The annual Doll's House Competition (
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 (
PHOTO COURTESY OF MINIATURE MUSEUM OF TAIWAN
Contestants freely interpreted the meaning of "workshop." There are outdoor farming areas, kitchens, a butcher's shop and even wedding dress boutiques.
Lai Wan-yi (
"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.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MINIATURE MUSEUM OF TAIWAN
Insisting on 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 of the silver prize Lin Tzi-wei (
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 winner 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.
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