Over the past 20 years the Ipswich Mini Crafters have put together a street scene that can no longer be duplicated in our town due to redevelopment and repurposing. Founded in the 1840s, Ipswich doesn’t have the depth of history of the namesake cities in the UK or the USA, but we did, and do still have, some of the buildings that our forefathers built, replicating the architecture predominately of the United Kingdom.
In a streetscape put together over the years by the Mini Crafters, we have replicated: our original Town Hall - now the Ipswich Art Gallery, the Post Office, one of our original banks - The National Bank of Australasia built in the late 1870s and now an Indian Restaurant, the Ulster Hotel built in 1911, the Fire Station - of memorable proportions built in 1920 but demolished in the early 1960s, Cribb & Foote - a prominent department store that began business in Ipswich in the early 1850s and was one of the largest businesses in Ipswich for many years until it burnt down in 1985, and numerous old shops from the early twentieth century.
The streetscape has proved a ‘hit’ with the Ipswich community, and has been displayed in many venues over the years. One of the most successful of these displays was at the Ipswich Libraries’ Central Library. Displayed outside the Viva Cribb Local History Resource Room, it added an extra dimension to the collection and helped give an added meaning to the ‘Resource Room’. The Post Office, Town Hall and Fire Station are on permanent display in the Room.
One of the prominent architects of the late 1800s and early 1900s in Queensland was George Brockwell Gill. He designed many buildings in Ipswich, and one of his most impressive that still stands in Ipswich today is the Congregational Sunday School, now the Ipswich Antique Centre. Built in the late 1800s, as the most “impressive Sunday School in Queensland”, it is one of the many impressive buildings by the architect. To celebrate the Heritage Festival in Ipswich the Ipswich Antique Centre will display the streetscape, and this year the Antique Centre building will be part of the display.
This has been an epic task, and a lot more involved than the miniaturist originally thought. It was a good idea at the time; however, the building is quite large and complex. Under the guidance of our Mini Crafter mentor and guiding light, Allan Lindup, this impressive building is now taking shape.
There were a couple of hurdles to overcome. The sheer size of the building meant the front façade is wide, and just the logistics of transporting the construction to the Club venue is a mission!
There are 13 windows in the front façade of the building, so lots of jig sawing and fret sawing. It was decided to cut the window frames as one, rather than individual frames. Whether this was the best option is open for debate, but it appears to have worked.
The portico has ten window outlets and decoration on each one. The windows on the modern building are frosted, finding a material that could replicate the look, was a challenge. We finally found some opaque hard plastic used in the workings of printing machines.
Ensuring the bricks are the right colour and size has been challenging. Brockwell Gill had a liking for the Double Flemish bond style of brickwork, one brick long ways and one on its end alternating. This meant there were no bricks on Pinterest that we could use. Photographing the bricks and finding a printer that would print the colour we needed has proved to be another challenge. Fortunately, one of the Mini Crafters has mastered the colour after much photographing and manipulating of the prints, and the distinctive pattern of the brickwork. Ensuring we kept to the detail of the building, there were also the stone coloured bricks that had to be worked into the finished building.
As can be seen in the photo, there is also a large portico on the front of the building. This alone has proven another test for our members with the window outlets, lanterns and interior doors. The two leadlight narrow windows at the front doors also needed to be replicated.
Since the building has quite a large expanse of roof, the colour needed to be copied as closely as possible. There is quite a bit of rust and weathering so lots of colour checking once again.
To sum up; The miniaturist who ‘came up with the idea’ had no idea how involved this project would be! She has concentrated on the windows, and doors. Another miniaturist has taken on the bricks and ensuring the scaling is as close to correct as can be, and our mentor, Alan, has saved the day, doing the fiddly wood work and window decorations and the front portico that adds so much to the building. This project needs to be completed by 6th April. We will see about including a completed photo in our next article to appear in the August edition of Dolls House and Miniature Scene. By Sally Hetherington
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