Myrtle Twitchett’s ‘For the Birds’
Although one doesn’t often associate witches with a love of birds, if you visit Rathole County, you will undoubtedly pass by Biddy Myrtle Twitchett’s road side bird house and bird feed stand. It’s over on the Beasely Road near to where the Doddleworth Brook crosses under it. Her stand proves irresistible, not only for witches but for common folk for miles around. Over the past thirty years, Myrtle has crafted every imaginable sort of bird, bat, and butterfly house and bird feeder to satisfy every taste. The little houses are not solely painted with colors of the Halloween palette but with whatever colors Myrtle found satisfying at the time. The feeders include tube, nectar and suet feeders. As she wiles away the time waiting for customers, Biddy Twitchett sets a board on her lap filled with bird seed to attract her feathered friends. As they wait their turn to alight on the board, they also land on her hat, which delights her to no end.
This miniature scene began when two friends and lovers of miniatures, Eleanor Kilham and Leslie Penrose, got together to make minis. They call themselves ‘The Mini Gabbers’ as they keep up a steady banter while crafting their mini wonderments. They decided to make a batch of bird houses and bird feeders and, for three or four sessions (of six hours apiece), they crafted little houses and feeders from kits and bits of this and that – including but not limited to strips of balsa wood, plastic straws, dollhouse roof shingles, buttons, scraps of trim, straight pins, decals, grape vine, acorns, wee dowels and the like. They steadily amassed enough bird-related items to open their own mini road stands.
Gluing together two strips of vertically placed popsicle sticks to create a fence on which the items could be hung, or glued, the next part of the scene to be procured was the base. They settled on a slice of a tree trunk (available at craft stores; this one, Michael’s) and then painted it with a mixture of green, and brown acrylic paints to look like grass. To display some of the wee houses, an unfinished shelf was glued to the popsicle stick fence. Eleanor enlisted Toni Malin of Smallsorts Dolls (UK) to create a bird-loving witch doll to round out the scene. The rest is history!
Read MoreThis miniature scene began when two friends and lovers of miniatures, Eleanor Kilham and Leslie Penrose, got together to make minis. They call themselves ‘The Mini Gabbers’ as they keep up a steady banter while crafting their mini wonderments. They decided to make a batch of bird houses and bird feeders and, for three or four sessions (of six hours apiece), they crafted little houses and feeders from kits and bits of this and that – including but not limited to strips of balsa wood, plastic straws, dollhouse roof shingles, buttons, scraps of trim, straight pins, decals, grape vine, acorns, wee dowels and the like. They steadily amassed enough bird-related items to open their own mini road stands.
Gluing together two strips of vertically placed popsicle sticks to create a fence on which the items could be hung, or glued, the next part of the scene to be procured was the base. They settled on a slice of a tree trunk (available at craft stores; this one, Michael’s) and then painted it with a mixture of green, and brown acrylic paints to look like grass. To display some of the wee houses, an unfinished shelf was glued to the popsicle stick fence. Eleanor enlisted Toni Malin of Smallsorts Dolls (UK) to create a bird-loving witch doll to round out the scene. The rest is history!
