Hazelcliffe Exterior |
Jane Leopold Quinn is both a romance author and a
crafter specializing in dollhouses and dollhouse miniatures. Today she joins us
to talk about her how she got started on her addictive hobby. Learn more about
Jane, her books, and her miniatures at her website. – AP
You’ve Never Lived Until You’ve Made Dozens of Tiny Green Leaves Out of Masking Tape, Wire, and Paint
by Jane Leopold Quinn
When I was four years old,
my dad built a dollhouse for me. It was probably a kit and wasn't to scale -
1inch to 1 foot is the traditional scale. The furniture was plastic and is all
long gone. My mother kept the dollhouse even through three moves, the last
being to my parents' retirement in Sun City West, Arizona.
Decades later, too many to
divulge, my husband and I visited my mother. I asked her if I could ship the
spinning wheel that had been my Swedish great grandmother's back to Chicago. It
had always been displayed in our homes, but was now in the garage. When I went
out to look at it, I spotted the dollhouse just sitting there. With the help of
UPS, I had both of them shipped back to me. I had no idea what I'd do with the
dollhouse but had to have it. Seeing it again gave me shivers and took years
off my life, alas not permanently.
Here in Chicago, we have two
of the most famous miniatures, the Thorne Rooms
at the Art Institute and Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry. And famous
dollhouses are located all over the world, including Queen Mary's
in Windsor Castle.
But this is the story of my
dollhouse and some of my other projects. I'll admit right off the bat that I'm
pretty good at creating the exteriors and interiors, but I'm not on the level
of the three houses I mentioned above. The important thing is that I'm proud of
my work, and I love doing it.
So begins my love affair
with all things miniature. At the time, I had no idea that miniatures were a
huge business and hobby for thousands of adults. I discovered shops that sell
miniature versions of anything and everything you'd find in a full size house,
from furniture to food. There are magazines, books, and websites with gorgeous
pictures of dollhouses of every style and historical period, as well as mail
order catalogues full of items to buy. Hobby Builders Supply
In restoring this house -
named Hazelcliffe because it sat on a stand overlooking the street we lived on
at the time, Hazel Street - I stuccoed the exterior in white, painted green
shutters, and bricked the outside chimney. The original was white with green
ivy painted around the windows, so I wanted to respect the original colors and
design. Then I went crazy on the interior.
The original had four rooms in
two stories, but I put one room on each floor. The first floor living room had:
·
Hardwood floors
·
I used a
combination of miniature wallpaper and card stock to look like murals for the
walls
·
The furniture is
pretty much standard dollhouse furniture - couch, chairs, tables
·
Fireplace mantle
·
Miniature
spinning wheel to commemorate the real one in our home
·
Grandfather
clock to commemorate the real one my husband built in his younger days
·
Lace curtains made
from my great grandmothers' crocheted doilies
On the second floor, I created a library/den:
·
Bookshelves, of
course, with books
·
The pièce de résistance
is a miniature of Pride and Prejudice
with abridged text and drawings by Barbara Raheb
·
Roll top desk
·
Couch, chair,
and ottoman along with side tables
·
Leather chest I
bought in Stratford, England
·
Both rooms, as
all my rooms do, have coffee cups or wine glasses on the tables along with a
book or plate of cheese and crackers or pastries
This began my world wide
search for miniature pieces for my house and soon-to-be-built room boxes. Some
pieces are expensive, some aren't, but every piece is in a specific spot for a
specific reason and most have sentimental value as reminders of my travels. Examples,
in case any of you are familiar with miniatures, are:
·
Native American
horsehair and pottery pieces from Arizona and the Grand Canyon
·
Betsy McCall
mini paper dolls (remember her?)
·
Hand painted
sleigh bed and armoire by Sharon Wildstein
·
Bronze
roadrunner statue by Daniel Kronberg from Sedona (3/4")
·
Sterling silver
wedding vase from Sedona(1-1/4")
·
High Society
statue by Randall Zader (3/4")
·
Bluebird on
driftwood sculpture (like Boehm) by Barbara Ann Meyer (1/2")
·
Swarovski
crystal train set (5/8")
·
Morning Singer,
a Navajo Kachina (2")
·
Various plates -
Stokesay Ware of London, Blue Wedgewood, and others
Building and decorating
miniatures became an obsession. I dragged my husband to miniature shows in the
suburbs, we went into every miniature shop I could find wherever we traveled. I
was in my own kind of holy land whenever I found something tiny that I could
use. You don't have to spend lots of money or even any money.
You can make lampshades from
creamer containers from restaurants. Flower pots from toothpaste tops,
furniture from twigs I picked up from the ground in Lincoln Park. I bought a
whole bag of grout just so I could brick the chimney on Hazelcliffe and put
down a slate floor for a patio.
The Verandah |
I carried a handmade five
inch ruler in my billfold to easily pull out to measure something (you didn't
need much more than five inches since the tallest piece of mini furniture was probably
6 inches). Because of my non-existent mathematical abilities, I had sizes and
their fractional equivalents on the other side. A 3 inch tall chair would be a 3
foot tall chair in real life. That's easy to figure out. What's harder to
figure out is a sculpture that is 3/4 inch tall in miniature would be 9 inches
in real life. Puts my math skills to work! And
I thought I'd never use algebra again in adult life. Yeah, sure…
You may notice that I name
every project.
Two examples of Havens by Jane
Havens are a little vignette
of a comfy chair and a table inside a small basket. They're a cozy setting to
curl up and read while snacking on wine and cheese or cookies and milk. Each
Haven also has a plant and a dog or cat. In fact, all my houses and rooms have
a dog. I was always on the lookout for cute small baskets -- and I still am.
Canyon Verde Ranch |
Several years ago, I spotted
an announcement from the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois, a contest
for the best container garden, the first prize a trip to England. My juices
were flowing. I bought a large basket and created Canyon Verde Ranch. Three
kinds of teeny cacti were planted in half the basket, the other half was the
patio. Kidney beans are the cobbled stone floor, chairs were made with jasmine
twigs, additional cacti made from clay, and some other purchased art items. I
still don't know why I didn't win.
Once you enter into the
miniature world, you're hooked. In our small condo, we have dollhouses and room
boxes all over, on stands, hanging on the wall. We finally covered the front
openings with Plexiglas so that I didn't have to dust the interiors, not that I
did that very often.
Instead of going on and on about
my projects, I thought I'd just show you some of my other others.
Blue Porch |
Rose Colored Cottage |
Uptown Theatre Gallery |
My husband has been my cheerleader,
helpmeet, woodworking teacher, and very importantly, my electrician through all
this. Many of my rooms have floor and table lamps, wall sconces, and
chandeliers - all electrified. He also built me a huge worktable in our second
bedroom that is more than large enough for projects and supplies. And I'm not
alone in my own collections of dollhouses and life-size books, figurines, and
art pieces. He collects chiming clocks, and we have eight in the living/dining
room. So both of us understand how our interests and collections enrich our
lives. I also love to design silk flower arrangements.
As this blog, Killer Crafts
& Crafty Killers, attests, authors aren't just writers. The creative bug
has burrowed down deep inside us, and we wouldn't shake it out even if that
were possible. You can see more of my mini projects here. As you'll probably
note, I also write sensual romance novels, novellas, and short stories.
14 comments:
Thanks so much, Anastasia, for the chance to show my mini work. I haven't worked on anything for a while, and this whets my appetite to pick up the mini tool again.
I LOVE this Jane. So creative to use common things to make miniatures out of. Kidney bean cobblestones! That's brilliant. I never would have thought of that. It's very cool to see this side of you. :)
Thanks, Rose. Sometimes I walk around focusing on tiny things when I should be looking up at the world.
So interesting. My daughter also has a love of creating small things ever since childhood. She'd take the green twist ties from the grocery store and create people and furniture with them.
She moved into making diaramas and even today as a senior in high school has a collection of boxes to hold her creations, just in case she get's an idea.
It's something you're born with, I think. Creativity comes in all forms.
That's great about your daughter. Yes, minis can take over your life and it's a good thing they're small for storage purposes. ;-)
My dad was a painter and wood worker. I always thought I didn't have any artistic talent until I found out I did.
Thanks for coming by, Lynn.
Wonderful hobby, Jane. Thanks for sharing. I dare not go there or I'd never get any writing done!
That's the problem, Linda. I want to "go there", but I feel guilty enough over time I spend away from writing. Also, we have no room for more room boxes. Of course, I could go into 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch scale. I also like using unusual items for the Havens. I have something that looks like a Moroccan lantern that I want to make into an exotic little room.
Wow! Just, wow! You amaze me on so many levels, Jane. Thanks for sharing the images and stories about your hobby. Can't wait to see the Moroccan lamp/room.
*hugs*
~JD
Oh, Lordy, now I'll have to create it. ;-)
Wow, that's such amazing detail to get from common items!
Imagine being at your favorite breakfast restaurant and grabbing creamers, empty creamers. ;-) We have a friend who has a train set in his basement. There is absolutely no landscaping on it. My fingers are itching to add trees, bushes, grass, and flowers.
What a delightful hobby you have, Jane. Hazelcliffe is a treasure. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of your lovely creations.
Thanks, Gemma. Hazelcliffe has price of place in our living room.
This is awesome Jane. I love the world you created. Thank you for sharing it with us!
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