Featured Artisan : MiniaturesMad

Kamila Dlugowolska has always seen making miniatures as playing, rather than her job.  This is probably because her love of dolls houses began when she was a child & she played with cardboard room boxes that she made at school or were given to her by her father.

Now things are different. Kamilla is an incredible miniature basket weaver, who began recreating things she loved in real size in 1:12 scale.  She learnt her skills by watching tutorials for full size weaving online.  She then adapted these techniques so they would work for a smaller size.

I developed my own technique of thread-dyeing because I had to find something that looked like wicker but was elastic enough to be used in a smaller scale.   

Kamilla Dlugowolska

Inspiration came from all around; magazines, newspapers, wicker shops, but Kamilla would then give them her MiniaturesMad style. Realism is key – she always makes sure proportions & scale are totally correct.

Her weaving is now a job which fits in perfectly with having a young family. She does not need a studio. She hand dyes her cotton threads in the kitchen in the evening or when her children are at school & because weaving with thread is a clean job, she can weave anywhere; at the kitchen table while listening to the radio, or sometimes in the living room in front of the TV. When the weaving is simple, her hands work by themselves. 

This enables her to spend a lot of time with her children who are not big enough to be left at home on their own. She can help them with their homework or play with them and work on something at the same time. 

Although she loves most parts of the process, there are some really boring tasks, like preparing the bases for pieces of furniture. First, she must cut the base shape from a piece of very thin plywood, then make loads of extremely tiny holes with a small jewellery awl and glue a piece of wire in every single hole. This makes her hands very tired & ache by the time she’s finished. Weaving is a manual craft & so her hands are her most important tool.

Kamilla is based in Italy.  You can see more of her wickerwork HERE.