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If you're looking for an indoor pastime to enchant and beguile, take a peek into the world of miniatures. 👀
Miniatures are more than a foul-weather hobby or simply children’s playthings. Fine art miniatures grace the palaces of royalty. Fairy houses 🧚 have helped people navigate emotional stress. Miniatures have a role in sacred practice, too, as well as finding practical use in theater and architecture. 🔎
Making miniatures creates a sense of control and sharing those creations offers a way to connect with each other, both the young and young at heart. 💙
Sometimes life at scale is a lot to handle. 🤪 In folk history, miniature items were charms, imbued with magic to keep away evil. That cultural history continues today.Â
Whether it’s dollhouses or dioramas, fairy homes or fine arts, miniatures add curiosity and whimsy to the day-to-day. And while miniatures are an ever-expanding universe, we’ve identified a few points of entry to help you explore the world of miniatures. 🌎
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From folk craft to fine art, people the world around make, share and collect exquisite minuscule pieces for the thrill of the tiny and the delight of sharing them with others. Fine art miniaturist William Robertson talked about his journey in a 2017 TedxKC talk.Â
We’re lucky in Kansas City, home of The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures. The two-story museum is packed with over 86,000 objects, including historic toys, to enchant and spark the imagination. ✨
Getting started is easier than you think. The two most important requirements are creativity and patience. ⏳
If the idea of creating minute works of art seems daunting, try kits with specific projects, pieces of furniture, or entire scenes that you can either replicate or adapt to your aesthetic and abilities. Robertson shared his tools and techniques during T/m’s first “What’s On Your Workbench?” webinar.
đź“Ť National Museum of Toys and Miniatures: 5235 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri.
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| Finding the Right Project
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Maybe you made a diorama when you were in school? Using a small container, scraps of material at hand, adhesive and imagination, creating any sort of scene is the start of a fulfilling project. Don’t have any dolls? Populate your scene with whatever characters you have around, be they minifigs or dime store animals. 🧸
Have you always wanted an elaborate dollhouse? 🏡 It’s never too late. A retired Leawood couple has spent the last few years finishing a mini modern masterpiece. But if you aren’t particularly handy, you can use an old bookcase, making “rooms” out of each shelf.
Don’t have the space — or patience — for a project like that? Create a single room and display it on a bookshelf to add a conversation piece to your Zoom background. 💻
If you want to focus on individual pieces, instead of an entire environment, consider making your own cabinet of curiosities or shadow box, displaying your creations as objets d’art. Artists like Wolfe Brack are drawn to making tiny art because of the intimacy of work. 🖌️🤏
Keep at it and you may end up with an entire museum yourself, like artist Erika Nelson, who created and curates The World’s Largest Museum of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things in Lucas, Kansas. It's currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but add it to your post-COVID road trip itinerary. 🛣️
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Making miniatures is an introduction to a world of creators as curious as yourself, but they're also a way to connect with people you may never even meet.
While this doesn’t officially exist in Kansas City yet, tiny art shows and tiny art galleries seem like something our arts community is ripe for. 🎨 In Seattle, the Free Little Art Gallery opened in late 2020, taking a page from the Little Free Library movement with a “Take One, Leave One” policy.
Some folks craft small scenes in the crevices of urban life, along curbs and even inside vacant newspaper boxes. These tiny art moments spark serendipity and kindness in our overwhelmingly harsh urban world, knowing someone spent their time and energy just to add a little quirkiness to a passerby’s commute. 🥰
As the weather starts to warm up, you may be looking for an outdoor project. 🌞🌳 Fairy Houses offer a perfect way to add serendipity to someone’s day. In 2016, an Overland Park woman became the Gnomist, creating a “Firefly Forest” in the wooded path that ran behind her neighborhood. Her story was featured in an award-winning short film, though the houses are no longer on display.
While it might be enticing to buy materials for a Pinterest-worthy display, there’s a particular joy in using materials found in nature: Think bark, twigs, moss, stones, pine cones, acorns. 🌰
Modeling is also a huge hit with the miniature community and Kansas City is home to the Model Train Gallery in Union Station, where you can view 8,000 square feet created by volunteers. 🚂
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| Â More Adventures in Kansas City
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|  | Eddie Delahunt at Browne's Irish Marketplace
This Saturday at 1-4 p.m., Browne's Irish Marketplace is hosting an outdoor concert featuring Irish music by Eddie Delahunt. Check out more details online.
| |  | Meet the Experts: Hanna-Barbera
The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures is hosting a free live virtual discussion featuring longtime Hanna-Barbera collector Dr. Thomas Bradbeer. Tune in Sunday, March 14 at 2 p.m. to hear about his toy collection and learn how to preserve your own.
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Photo Credits:
1. Toymaker, 1986 | Arlyn Coad, Canadian | Courtesy of The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures.
2. Scott Miller | Twitter
3. The Gnomist
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