Русский 
English Kensington Dollshouse Festival
Or read this in Russian
I finally got back from London, actually it was Thursday flight back, I missed my baby girl so much, that I decided to take a break and spend some quality time with her. Next week will be only about family, so I won’t be posting much except my impressions from KDF.
It was my first time in London at all, my first miniature show, so I was very nervous and excited at the same time. I also wanted to visit several museum, but I guess this post won’t be about it, some other time. First of all, there won’t be lots of photos – I was busy at my table, then when I had a chance to see other artisans’ tables – it was the last thing on my mind. Besides, photos won’t show the real beauty, you have to see it personally.
I arrived on Friday – before my trip I made lots of boxes for my pieces, at first I was thinking of making them with plywood, they all were supposed to be laser cut. But all I had at the moment was MDF – turned out it was a real good choice. Everything arrived safely in two suitcases. I had only 17 boxes, not much but at the moment I had no idea 🙂
I have only one photo in my Instagram of the boxes before gluing them.
I ordered three sizes – all the pieces were divided accordingly.
Among my stuff – I decided to take this little shadowbox with me, I love it so much, I made some changes, it’s a lovely old porch.
I also reupholstered my art nouveau chairs, now that’s better!
I had only two suitcases – so the shelves and lights were not an option for me. So the boxes were supposed to be my shelves. I think I thought that the building interior lights would be similar with what I used to have in Russia – usually it’s quite bright, so you don’t have to bring anything, just shelves.
I bought some fabric too – quite dark brown velvet and grey cotton, I wish I bought something lighter in color. I made some sort of arrangement in my kitchen.
There were so many things to do – business cards, price tags, etc, my first show in several years.
So on Saturday I thought everything was perfect. The unloading began at 8 am, but I arrived later as I didn’t have much stuff with me. My table was at the lower foyer, it turned out to be quite dark place with no windows. Actually it was very dark, I needed some lamps badly. My neighbors (lovely people, later about them) were unloading too,they had lots, no, LOTS of items. Fantastic equipment – great acrylic shelves, lights, everything. And here I am, with 17 boxes, grey fabric and no lamps.
I decided to take a lamp from reception above, they had couple left – small IKEA one and another a bit bigger, I tried to fix them in different ways – no luck, it looked awful to be honest. So I gave up, no lamps then, I thought.
After unloading I went through the central hall and upper foyer. As I understood – the most acclaimed and famous were supposed to be in the central hall, the rest and the newbies – lower and upper foyer. Quite reasonable I think. Others tables were fantastic as well, here was the start of my panic -I had this idea in my mind that everything I made was wrong, and my tabled was the worst one (I think it was in the end:))
Before the festival was open – KDF loyalty card holders were allowed to the tables. At the time there was a huge line outside the town hall. That’s how the day started.
I think lower foyer is not the most perfect place – I don’t mean the lights here, but there were many visitors who had difficulties with all the stairs, and there were lots of them, so the main crowd gathered in the central hall I think.
At the beginning I had an impression that the place was huge, it turned out to be quite cozy.
Well, enough for today, more tomorrow…