A MINIATURE world is alive and flourishing in East Surrey.
For 15 years, the Gatwick Dolls House Club has been oversubscribed, with a waiting list of people wanting to join. Every Saturday, more than 30 members meet in a church hall in Horley to learn and to create their tiny masterpieces.
"It is big business around the place," said chairman Marion Agate. "People have all sorts of hobbies, for us it's dolls' houses. I like the fun of doing it, of seeing what I can create."
An incredible model called the Gatwick Emporium, inspired by Horley institution, the Collingwood Batchellor department store, is the group's latest combined triumph.
There are 18 departments, the sales staff are just two inches tall, the shoes for sale are smaller than your little fingernail, and tiny flowers have every petal perfectly in place. And it's all constructed from whatever the craftsmen and women can lay their hands on.
"We salvage anything," said Mrs Agate, 75. "We are very enterprising. We make a lovely set of curtains out of a paper handkerchief.
"We make full miniatures of everything a 1/12th scale, or 1/24th. The smallest thing I have ever made is probably a bottle of nail varnish. There is a lot of patience involved."
The Gatwick group, which meets at Horley Methodist Church in Victoria Road, celebrates its 20th birthday this year.
"Fifty per cent of our members are retired but we do meet on a Saturday afternoon because we have some young girls and men who go to work," said Mrs Agate, who took up the hobby when she retired.
"Probably about 10 per cent of our members are men. They are very good with the woodwork side of things – and we help them with the sewing."
Magazine Dolls House World is set to feature the Gatwick Emporium in its pages in a future edition, but for now, 2013's project of gardens is getting off the ground.
Each member will create their own, from the lawns to flowers, bird tables and ponds. When finished and put together, they will form a street scene of unusually manicured gardens.
"It will be a bit like Chelsea [Flower Show]", said Mrs Agate.
