MEE summer get-together

Each summer, members of the club get together. Usually it's at the home of a member who welcomes the club to see her treasures.

This year, Sunni arranged for the club to meet at The Little White Schoolhouse in St. Albert. It was of particular interest to miniaturists as it is also the home of Lorna Naves' Dollhouse. Lorna was a long-time member of MEE and a founding member of St. Albert Miniature Club.

A staff member from Le Musee Heritage met us there and Sunni made arrangements for club records concerning Lorna and her work to be transferred to the museum. Lorna was well-known for her needlework carpets and there are several beautiful examples of her work in this house.

In addition to viewing Lorna's house, we spent some time making trees. We were fortunate to be able to borrow a tree-making machine from the Edmonton Railroad Club.

Unfortunately, I did not get any decent pictures but I did find this wonderful video on Youtube that shows you the machine and how we made our trees. The video is over 25 minutes long but it's very interesting. (You could only watch the first couple minutes to see the machine itself.)

Erika demonstrating.

We used twine rather than the rope in the video. We had quite an assembly line going. Someone would cut the twine in 5 to 6" strips and others would separate the strands. As the strands were separated, people took turns using the machine to make their trees.

The trees would be taken out, sprayed with black paint, then trimmed to shape. They would then be sprayed with hairspray and dipped in a cake pan filled with the chopped foam.

 Because of the heat and wind outside that day, there were a few problems with adhesion. The size of our trees (1:12 scale) may have been part of the problem.

Another way to do this is to spray the bare tree with spray adhesive then add the flocking.

My basic tree (about 14" tall) sprayed with paint but the flocking to be added.

Sunni brought in a bunch of branches and moss to share and make bushes/trees.

Lorry brought some lovely mailbox kits with plants at the bases that some members worked on.

We started at 4 p.m. and about 6:00 p.m. we stopped for a picnic dinner supplied by the St. Albert members. We ate that upstairs in the classroom that contains Lorna's house and members shared their memories of her. Then we were back downstairs to finish our projects.

Jennifer and Hoanie joined us (with their daughters) as new members. Lovely to meet them.

What a wonderful day! Thanks, Sunni!