Way back in 2001 I came across a miniature village
collection being sold at BigW, and of course I couldn't resist
picturing a miniature village in my home, similar to the one I saw as a
child in Southport, UK, not on the same scale of course, and mine was
going to be a Christmas village.
I bought my first pieces with the idea in mind that I would add to it every year. My first 4 large pieces were a chapel, an inn, a school and a confectioner's shop. I also bought a few figurines to give the village a bit of life. I set the village up on a kitchen bench top, covered with cotton wool. That took some doing as the bench was home to my dolphin collection, for which I now had to find a new home in a rather overcrowded house.
I managed to add a few more pieces over the next 3 years, including a few purchases made during a trip to the UK. BigW ceased selling the village collection but Avon came to the rescue when my daughter-in-law Tracey started selling it. They had some wonderful Christmas pieces that I just had to buy. I also had a few pieces bought for me as presents by Rob, Tracey and the kids. I also had a Santa's Workshop built for me by my dad. The village was growing, slowly but surely, and space was becoming a problem. I should mention here that the village came out in early December and was packed away again in mid January.
In 2005 the cottonwool was replaced by white velvet material. It was much easier to lay out and had a glistening sheen to it when the lights were on. A back drop was also put up to add to the effect, black velvet with silver stars. The lights that cascaded from the snow clouds were also replaced with snowflake lights.
There was no village in 2006 as that year I spent Christmas in England, followed by a trip across Canada and up and down the USA.
Last year (2007) I decided to bring in a patio table so my village could be contained to one corner of the kitchen bench, leaving the other corner to cope with the dolphin collection. This set up was still not what I wanted as I still couldn't get a real village effect. That's when I decided I'd do some research on how other people coped with space issues and how they put their villages together. I found a great site where I got a lot of tips on building a polystyrene setting with mountains, tunnels, bridges etc. This now meant that I could build my village and leave it up forever, once I get a bigger bench top of course. I could also purchase the tools required for building with polystyrene without having a mess to clean up later.
I contacted the Hot Wire Foam Factory to purchase some of the cutting tools and glue. I had so much fun looking around this site, especially seeing the photo's of the villages that other people had built and getting some tips. If you would like to start your own village, I would highly recommend checking out the site, and, if you need any help with anything, just send an email, the response time is within the day, depending on what time you email them of course, they are in the US of A so the time difference is a factor. The people at HWFF go out of their way to assist you and are the most friendly strangers I've ever had contact with.
I will now leave you to browse the HWFF site, check out the galleries and see some of the photo's of my amateur village through it's growth stages.
I bought my first pieces with the idea in mind that I would add to it every year. My first 4 large pieces were a chapel, an inn, a school and a confectioner's shop. I also bought a few figurines to give the village a bit of life. I set the village up on a kitchen bench top, covered with cotton wool. That took some doing as the bench was home to my dolphin collection, for which I now had to find a new home in a rather overcrowded house.
I managed to add a few more pieces over the next 3 years, including a few purchases made during a trip to the UK. BigW ceased selling the village collection but Avon came to the rescue when my daughter-in-law Tracey started selling it. They had some wonderful Christmas pieces that I just had to buy. I also had a few pieces bought for me as presents by Rob, Tracey and the kids. I also had a Santa's Workshop built for me by my dad. The village was growing, slowly but surely, and space was becoming a problem. I should mention here that the village came out in early December and was packed away again in mid January.
In 2005 the cottonwool was replaced by white velvet material. It was much easier to lay out and had a glistening sheen to it when the lights were on. A back drop was also put up to add to the effect, black velvet with silver stars. The lights that cascaded from the snow clouds were also replaced with snowflake lights.
There was no village in 2006 as that year I spent Christmas in England, followed by a trip across Canada and up and down the USA.
Last year (2007) I decided to bring in a patio table so my village could be contained to one corner of the kitchen bench, leaving the other corner to cope with the dolphin collection. This set up was still not what I wanted as I still couldn't get a real village effect. That's when I decided I'd do some research on how other people coped with space issues and how they put their villages together. I found a great site where I got a lot of tips on building a polystyrene setting with mountains, tunnels, bridges etc. This now meant that I could build my village and leave it up forever, once I get a bigger bench top of course. I could also purchase the tools required for building with polystyrene without having a mess to clean up later.
I contacted the Hot Wire Foam Factory to purchase some of the cutting tools and glue. I had so much fun looking around this site, especially seeing the photo's of the villages that other people had built and getting some tips. If you would like to start your own village, I would highly recommend checking out the site, and, if you need any help with anything, just send an email, the response time is within the day, depending on what time you email them of course, they are in the US of A so the time difference is a factor. The people at HWFF go out of their way to assist you and are the most friendly strangers I've ever had contact with.
I will now leave you to browse the HWFF site, check out the galleries and see some of the photo's of my amateur village through it's growth stages.