.Toys in Miniature: Frances Armstrong
.Borrowers scenes page 2
A scene I made from The Borrowers Aloft (not for sale). In this story Mary Norton tells how the Clock family are kidnapped and kept in an attic while a model village is built to showcase them. Using information gleaned from an Illustrated London News, the family build a gas-filled balloon and escape.
In this picture they are opening the window latch. Pod is at the top of the string ladder they have made, Homily is steadying the ladder at the bottom, and Arrietty holds the end of the string attached to the latch.
Every detail is taken from the book. Mary Norton's descriptions are wonderful.
Timmus climbing. In The Borrowers Avenged Timmus lives in a church with a famous roodscreen which he loves to climb. Roodscreens are rather large even in 1/12 scale, but I carved these dragons (based on an old ecclesiastical carving) as a kind of practice wall for my miniature TImmus to practise on
The carving, in cedar, is not for sale, but Fimo castings are available for $10 (plus $10 if you want Timmus).
"Upside down," a scene showing Arrietty looking with alarm at Timmus, who is hanging by the knees from a vine. Arietty has been having lunch with her friend Peagreen is his newly-renovated birdhouse.
You have to look hard to find the borrowers in this picture. They camouflage themselves well.
This scene is in 1/12 scale--the bricks, for instance, are 3/4 inch long. The borrowers are appropriately half an inch high, like the others on these pages.
The scene is housed inside a "book" with a cover that slides off, and is also available in a box frame. It costs $40 in either case.
This page was last updated on: February 4, 2002
