Tee Pee Crafts review in Dolls House and Miniature Scene
(Issue 91 - January 2002)
Reproduced with the kind permission of Warners Group Publications PLC and the article author Nicholas Corder.

Individualised, elaborate fire screen

ony and Pat Eley say that they could well be unique on the Dolls house scene. They don’t say this because they are boastful but simply as a matter of fact.

The reason they say this is that at Tee Pee Crafts they don’t actually make anything themselves from scratch. What they do is source all the important bits and pieces that collectors want to personalise their furniture and houses. Tony and Pat came into miniatures quite by accident. They had been making jewellery boxes from goose eggs and clocks from ostrich eggs for over 20 years. In fact they were so successful that they appeared twice on TV, once locally and once on Richard and Judy. Then a friend persuaded them to go to a dolls house fair ‘just to see’. I realised that I could quite legitimately
Marble topped table with a fruit bowl, lamp, trinkets, and a dish of liqorice.
relive my childhood again and have another dolls house. I loved my dolls house when I was a girl. But we moved when I was 12 years old and, of course, I was ‘too old for dolls’ at that age. We had one less thing to move and the little girl opposite gained a dolls house.
  Miniatures seemed to be their next logical step.
  They have been selling to miniaturists for years but scaled-up the operation, if you’ll pardon the expression, about five years ago.
  When Tony and Pat started the company Tony was a coachbuilder and Pat worked as a Youth Worker and Welfare Assistant in a special school unit.
  Then came along what they thought
Table lamp 		was going to be an exciting opportunity. A craft village was being opened - to be called Britannia Park - a showcase for British crafts. They could give up their ‘real’ jobs and become full time craft suppliers.
  Unfortunately the craft village closed almost before it was opened and became a theme park - so it wasn’t to be. However, having gone so far down the full-time, self-employed route they decided to close their eyes and jump anyway. That was 14 years ago.
  And we haven’t looked back. In fact we haven’t had time to look back!
  They have travelled far and wide and met a wide variety of interesting and talented people but they also think it’s turned them into workaholics.


Fancy some Filigree?

  One area of specialism is filigree -those tiny (and tinier still) pieces of metal decoration.
  These filigrees can be painted to look like anything from plaster to carved wood. They currently stock around 500 lines from doorplates, bows, crosses and dragonflies to lampshades big enough for a standard lamp and pieces large enough to form part of a ceiling in relief.
  On one occasion, a well-known company phoned up to see if they had anything in stock that would pass as a one-inch feather to decorate some railings. Pat is inordinately proud that they were able to meet such a request immediately - with a one-inch feather!
  We are constantly amazed by how inventive many of the best miniaturists can be, says Pat. Sometimes we’ve admired an object only to be told that elements of it have come from us.
  More and more people are seeing the possibilities of using filigree, beads and crystals to make chandeliers. Tony and Pat are keen to encourage miniaturists to be bold with their products and to see their possibilities for use in ceilings, fireplaces, ornate furniture and lighting. Amateur


Assorted filligrees


For Mummy's bedroom

Love is in the air
Individualised elaborate fire screen

Side table with figures, lamp, and perfume bottles

miniaturists should experiment and be prepared to get things wrong. And why not? Whenever I interview miniaturists for DHMS, a constant recurring theme is that they seldom get things right to begin with. If they do, they feel as though it’s a miracle. Many are very scathing about their earliest efforts.


  Fiddlier than Filigree?
  As if all this filigree were not fiddly enough, they also stock over 250 transfers. All of these are ceramic transfers which can be fired in a kiln but can also be used to embellish furniture, walls or boxes.
  Pat says that one of her best sellers at the moment is an extensive range of metal castings which includes rattles, figurines, perfume atomisers, shoes, boots and squirrels (yes, squirrels) and 1/24th scale

furniture. What’s more they will be extending this range this year to include another 40 or so pieces.

  In addition they sell resin figures, including tiny Nativity sets. Their catalogue goes on to list the tinniest crystals you’ve ever seen together with silk ribbon, braid, paints, glues and glue bottles.
  I suppose one of the advantages of selling this type of stock is that it is so small so storage problems are not as big as they could be. But can you imagine what it’s like trying to retrieve some of these items from the back of the seftee.
  One of Tee Pee’s exciting developments is the showcasing of a brand new range of white resign figurines, busts, pillars and plinths. These have been difficult to source as they are only available from a



Just some ideas of how the filligrees can enhance your furniture


More highly elaborate filligrees

very limited range of outlets. Pat has a wonderful bust - of Queen Victoria - in her dolls house parlour. As well as the 1/12th scale they will also be introducing an exclusive range of 1/24th scale figurines, which they hope, will be the first of many.
  Although Tony and Pat are always looking to enhance the range that they sell, at the same time they also pay a lot of attention to ensuring that their customers get a first class service. Wherever possible they try to despatch orders within 24 hours. They have a tried and tested system for ordering, which is outlined in their catalogue, which covers postal charges, discounts, anything that is out of stock or damaged goods and anything else you can think of besides. The current catalogue runs to 69 pages - at least half of which are filled


A dragonfly and butterflies

with pictures of what you can buy. One of the most useful things in the catalogue is that a lot of the items are reproduced as actual size.
  As you can imagine the catalogue takes quite some time to put together and originally Tony and Pat produced a catalogue every year. For reasons of there not being enough hours in a day they have managed to switch to producing a catalogue every two years or so.
  They buy from literally dozens of sources worldwide and so the mammoth task of compiling the catalogue every year was just too much. Of course, this has benefits for the customer as they try to maintain their prices during the lifetime of a catalogue and they usually manage to run a continuous line for at least the two years, often much longer.
  However, Tony and Pat are, of course, moving into the bright age of gleaming technology with the help of their eldest son (also a Tony). As a computer programmer he has been responsible for their excellent web site. Do go in and look at the site - one Dutch server voted it ‘Web Site of the Month’. Why waiters in the Netherlands should vote on these things is beyond me!
  For those of you with the right equipment you can now get the catalogue on CD. As Pat says, the ideal situation is for the customer to have the catalogue (which is currently in black and white) and then go to the CD or Web Site to see the colours. This can be especially useful, of course, for the items such as transfers. It may be that their next catalogue will be in part-colour -just a little job to keep them busy in any spare moments they might have.
Time with the Family
  Fourteen years on from taking the plunge into becoming craft suppliers on a full-time basis, do Tony and Pat have any regrets?
  In terms of the wonderful people we’ve met - not one bit of it. And we love the work. Sometimes, they admit that they may work a little too hard. They not only deal with mail order, but also attend at least two or three craft fairs every month and keep up the egg-craft side of the business.

  We do regret that we don’t have more time for the grandchildren (they have eight now). We are on a bit of a roundabout of making every minute count.
  I have no doubt as the grandchildren get older, they’ll be wanting to help out. In the meantime, Tony and Pat are happily circling on the roundabout. Who needs sleep anyway?
  Tee Pee Crafts - Tony and Pat Eley 28 Holborn Drive, Mackworth, Derby DE22 4DX
  Tel 01332 332772 Fax 01332 371906 Email Tony&pat@teepeecrafts.co.uk Web-site www.teepeecrafts.co.uk Tee Pee produce an enormous catalogue, which cost £2.00 plus 80p for p&p. Once you’ve bought one catalogue subsequent updates are free. This must have proved good value for money as the last catalogue was distributed to around 8,000 customers.
Cherub stand with plant in pot.