A big passion for little things: After 42 years, the Moncton Miniature and Doll Club closes its tiny doors

Doreen Johnson is renovating her living room to become a Victorian ballroom. It will have polished hardwood floors, antique furnishings, a chandelier and, in one corner, musical instruments.

But Johnson isn't thinking big with these plans.

She's thinking small. 

"If you can't have it in real life, make it in miniature," she said in an interview. 

For the last 40 years, Johnson has been doing exactly that. Her basement craft room is a tribute to all things measured in 1:12 scale. 

Among her extensive collection — a display of tiny tea sets, a lady's dressing room complete with handcrafted gowns and perfume bottles, and her pièce de résistance, a three-foot-high, fully electrified Victorian dollhouse. 

"You know you're never going to be able to afford it in real life, but you can create it in miniature," she said. "It gives you great satisfaction."

Sharing the hobby with others has been another point of satisfaction for Johnson. She's one of the longest serving members of the 42-year-old Moncton Miniature and Doll Club. It's there that she's also made lifelong friendship with people in New Brunswick and beyond who understood her passion. 

"You have that common interest," she said. "You also share those ups and downs in life, too."

Now, Johnson and other members are saying goodbye to a club that has enriched their lives for decades.

If a passion for dollhouses was the reason to keep the club going, Charlotte Vardy, who served as its last president, says it could go on forever.

However, an aging and dwindling membership and the work involved in organizing its annual show are why they decided the time was right to dissolve it. 

"I'm 76 and I'm the youngest," she said. "We'd look at each other in the middle of a show and say, 'We're too old to be doing this!'"

The Moncton Miniature and Doll Club was one of the longest-running hobby clubs in Atlantic Canada. Its most popular event has been its annual miniature show, which attracted vendors and hobbyists from across Atlantic Canada.