Jackie works in 1/12th scale, 1/24th scale, and 1/48th scale. The most popular with Jackie’s customers is 1/12th, which is her favourite also. Her creations are hand-sculpted from polymer clay and mixed media, and no moulds or cutters are used. Three coats of lacquer are applied to assure a polished finish. Each piece she makes is filled with detail and made with love. Every teapot, except 1/48th scale, is hollow and has a removable lid. In her early forties, Jackie is an easy-going, hard-working person. She recently finished a HND (Higher National Diploma) in Scottish Gaelic, a two-year academic program. She enjoys life, loves animals, nature, and being outdoors. Along with her husband Allan, three children, and Mara “a very clever Border Collie,” home is in the area of Liberton, Scotland. On the outskirts of Edinburgh, they live just five minutes away from the lively centre of the city. “We are lucky enough to have a great view of the castle and the Pentland Hills.” Allan and Jackie have a second home (croft) on the isle of Barra, a stronghold of Gaelic culture and language. The croft is situated in the small township of Cleit. “We go to Barra three times a year, a total of four months,“ Jackie says. “At the top of the croft, we are renovating an old family croft house.” While Allan is working on the house, Jackie is busy creating miniatures in her studio by the shore at the bottom of the croft. The studio has an amazing panoramic view over the Atlantic Ocean.

Describing herself as always being artistic, Jackie had a paint brush in her hand from a very early age. Her love of miniatures started at about eight years of age. “My aunty passed along her vintage fully furnished Tri-ang dolls house,” Jackie says. “That was it. I then had the miniature bug. I would put my pet mouse Sherlock inside it and play for hours. I made wonderful accessories from Das Air Drying Clay, plasticine and everything else I could get my hands on.” When Jackie stayed with her granny in the Royal Mile, she used to spend a lot of time at Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood. “That was my favourite haunt. I always stared in awe at the massive Victorian dolls houses with every room cluttered.” When younger, Jackie worked as a classroom auxiliary for many years, and occasionally, she ran an art class. About seventeen years ago, she started making miniatures. One Christmas, she and Allan were in the shops in Edinburgh and Jackie saw a dolls house in a shop window, she told Allan that she would love to get one for the girls, as she had the Triang dolls house when young. Allan offered to build it, and before Jackie knew it, he had created a stunning fourteen room house. A mammoth task. “Trying to hide it until Christmas from the girls was a nightmare,” Jackie says. “After the holidays, it was time to decorate and fill the house. That is when, once again, Istarted to make miniatures in earnest.”

Jackie does a great deal of research to make her tiny creations. “I am always watching animals and studying their different poses.” She reads a large number of books and finds great ideas at her local museums, The National Museum of Scotland and the Museum of Childhood. When there, she makes a lot of notes and sketches. Jackie gets many ideas from her children and from Celtic fairy tales. “Inspiration comes when I am walking and, most of all, when I am in my studio by the sea in Barra.” The longest time Jackie remembers spending on a single creation was a pair of antique style five-arm, very ornate candelabras. “I just love detail.” She doesn’t know how long it took, but it was awhile. “The matching part was the hardest!” Jackie and Allan work as a team, he is the photographer, takes care of the bookkeeping, and makes small crates, boxes, and structural items. “We work well together,” Jackie says. “Allan is very funny, a bit of a joker. He also handles all of the details for selling on Ebay and works very well with buyers. He keeps the customers happy.”

In Edinburgh, Jackie has a workshop at the back of the house, but she particularly enjoys her studio by the sea in Barra. “I do so take pleasure in working there as the quality of light is second to none,” Jackie tells us. “Even so, the nosey chickens can be annoying when I forget to close the studio door and so can Mara when she wants attention.” It is easy for Jackie to obtain supplies from the craft stores with which to work when in Edinburgh. “There are plenty of local good ones.” She also shops on the Internet. They go down to the woods as a family to gather materials from Mother Nature. In Barra, Jackie has to make sure she has plenty of supplies onhand. There are no shops with proper materials on the island. It is a six hour boat journey to the nearest craft store on the mainland. “Although Barra has no trees, there are plenty of natural goodies--driftwood, seashells, wool, sand and pebbles,” Jackie says. “I make good use of them all.”

Email: a-wee-ooak@blueyonder.co.uk

 The full profile with a appeared in the January issue of Dolls House & MInaiture Scene and included a beautiful range of images of Jaqueline's projects.

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