Miniature Scenes or Items Questionnaire 

•	Please answer all questions to the best of your ability.  If there are questions that don't pertain to you, feel free to leave them blank. The purpose of the questionnaire is for readers to get to know you better, so have fun with it!
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•	Once you have completed this questionnaire, please return it to me as an attachment, along with some high-resolution images of both yourself and/or your work. Photo instructions are at the end of the questionnaire.
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Pam: This is the Instagram link for her dollhouse story..
Hello,

I thought that you might be interested to hear about my latest project, bringing the lives of a dollshouse family, the Littletons, to life. 
They've lived in a dollshouse for many years and now their story has been brought to life through my Instagram account.

Let me know if you would like to know more about the Littletons! https://www.instagram.com/the_littleton_family_story/ 

Name: Rosie Middleton

Contact information (for in-office use only): 
Email: rosiemiddleton2@gmail.com

Phone: 07765694816
Address: 2A Hartley Hill, Purley, Surrey CR8 4EL

Your business name if applicable: The Littleton Family Story

When did you first become interested in miniatures or how were you introduced to the hobby? 
Through my daughter, even as a young child she really loved and cared for her dollhouse and all the contents. I took her to many local fairs and stores where she often spent her birthday and Christmas money.  Recently I had a dream about her characters and house and how I could use the Instagram format to tell the family story. When I told my daughter about this crazy dream she said I should do it… and so I have.

What do you do for your career?
I work for the Civil Service in an administration capacity.

What does your family think of your interest?
They are very supportive and help with coming up with ideas for my next ‘story’. My husband is very busy with our house renovation but I hope to enlist his help soon with creating items for the Littleton family.

Tell us a little about yourself and your time doing miniatures. This is just to help us get to know you better; write whatever you think is relevant (how long you’ve been making miniatures, your training, your future hopes).
I love making, painting, designing and sewing… all of these skills have come to be very useful in the miniature world.
I’m actually pretty new to miniatures- well since my daughter stopped needing me to make items for her dollhouse, the house has been gathering dust. 
But in the last couple of months it has begun to take over my life. 
My future hope would definitely mean ‘giving up the office job’ and being able to pay those bills with something creative and small! 

What is the name of the piece(s) we are highlighting? 
The Littleton Family Story.

How did you come up with the idea for this piece? Were you inspired by one certain item or moment, or was it a gradual accumulation of ideas?
Well the idea, as I mentioned above, quite literally came to me in a dream. I must have snacked on some strong cheese! 
The Littleton family already existed and their name was always the Littleton’s (even when not being played with they still received Christmas cards and gifts every year).

How much of this piece was made, and how much was bought or collected? 
The house was bought about 20 or more years ago in a craft fair, it was just plain wood and my husband and I decorated it for our daughter's Christmas gift. Most of the furniture was purchased by my daughter, but in the last few months I have been making items for the Littletons. Namely new dresses for Mrs and little Miss Littleton, some food and plates from Polymer clay, a shelf unit for the kitchen, crocheted blankets and cushions and much more, today I painted a little picture of Miss Littleton though Mr Littleton will get all the credit!

Are there any other artists whose work is included in this piece?
Some decorating by my husband, Steve and of course Lily (my daughter) added a few bits.. such as the garden gate and some clay sandwiches.

What materials did you use to make this?
Various

Can you share your technique for creating the piece(s)? 
Nothing special I’m afraid.

Did you use a unique process or unconventional method for creating any of these pieces?

What was the hardest part about making this miniature? Did you encounter any insurmountable difficulties?
One of the hardest things for me is to keep using the Instagram ‘Willow’ filter. The dresses I made were very bright and pretty and today’s portrait was in colour but I felt that although the actual date is vague, using black and white has kept it well in the past.

Did the idea for this piece morph over time, or did the final piece turn out exactly as you had envisioned?
Crazily enough it is pretty much all going as planned… of course in my dream I had worldwide success overnight!

Why did you make this piece?
I’ve had a bit of a year and whilst I am known to live in ‘Rosie’s World’ and to be on a higher plain I had a bit of a slip with life just getting in the way…. so I took myself in hand and I must say the miniature world is a really happy and friendly place, the lovely comments I have received on Instagram have touched me greatly… the big, bad world just drifts away when I’m in the Littleton’s residence.

What’s your favorite part about this piece?
The kitchen, I love the look of it and of course it was the scene of the great romance between the delivery man and the maid.

What part of this was the most fun to create?
I greatly enjoy setting the scenes, this house has only three rooms so I have to be creative with furniture moving...hope the continuity works!

Are you going to sell this piece or display it? If you sell, what price range will it be?
It’s not for sale and actually I won’t display it in the real world, unless I can give the viewers black and white vision.

What's next for you and your creations?
I hope to carry on and on…. for someone who has always said I really dislike ‘soap operas’ because they never end; I rather think I am writing one now...

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about you or this piece?

Hi Auralea,

The whole instagram feed is a kind of continuous story, the family go through the buying of and moving into their new home. 
When they first move in they do not have very much in the way of furniture so a whole lot of shopping and ordering of goods begins. 
With the continuous delivery of goods begins the romance between the delivery man and the Littleton's maid.
There is a wedding, Mr Littleton buying a new camera to take the wedding photographs....
The Littleton family invite the maids new husband to be their full-time handyman so he appears in many stories.
There follows the crazy adventures with an unruly dog, Mrs Littleton's new aquaintance who is a harpist with no home for her harp which eventually leads to little Miss Littleton receiving music lessons.
Mrs Littleton buys a sewing machine and makes new clothes, you have a picture of Mrs Littleton modelling her new dress.
Mr Littleton suffers reading the newspaper and has to get spectacles, just the kind of things that I feel cropped up in a middle class English family living in a London town house with a small garden. Although they have a maid; Mrs Littleton does her own dressmaking and caring for her children. Mr Littleton is a caring father and spends time with his young daughter.
Then we have recently had some portrait painting going on, a magpie stealing the silver and the current story is concerning a mouse in the kitchen....

Does any of that help?
 It's taking over my life at the moment - I've had to make a 'felted' mouser cat to come to the rescue ... 
I'm very happy to be in your magazine 
best wishes 
Rosie

Photos
We will need high-resolution photos to illustrate the article (preferably 300dpi) - if you want to check if your photos are suitable please email them to me and I can let you know. Photos need to be saved as a jpg or tiff and either emailed, sent on a CD, or sent via Dropbox. Please do not save them in a Word document. If you can’t provide these we will need you to send examples of your work to us to photograph to accompany the article.
To use Dropbox:
•  Download Dropbox from www.dropbox.com
•  Once you have downloaded the program, add a new folder titled with your first and last name, and put all your photos in the folder.
•  Right click on the folder, and under Dropbox, click Share This Folder. Enter in auralea@ashdown.co.uk for the e-mail address.

Ideally please include photos of the following if appropriate:
•	You! (head and shoulders shot please)
•	Your work space if you have one, or you at work
•	8-15 images that best show your work
•	Any other images which you feel may be relevant 

Please list below the photos you have included and a brief description of what they show.

Thanks for completing our questionnaire! 
Please return completed questionnaire by email to auralea@ashdown.co.uk

1Me
2At my desk
3With the Littleton’s home

Auralea, I have not included pictures of the house and it’s contents as that is what the whole Littleton’s Story is – it’s just photographs, but if the Instagram pictures are not good enough I will get some better ones taken.

captions
Dear Aurelea,

The captions used on the Instagram posts and a little explanation in brackets...
1: "Mr and Mrs Littleton are enjoying a refreshing coffee" 
2: "Let's leave our happy maid, inhaling the scent from her new bouquet" (The maid has just become engaged in marriage to the delivery man)
3: "A writing set...quill and a fancy silver inkwell on a silver tray...that's beautiful Mr Littleton" (Mr Littleton had bought himself a gift of a writing set to go with his lovely desk)
4: "My my my....something is going on... Our happy maid is working very late in the kitchen tonight" (We later find out that she is baking a birthday cake for Mrs Littleton)
5: "Well what a lot of playthings you have!" (This is little Miss Littleton and her baby sister in the bedroom)
6: "Looks like the Littleton's maid is having a go at designing her wedding dress... is it coming up soon?" (It was!)
7: "Mrs Littleton is checking her appearance... something special happening today?"
8: "The Littleton's maid is married! What an exciting day and what a lovely couple they make" (Mr Littleton is the photographer)
9: "The wedding breakfast ...looks wonderful. The Littleton family really value their maid" (The family hosted the wedding party)
10: "Mrs Littleton is finishing off some crocheted cushions... they look lovely" (I only recently learned how to crochet so it's been fun making small projects for the doll house  - the bedspreads are also crocheted)
11: "Mr Littleton and loyal friend Dog"
12: The Littleton's maid is being as inventive as she can be with the huge cabbage" (The naughty Dog had eaten the family joint of meat, which caused a great deal of panic in the kitchen)
13: "mmm that's smelling..... interesting!" (cabbage soup for dinner!)
14: "Mr and Mrs Littleton are having a serious conversation about the Dog" (The stolen joint of meat is being treated very seriously by the family)
15: "Little Miss Littleton is pleading for her mother to change her mind...will she?" (Mrs Littleton felt the dog would have to go)
16: "It's a rainy Saturday afternoon...little Miss Littleton is working on a puzzle. Looks like she's almost completed it" (A polymer clay home make)
17: "Ooh how lovely, a neighbour has presented the Littleton family with a large bowl of eggs...mmm what will you make?" (More polymer clay makes - bowl and eggs)
18: "That's right Mr Littleton. It all needs eating up!" (more homemade bits - pork chops and carrots)
19: "Little Miss Littleton would like to learn how to play music!" (Her parents feel that such lessons will be too expensive)
20: "Mrs Littleton looks very busy at her sewing machine" (Mrs Littleton hoped that the music design on the fabric would pacify her daughter after the disappointment of not having music lessons...all was sorted out eventually though)
I'll get some photos of the house taken over the weekend and dropbox them to you.
Hope the above is OK, 

oh and yes I am happy for you to use the email as an introduction, whatever you think reads best.

with best wishes
Rosie