Janine Mason

Janine Mason is doing some Harry Potter/Diagon Alley-inspired houses and interiors.  She loved the look of Diagon Alley, and after visiting the studios and seeing the sets, she was inspired to make her own versions: the wand shop, an apothecary, a wizards' equipment shop, and has just started the joke shop.

When did you first become interested in miniatures> 6. A friend at work had one. I started a few years ago with a traditional shop bought house furnished with available Victorian style furniture. A house move and a trip to the Warner’s studio kick started > my interest in doing something a little differently and more personal.
What do you do for your career? I am a teaching assistant with a passion for art and display.
What does your family think of your interest? They think that it’s a great outlet for my creative side. My daughters encouraged me to post the houses online and I enlisted my dad > to scratch build the house shells I wanted to make.
Who is your biggest fan? My husband. He took me to Warner’s as a Christmas present.
Is it easy combining home life and miniature life?. Luckily it fits around work and family. School holidays end up very  busy with projects on the go.
Where do you find inspiration? I love the Harry Potter books and particularly the films, but always have been drawn to places like Staithes, Polperro, and especially the Shambles in York. A walk down Diagon Alley just felt right.
Describe your workplace. It’s the back bedroom that I’ve claimed now the kids have left home, it’s the  perfect spot.
Do you belong to any groups or clubs? No. Just a couple of Facebook pages - Dolls house Chat and The Witches Dollshouse.
Do you run workshops? No. But I’ve been asked online about how I create the house exterior brickwork and roof, and also the work that goes into making my furniture from scratch.
What do you love most about miniatures?  It allows me to be creative and imaginative, a home designer and architect in my own little world.
Do you have any formal training in your miniature field?  No formal training but years of hands-on work at school. I can make just about anything from set designs and props to wall displays, a Viking boat to a plague mask, all from card and bits and bobs.
What is your most valuable tool or what tool could you not live without?  Easy. A glue gun.
What’s the biggest difficulty involved with working in miniature? Scale and the limitations of hinges.
What do you think about the future of miniatures? I think that lots of things I am seeing on the internet, Pinterest and social media are really inspiring. There always will be a place for tradition but seeing things like corrugated cardboard favelas, detergent bottle laundromats, secret rooms in bookcases, bonsai treehouses are all wonderful, available, and doable.
What’s next for you and your creations? I think my houses need to be in the context of a street setting. Cobbled roads, back alleys, I’m interested in what’s behind the house, not just what is in it.
Is there anything else? It’s a quiet hobby for a quiet, patient person.

What is the name of the piece?  The Wand Shop. Part of a growing street scene.
How did you come up with the idea for this piece? There was always going to be a wand shop. The wand chooses the wizard. The house chooses the builder.
How much of this piece was made, and how much was bought or collected?  The vast majority of my work is made. House shells are constructed from MDF. then plastered; exteriors clad with stamped papier-mâché clay. Windows and doors are made by my talented dad. I try to make all of the interior fixtures and fittings from scratch as the items I want are usually one off specific to each setting. I like that things can be a bit wonky and distressed, although I do like everything set as a scene. Oh, lights and guttering is bought.
Are there any other artists whose work is included in this piece? Just my dad Derek Caton’s exquisite woodwork.
What materials did you use to make this? Roof tiles are individually cut from air-dry clay. Exterior brickwork is a process of stamping each brick onto the papier-mâché composite, takes ages. Interior walls plastered with brick exposed/wainscotted balsa panels. Furniture all balsa and paint, staircases and shelving the same. Wand boxes were all individually cut from stripwood, painted then 
labelled.
Can you share your technique for creating the piece? Not really for this one. Have photos of creating the papier-mâché clay that I have taken for my next project the joke shop. Have started documenting techniques going forward.
Did you use a unique process or unconventional method for creating any of these pieces?  Other than stamping the clay for the bricks, not really.
What was the hardest part about making this miniature? The quantity of wand boxes needed to fill the shelves caught me out. It’s two floors worth that needed assembling behind a cut-out section of the middle floor. The dog leg stairs were a challenge, too.
Did the idea for this piece morph over time, or did the final piece turn out exactly as you had envisioned? Although I had an idea of how the wand shop should look, it definitely took on a character of its own, with the addition of a semi-hidden room and the removal of the back of the middle floor to allow for double-height shelves and the librarian’s ladder.
Why did you make this piece?  I quite like the dark mysterious feel of this shop. I’d had it in mind for quite a while.
What’s your favorite part about this piece? I like the hidden room at the back. And the fact that houses don’t always have to follow the traditional 2 up/2 down square room footprint. And that it’s a bit wonky.
What part of this was the most fun to create?  Not the wands.
Are you going to sell this piece or display it? No plans to.
What’s next for you and your creations? I’ve already started a take on the Weasleys’ Joke shop. It needs another floor, and  I’m fairly certain I’ll be tying the pieces together in some form of cobbled street.
Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about you or this piece? The amount of goodwill and kindness that people in the miniature community have shown has been fantastic. It’s great that people are able to share some magic.

Contact Information:
Name: Janine Mason
Email: Janinesky48@sky.com
Address: 6 mill rise Kidsgrove - Staffs st7 4ur
> 
Am located in Kidsgrove,
Stoke on Trent
Staffordshire , England.
Not far from the heart of the Potteries.