



I have always loved living in Victoria B.C., especially because I have some wonderful friends here, who are very talented and interested in miniatures too!
Shirley Rose has made an entire town called Rosetown. She has made over seventeen stores and the most
beautiful homes. You can see the shops under the
Shops link. It is amazing, she designed all the buildings herself and has finished them with the most wonderful landscaping and interior details. There is a library, shops, artist studio, meat market, candy shop, just to name a few. As well as having Shirley for a friend, I had the good fortune, when I was a porcelain doll maker, to be commissioned by Shirley to make many of the dolls for her houses and stores. You can see many of my porcelain dolls in the photos above, she was always coming up with a challenge for me. She is always so excited and passionate about what she is working on and does amazing miniatures as you can see from her web site. I think you would love to see Rosetown and all her other
wonderful projects. Here is her web site.
http://members.shaw.ca/shirl.rose/index.htmAnother very talented miniaturist from Victoria is Lesley Shepherd, not only does she make amazing plants and kits, she is a botanist and designs gardens as well. You can visit her web site at
Lesley's Garden. She is the guide of the
Miniatures at About.com web site and also has an
About blog. She designs terrific printables and always has some interest project on the go. Recently it was a tiny chick and woven Easter basket, so adorable.
Johannes Landman is also from Victoria, we used to be in a sketch group together and he is always so quick to share any tips about making minis and painting. If you haven't seen him at the big shows you might enjoy seeing his paintings. I have the good fortune of owning a couple of his miniature paintings and they have exquisite detail. You can see a description of his painting through the
IGMA web site.