Colette Cameron (Brandi’s Birthday)

A Sentimental Tribute

by Pam North

What Australian artist Colette Cameron loves most about miniatures is that every project is different, each incorporating a unique style and context. “I really enjoy the process of building my mind’s images into a 3D form,” she said. “I originally started with building real furniture but quickly ran out of room, so miniatures allow me to build in a smaller scale and still get the satisfaction of creating snapshots of spaces in time. My natural inclination is toward modern pieces and products.”
Her latest project, a room box she calls Brandi’s Birthday, is pure fun with all the joyous elements of a party alive with bright colors, confections, flowers, presents, and ornamentation. 
The project had an interesting beginning in that its creation was inspired by a purely emotional reason. Usually somewhat introverted by nature, Colette confronted her shyness by starting up a Facebook page, soon making one special acquaintance, Brandi, via that venue. Over time, Colette came to rely on Brandi’s posts and helpful messages as inspiration, and Brandi became somewhat of a muse for her. Colette decided to create something that was a direct representation of her new friend. “This is the first project where I stepped back and allowed someone else to conceptualize a theme,” she explained. “Brandi chose colors, themes, and items that she wished included, and I created what I could from her ideas. Although the concept was not my own, the final realization of the project was what I had hoped to achieve. I wanted it to remind me of Brandi, her personality, her sense of fun and joy. The entire project was hand-built, nothing ready-made, using my personal process for figuring out ways to create everything. All ran quickly and smoothly with no difficulties until the project was completed; then the true problems began. After attempting to get the room box in the mail, we realized, much to our chagrin, that posting the project had become a stalemate. Its construction from untreated pine meant that the project did not meet customs requirements, and it needed extensive paper work and fumigations. We spent weeks trying to figure out how to meet all the rules and regulations before having to admit defeat from the red tape involved in moving it outside of Australia. So, if anyone out there has successfully sent a project from Australia to Canada, please contact me! For years I have made projects that were purely for my own enjoyment. With Brandi’s Birthday I wanted to try making something with an emotive base for a friend, designing it as a thank-you for all the support, advice, and encouragement that Brandi has provided.” Colette still is desperately trying to figure out how to ship it to Canada “without having to sell a kidney”, as she joked. For the moment, it remains bundled up and sitting on a shelf waiting to meet its owner, as Colette is determined that the project will be unwrapped only by Brandi. 
Colette’s cited another favorite aspect about the piece as that “it was designed to create a sense of proportion and have an even flow throughout. With all my projects I concentrate on making sure that no single piece stands out above the others, and I work in a circular pattern to ensure that colors are all evenly distributed throughout in layers. So for me, I am delighted that the entire project balanced out in a blaze of color. Also, the creating of the building was fun; give me some wood and power tools and I am the happiest girl alive! My world would come to an end, with me as a slobbering mess, if my drop-saw died; I would not be a happy camper at all. I love working with power tools, and having access to them has meant that I’m not constricted to scale and complexity of buildings or furniture.”
Colette is another of those miniaturists who is completely self-taught. “When I first started building miniatures I was completely unaware that a world-wide miniature community existed. I just plodded along in the garage obliviously for years.” She usually wakes around 3:00 a.m. in order to get a minimum of ten hours a days in pursuing her craft, and seems to encounter very few difficulties involved with working in miniature, with a couple of exceptions: “having to wait until appropriate times to be able to switch on my tools, and the annoyance of waiting for materials to become available, but I usually just figure out ways around that.” 
Her vision for the future of miniatures is bright. “I hope that the industry will continue to grow and expand into galleries.”
As for what’s next for her and her creations, again nothing seems to stand in her way. “Oh dear, so many ideas!” she exclaimed. “I believe that I will just keep making room boxes until it is time to put me in the ground. I have a long list of projects that I want to do, so I’ll just stay busy as usual. It would be nice one day to be able to sell some completed works, but this is little more that a pipe dream at this point in time.”

Contact Information:
Name:  Colette Cameron
Email:  colettecameron@bigpond.com
Phone:  (02) 6884 9950
Address:  3 Pamela Place Dubbo, NSW, Australia 2830