It's not just doll's play for some collectors

By Vico Lee
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004, Page 19

Lai Wan-yi's Gourd Workshop won top prize in the Fourth Doll's House Competition. PHOTO COURTESY OF MINIATURE MUSEUM OF TAIWAN

The annual Doll's House Competition (娃娃屋創作比賽), organized by the Miniature Museum of Taiwan (袖珍博物館), showcases the best works of a growing number of amateur miniature artists in the country.

This year, the theme "dream workshop" has attracted a record number of entries. In the museum's current exhibition of winning works, 45 visualize the workplace of their dreams.

To encourage the use of different media in creating doll's houses, the museum has admitted only multi-media works in this year's competition. "We are happy to see there were so many submissions and they are also of the highest quality. The art of doll's house creation is finally taking off," said Lin Wen-ren (林文仁), founder of the museum.

Contestants interpreted the meaning of "workshop." There are outdoor farming areas, kitchens, a butcher's shop and even wedding dress boutiques.

Lai Wan-yi (賴宛宜), winner of the gold prize, said that her Gourd Workshop is the model of her dreams. Since childhood, the daycare center arts teacher has wanted to have her own garden from which she can collect herbal nutrients to make all kinds of health products.

Second-place Lin Tzi-wei 's Dream Space coffee house is modeled on a real building. PHOTO COURTESY OF MINIATURE MUSEUM OF TAIWAN

"I made all the components in this doll's house by hand, because it is 1:24 in proportion to real size, ready-made parts on the market would not fit. The most difficult part was making the beans in the garden. They are really tiny," Lai said, pointing to some green beads on the model which the naked eye could hardly distinguish.

Exhibition Notes: The exhibition of the winners of the fourth doll's house competition will run through June 20 at the Miniature Museum of Taiwan, B1, No. 96, Jiankuo N Rd, Sec 1, Taipei (台北市建國北路一段 96 號 B1).

Insisting using real gourd for the gourd shape house in the model, Lai faced another challenge -- designing and fitting out the furniture and floors in an asymmetrical structure. After many attempts, Lai managed to make the floorboards fit the shape of the gourd and even installed extendable ladders.

All kinds of imagined concoctions are laid out on the table and books with real pages fill the shelves. Lai even bought and disassembled a microscope to make a miniature microscope, which has all the main components of the real thing.

Winner the silver prize Lin Tzi-wei (林子偉), last year's gold winner, has already realized his dream of owning a coffee house and has recreated his Dream Space coffee house in Ilan. Lin said that the model has exactly the same simply and tastefully furbished interior, and idyllic exterior. Lin modeled his work after his coffee house because he wasn't sure how long it would last. "But the doll's house will last forever," he said.

The attention to architectural details make his work stand out from other exhibits. It's also one of the few doll's houses with human figures, which Lin made with resin-added papier-mache.

Bronze-prize Wang Bao-ching (王寶慶) is one of the youngest winners. His antique shop is highly realistic, with graying front doors and a variety of delicate artifacts.