Miniatura

​Nathalie Mori lives in the South of France, near Marseille and is looking forward to exhibiting at the Miniature Show in October for the first time. She will be bringing along her realistic dolls, dolls clothing, doll’s wigs and other beautiful and authentic-looking items.

She has loved dolls houses since childhood, recalling having a dolls house which she played with every day. She says, “When I grew up, I tried to reproduce what I had in the dollhouse that my mother got rid of thinking I was too old to keep it!”

She has been involved in miniatures, making things from scratch since her 20s, but really discovered miniature work in 2003 when she visited a miniature’s show for the first time. From here she met other artisans, bought some kits and began making her own items for those dolls houses.

“I work on my own and make a lot of mistakes,” adds Nathalie. “I also took classes to learn some techniques and I also buy a lot of books and videos to train myself. Then I practise a lot – nearly every day, to improve and to make my work as realistic as possible.”

She has been really interested in making dolls since 2009. “I love to costume them as accurately as possible, to add little details that make them come alive. I also sculpted my own dolls but it’s a very long process to me. I’m happy to make some dolls on commission for customers and I’m happy to make them for me as well.”

Her work has been featured numerous times in the American Miniaturist magazine, and on her website she has a number of step-by-step projects for people to follow.

The hobby of dolls houses and miniatures isn’t as popular in France as it is in the UK and other parts of the world, and a club that Nathalie was in for almost 10 years has now ceased, but she does belong to Dana Burton (USA) Minidolls. She also exhibits at Kensington and other shows in France.

On the build up to her first Miniatura show in 2019 Nathalie said “I feel really excited about this, I was looking to come to Miniatura for quite a few years, but never took time to schedule the event in. But this year is the year! I keep checking the website and I love all the artisans who will be at the show.”

​Article by Ann Evans