Roby Sainsbury-Vale

Roby Sainsbury-Vale

Robin has not exhibited in a gallery situation before, she is one of our finds – her exquisite miniatures painstakingly created from a multitude of materials could be overlooked by any other than the most focussed eye.

Her attention to detail along with the whimsical tension created by her miniatures is a unique perspective into her world.

“It began back when you collected toys from cereal boxes- they were small and you had to put them together” says Roby Sainsbury-Vale, miniature art maker.
She describes her style as every day, with a twist. Her love of the macabre always comes into it, and you, as the viewer can make up your own story about the piece. “It’s my work, your imagination, and together they make a great tale.”

She has been creating these pieces for over ten years now. One of her favourite pieces is a diorama with a dark theme and central coffin that she made in memory of her friend who had died just months before.

She uses an unimaginable range of materials to create, have a workspace that looks like an overstuffed pillow. Putting them together takes place over a week or so. Sketching the idea, pattern making and material hunting, prototype, then finished piece. 

She is a member of a miniature organisation VAME, and along with others runs workshops a couple of times a year. She displays her diorama pieces at their annual show. It’s all about getting the scale right- if one part is out of scale it puts the whole piece off. The
smaller you go the more you can trick the eye, but attention to scale and detail is of the utmost importance to her.

Roby works for Vision Australia’s Feelix Library producing braille and tactile books for children who are blind. There is a huge crossover that compliments between work and my art. Miniatures feeds my imagination for creating pictures tactually, which in turn increases her hands-on skills for precise work.

Exhibitions featured in