

05:53 because they've seen something that's inspired them, they've made a house.

05:58 I have a lot of demand from customers for things that will fill a house

06:05 that is based on the Addams Family or Rocky Horror or all sorts of things.

06:15 A lot of steampunk, a lot of steampunk interest.

06:18 I sell everything that you could possibly need to build up your miniature world.

06:23 So there's furniture, pre-loved and new.

06:27 So there's cities and chairs.

06:31 There's bathrooms, hats and hat stands, fruit, toys, bits and bobs you might need,

06:42 clothes, baskets, rocking chairs and kitchen items.

06:53 I also sell pre-loved houses as well as new house kits.

07:02 So there are things like wedding outfits, animals, jewellery, cakes and cafe furniture.

07:15 There's crockery, cushions, all sorts of things that you would need.

07:20 I also sell wallpaper, lots and lots of wallpaper.

07:26 There is some boxed furniture if you do want to start from new

07:32 and there's also boxed furniture up there.

07:37 Skirting and coving, any wooden items you need, tiles and then hair to make your mini people.

07:51 Items for Halloween, should you want to start your Halloween display.

07:57 Pegs and stands for if you want to make your own people.

08:02 If you want to put people in your houses, they might complete your build.

08:08 Personally, I think that people are best left out of your house

08:13 and the person who is looking at the scene,

08:17 then it becomes more about them than about the people who live in the house.

08:24 From little children who come in to elderly men who come in,

08:31 all of whom are interested in the miniature world.

08:33 It is a myth that miniature houses are for little girls.

08:39 [Music]

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