The theme for October is ‘Make Mine Mini’ and is a celebration of perfect miniature copies of something that exists in real life. These are the challenge entries that were submitted.
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From Lauren Rein:
I love all things Christmas, and I especially love pyramids. I have several I display every year. LOVED finding this kit from Robin Betterley. It was challenging to put together, but the end result was worth it. It even spins!
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From Laura Seibert:
For my favorite miniature copy of something that exists in real life, I am submitting two photos of the gingerbread house I bought from Lola Renner (of Lola's Originals). Lola's candies are The Best! I have been purchasing her one inch scale candies from her for a few years now. I've mostly purchased from her at the Lodi Show and Good Sam, here in California. I have bought some of her smaller candies, available on eBay. This gingerbread house I purchased from her at Chicago International in 2018, the Bishop Show. That was my only time at that Show (I was visiting a favorite cousin and her family). This gingerbread house completed my Christmas room box in one inch scale!
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From Cindy Bottasso:
My favorites are wood collecting furniture I found on Pinterest. No story I just thought they were cool.
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From Kathy Patrick:
I wanted to replicate my mom's rose garden in one of her pieces of china. I tried to put all the things that made her garden special to her like the wishing well, her dachshund, crossword puzzle, and cup of tea in her best china. This is my memory of her favorite place.
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From Preble McDaniel:
My other hobby is scrapbooking. I have started a miniature scene to depict scrapbooking. One of the tools I use are pens. This is my real life pen binder with the miniature I made just like it in the middle. It tickles me to see a smaller one just like real life.
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From Linda Grove:
I replicated this real life garden shed many, many years ago and scaled it down exactly in 1/12th scale. It measures 6" x 4". I also made the potting bench but all the accessories were bought. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the real one anymore as the company has stopped selling this version. I am very proud of it as it was the very first thing I built from scratch.
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From Debbie Colombo:
My daughter wanted to do something special for her friend after her son was born and asked me if I could recreate the babies room in miniature. Good thing the father was able to help with pictures. It was a big hit!
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From Terry Unnold:
It's really hard to just pick one thing to submit! Here's a victrola that I found that looks exactly like the one I inherited from my Grandfather's house. Of course his victrola came with a collection lots of rather ancient single sided 78 rpm records!
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From Jackie Browder:
Here is my submission of the October Challenge. This is a one inch reproduction of a vintage plant stand that I made a few years ago.
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From Preble McDaniel:
In the 1990’s a club member shared some decorator magazines. I fell in love with a nursery and wanted to do it. Well the walls anyway. I had a house kit by Bill Langford that I decided it would go in. The kit was not assembled so I painted the walls. Later when I did assemble, my one regret was that I didn’t plan for baseboard so a portion of the painted background is covered. But then I decided it didn’t matter as the furniture covers a good bit as well.
The furniture except the wee chair are kits by Pam Junk.
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From Pat Creagh:
This is my "real" mini, a pin cushion doll.
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From Patricia Diefenbach:
I have always loved Colonial Williamsburg and all things colonial. When my club decided on a room box as their project, I chose to replicate Charlton's Coffee House. While the layout of the room box is different and the space did not allow me to make it an exact replica, I tried my best to capture the essence of the original. It is one of my favorite projects ever. Lots of House of Miniatures kits. I designed and cut the cage bar using my Cricut maker and two layers of chipboard.
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From Carol Shea:
This is a replica of my daughters office/work space when she was a PA for the VA. I made all the items from kits except for the exam table. Mary Banner made that for me on request. The people are all railroad stock and it fits under a dome.
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From Kathryn Asbahr:
I am always on the lookout for something to duplicate in quarter scale. My favorites are the Traeger pink pig BBQ, the Patio which had a stove on one side and a grill on the other side and a room of whiskey barrel furniture based on a post on Retrorenovation. I am always up for a challenge.
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From Janie Kocman:
Small 1/12 scale violin with leather case and bow.
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From Brandi Bacon:
The first isn't quite done. It is the Bippiddy Bippiddy Boutique at Disneyland. We take my kids there and my mom makes them beautiful costumes. This is sooooo close to the actual shop and Boutique. When making the costumes for the store I actually used some ribbons and bits from costumes she made my kids!
The Santa Clause House is almost identical to some of its iterations. I've flown neices and nephews, friends and family, and finally my own children to North Pole Alaska to meet the REAL Santa. This tiny mint tin houses the scene that we saw on one of our trips.
Finally, my daughter decided at 7 she wanted to be President of the United States and she was going to get there by first being a teacher, then judge, then POTUS. This is the Supreme Court courtroom with all of the female Justices there have ever been. They are all looking down at my daughter- a future SCOTUS Justice and she is holding a copy of the constitution.
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From Rhonda Williamson:
This is a near replica of my work area in a Metallurgical Laboratory. Except it’s much cleaner! I incorporated several NAME kits and duplicated the analysis equipment on the table to represent the daily materials property testing that I conduct.
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From Julia Greenhalf:
Did I see somewhere that during October we’ve been asked to send photos of a real life scene? If so, here’s my contribution. My husband used to be a obstetrics and gynae consultant and I made this as “present” for his retirement. I was lucky that one of the consultants was fascinated by my miniatures and when we went to the farewell dinner with his colleagues, I was allowed to present this. John was really surprised that I’d been beavering away on this and his colleagues, non miniaturists, were fascinated so it made it all worth while. There are a couple of personal touches - the baguette on the mantlepiece as he loves bread, and the photo of our boat.
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From Barbara Antol:
For the past few years, I have been making quarter scale replicas of various rooms at the cat shelter where I volunteer. These items are donated for the shelter’s annual fundraiser auction and I’m happy to say they always do very well. They’re unique and friends of the shelter love them. This one happens to be my favorite. I used one of Karen Benson’s quarter scale room box kits as the starting point and customized the interior to represent “The Back Room” of the shelter. I stained the exterior of the box using a redwood stain to match the actual shelter building’s exterior. The back room has always been one of my favorite parts of the shelter. It is a special place where the quieter, more timid kitties reside. The main room is a free-range area, but on the sides, there are little enclosures for cats with special dietary or medical needs and also a larger enclosure for the FIV+ cats. I had to custom build the staircase and enclosure walls using tiny scale lumber and used tulle fabric to simulate the fencing on the enclosures. I took photos looking out the shelter windows and used those as the backdrop for the windows. The room box is lit using a couple small LED bulbs. An especially fun part of the project was recreating the feline residents of the Back Room in miniature. I repainted a vaniety of tiny cat figures from mini-gems and Laughing Crowe Laser along with Bachmann O & HO gauge train figures. The HO scale figures worked great as kittens. I also made little toys, plates of food, bags of Temptations cat treats and pillows/beds. This fun project took close to a month to complete. It was a labor of love to support a shelter that I love.
I’ve included one photo of a portion of the actual shelter room as well as a few photos of the project (first photo below).
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From Carolyn Eiche:
The following are 2 photos of my toy shop made in a wall hanging cabinet in 1998. The first is a photo of the full shop. The second photo is a close-up of a few of the Fisher Price toys I have inside. They were made by Cathy Ellis O'Brian in the mid to late 90's.
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From Kathy Koons:
My submission is rather simple, but it is something I love, The small bowl is as close to a perfect replica of the large silver bowl as I've ever had. What I love about it is that the silver bowl was a wedding gift that resided on our glass and aluminum etagere for years and I keep the small bowl on a similar etagere in my 1/12 scale house. (I got tired of polishing the large one and replaced it with a similar one in pewter, that, ironically, was given to us as a wedding gift by the sister of the woman who gave us the silver one. I keep my wedding bouquet, which was made of silk flowers, in the bowl.)
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From Gwen Cargill:
Here is a 1/4” scale kitchen table and chair set I made from scratch. I used wire, wood, fabric and a little gloss black paint on the leg tips.
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From Dia Crissey-Baum:
I don’t really know how well it fits into the category of making something “real” into something mini, but I did my best to replicate the Hatter’s house from Alice: Through the Looking Glass movie. I rented the movie several times and made some screen shots of the interior shots as well as the front of the house. (poor me, had to look at all those pictures of Johnny Depp…) Only the bottom two floors and the front of the exterior show up in the movie, so I got to make up the rest! The top hat pattern came from a guy who makes some really cool cosplay props from craft foam and PVC pipe. His website is called Lost Wax (https://www.lostwaxoz.com/). I made almost everything from scratch in the house, except for the bathroom fixtures, and a few things from kits (including a few I bought from Debbie Young) to finish it off. The mad tea party in the dining room (one of the rooms that wasn’t in the movie, so I got to make it up however it looked right to me) was actually what started my mini kit-making business. Five tables and fifteen chairs, plus some other furniture thrown in.
I was able to finish it during the pandemic, and was honored to have it featured in the Jan/Feb 2021 Gazette! I have a lot of pictures of it, but I’m sending you the ones that show the parts you can see best in the movie. (The first pic is one from the movie, just for comparison. I couldn’t find many interior shots online, unfortunately!)
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From Gwen Cargill:
I made this postcard stand with wire, a wooden bead and dowel, then filled it with postcards of Cape Cod, MA that I reduced on the copier. It sits on the countertop of my 1” scale seaside bakery.
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From Marilyn Ferkinhoff:
This is a 1 inch scale miniature of my front porch.
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From Kelle Risoli:
Here are 2 entries as I couldn't decide which one to submit. I made these as Christmas gifts based on these items that are still being used by my mother-in-law.
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From Ruth Mason:
Here is a picture of foot stool I have in normal size that I made in miniature 1/12 scale.
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From Carol Gill:
Our only child who is now 58 years old moved into his own apartment shared with friends when he was 21 years old. Temporarily he left behind everything in his room. Each item had special meaning to him so I decided to recreate the pieces in miniature. This was created before personal computers were available for most of us so I ordered poster and book catalogs by mail to find the wall art and book covers. The full sized plain wood bookcase was made by me to his specifications – he wanted no finish applied! His full sized desk chair was misaligned so I duplicated it that way. The photo doesn’t show detail (my fault) but his favorite group at that time was Kiss (their album cover is by the stereo) and his favorite musician, Jimmy Hendrix, has his photo on the wall. His full sized bed was never made but the miniature room is in a dollhouse decorated for Christmas Eve – Santa doesn’t stop at any houses with unmade beds!! Have to mention that all this was done with tears running down my face because I missed him so much. Then I noticed the house stayed clean, the groceries lasted longer, our phone and electric bills decreased. I still missed him but decided there could be an upside to this arrangement!! (Note from the website administrator: The pics are a little blurry...we're blaming it on Carol's camera, with her permission, but thought you would want to see them anyway!)
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From Dave Ferkinhoff:
Here is my submission for our house that I copied, all in ¼ scale.
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From Peggy McLoughlin:
I wanted to share my October challenge submission. The 1626 Woodward Ave. house was Santa’s pit stop every Christmas for over 50 years. During COVID, I recreated the interior based on my maternal grandparents‘ actual home. The exterior was a Christmas gift from my brother. It was made by an artisan who recreated Johnny Cash’s childhood home.
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From Abbey Johnson:
I made a miniature version of a wishing well my grandpa made. I cut the blocks from square wood dowels, the sides are popsicle sticks and the top is some thin wood I had and I made it so the top comes off so I can get flowers in and out.
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From Tammy Witthaus:
My grandmother bought this bench/trellis/wreath set for me 30 or so years ago. It's something I still have and am in the process of repainting because of how special it is to me since she is now gone. I decided to attempt to recreate it in 1/4" scale a couple of years ago as pictured below.
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From Grace Mlynowski:
This is the sink I made to go into the duplicate of "your work shop". I don't remember exactly where your sink was, but I needed something for that wall and I had or made all the necessary components. I loved working on this class.
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From Richard Cambigue:
I just recently duplicated my original Red Ryder BB Gun Box, Bullet box and targets to teach a class at our October meeting. I've attached a photo taken today of the original box, BB gun, large bullet box and The Christmas Story VCR box that inspired the project. If you zoom in you can see the mini box, mini bb gun, mini bullet box and targets. 1st Photo: Photo of miniature used for class and class handouts with penny. 2nd Photo: Full size Red Ryder BB gun and box with movie that inspired the collection along with close up of the mini replica and accessories made. 3rd Photo: Close up of the 2nd photo.
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From Sheryl Canter:
A friend made this miniature version of my salad bowl set for me.
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From Kathy Opdycke:
My father turned 100 last April. He comfortably lives in his own home within a retirement community in Western Massachusetts. To honor his birthday, and without giving him a gift that he doesn’t need, I duplicated an iconic farmhouse on the retirement communities’ grounds that now houses senior administrators. The building is over 200 years old, and stands on what was a Christmas tree farm many years ago. The front of the building 246 N. Main St. I duplicated the landscaping, and the maintenance crew picking up branches.
Picture 2: View of the side of the farmhouse, walkways and gardens with a couple seated enjoying the view.
Picture 3: One amenity of the retirement community are the bee houses that residents maintain, and ultimately sell the honey to the community. Note:one jar of honey has tipped over and is spilling onto the grass. Opps!
Picture 4: Side view of the farmhouse
Picture 5: Wooded area behind the farmhouse where deer seek shelter. Of note: my father’s cat Max has meandered thru woods to see the goings-on at the farmhouse.
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From Kathy Opdycke:
Lollie’s Front Door.
This diorama is a replica of my niece’s front door of her home. My intent was to not only highlight her home, but her two beloved Labradors Cotton and Indie. You’ll notice that Cotton, the older yellow Lab is patient and thoughtful, while Indie, the newest black Lab puppy is running down the steps of the front porch and she has tipped over her water bowl. The side photo shows where I have hidden dog bones on the porch. I was unable to find the black wall lamps and the red Chinese Chippendale front door in 1:24 scale, so I made both. The wall lamps are electrified. The landscaping, front stone planters (and foliage), front door mat, wood trim, brick and stone are identical to Lollie’s house.
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From Sally Lonn:
These teeny tiny metal soldiers were purchased in London at the Singing Tree. The little Boy’s room in my big dollhouse is all soldiers dedicated to my hubby’s passion for the collection he once had. These have incredible detail but I don’t think the picture does them justice.
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From Rusty (Jean) Smith :
Italian Quilt – All hand sewn using a scrap of shot silk. 24th scale.
Quilt 1 is 24th scale, hand pieced and hand sewn to a flower garden design.
Children's bed quilt is a 24th scale version of one I planned to crochet for my own children but I had too many aunts that made ones for me.
Spinning Wheel is 12th scale. I took my R/L wheel to pieces and copied all the parts using a scalpel and some sandpaper. It does work but it so difficult to thread that I don’t do it very often.
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From Kristie Norman:
I love older houses and have several old catalogs with different pictures of homes from between the 1800's to the 1940's. My favorite period is the 1920s-1940s.
I love older houses and have several old catalogs with different pictures of homes from between the 1800s to the 1940s. My favorite period is the 1920s-1940s. I found an original copy of "The Maytown" an Honor Bilt home from the 1920s. I decided to create a replica of this home in miniature. My house, Lemon Drop Hill is 1/4" scale. The house opens on both ends of the house. I was amazed at the bright colors used for wallcovering, inside and outside trims, etc. I am pleased with the outcome. However, it was a challenge to build.
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From Jene Bondi:
When my son was 5 years old, he made in kindergarten for me a Thanksgiving turkey and a Santa wall hanging. I loved them so much I decided that they needed to be in my GSOLFOT office roombox. So I set out to make them. I nailed the turkey down to even the glue spots in under an hour. Then the Santa was next to do. (I refer to it as the Picasso Santa). That took me 4 days and 16 hours to get it just right. But I nailed it even to the horrible stain on the hat. My roombox holds quite an impressive assortment of minis all from my sockee friends far and near. It is one of my favorite roomboxes.
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From Rose Stout:
This is a picture my daughter sent me of her friends saddle and the 1/2th scale one I made for her.
The second one I made for myself.
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From Mary Johnson:
On my first visit to Rosie's I was greeted by a free standing Englebreit character, holding a guest book that every "first time" visitor has to sign. That was my first step into a Mary Englebreit world that is my friend's home! I liked Rosie's "greeter" so much that I often thought about making her in miniature.
When a few friends decided to have an "Englebreit" swap, I knew what I would make!
I took photos of Rosie's "greeter", reduced them and cut-out the paper prints, pasted them to cardboard and then cut them out again (very tedious, I didn't realize how challenging this would be in quarter scale!)
The "greeter" is 1-1/4" tall, complete with pen and "guestbook" just like the "life size" version at Rosie's front door!
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From Lynn Miller:
This entire room was a duplication of my son's nursery. The Jenny Lind style crib and changing table were something I could purchase and were already the right color. I reduced and hand-painted the design for the The Daisy Kingdom Wagon Buddies wall quilt, as well as hand painting the bed quilt and shams. My husband had a Morris Louis print of "Point of Tranquility" that he loved and he decided to put it in the nursery over the chest of drawers, so we reduced that as well. What always tickled me the most was when I found the miniature Busy Box toy, which was an exact replica of the one that my son, David got from my sister when her son outgrew it. And yes, my husband did have a red night shirt, so I created one for the father doll who is bringing the late night feeding bottle.
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From Jen Gray:
My submission!
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From Cynthia Stencill :
Here is the dorm room beds I made from Harry Potter. Yup, I made 5 of them! I have a blog entry on my journey making them. cyndyscraftcorner.blogspot.com
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From Rita Crawford:
Desk lamp by Victor Franco bought 25 years ago.
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From Lori Johnson:
In 2016, our totebag favor group used the toy theme to create gifts for the West Bend Wisconsin Retreat Into Miniatures. I wanted something interesting and different, so I bought a full sized set of Groucho Marx glasses at a costume shop and replicated them in 1/12 scale. I made 60 of them! Needless to say, no one else in our group was doing that so there was no danger of any duplication! One photo is a close up of the mini glasses. The other shows the glasses with their full size inspiration.
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From Marty Anderson:
Attached are two pictures of a 1" scene that I made as an exhibit for the 1991 NAME Houseparty in Portland, ME. The theme was "Maine--A State of Mind". This is a 1" replica of the cabin I stayed in as a 15 year old at Wyonegonic Camp in Denmark, Maine. There is a front view of the cabin and a side view showing most of the interior. It was such fun making the cabin, using old black & white pictures and memories of the fun times I had as a camper.
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From Margaret Gordus:
I met Maxine Smith at the first miniature show in that I attended in the early 80’s. My husband had just gotten his first antelope ,so she made this from a picture I sent. It is in a “cabin” roombox that my son has. My son was the taxidermist & mounted the antelope.
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From Paula Francis:
My Make Mine Mini is a replica of Tara from Gone With The Wind ("real Tara pictured top row on the left). I started it over 20 years ago and have renovated it 3 times and finally it is finished! The original was nothing more than a facade ( I know because on a family trip, I tried to find it)! The building has over 12,000 brick and 75 feet of wiring with 6 rooms and 2 grand hallways. I have loved every painstaking moment in making it the highlight of my collection.
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From Lori Johnson:
Here is my Elf on the shelf that I made last year for a swap from wire, glue and paint.
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From Catherine Hawkins:
Attached is a picture of a chest I made that is a replica of one my parents had (pic on right). They bought the bedroom suit in the 1930s and I have it now in our guest bedroom. The chest is made from basswood with modified commercial turnings for legs and trim on the edges. (I split the turnings in half to fit against the sides.) I used Susanne Russo drawer pulls. The chest is stained to resemble oak, which is the wood that the full-sized furniture is made from. The two bottom drawers are grain-painted. The two upper drawers and the panel in the center of the thin middle drawer are paper-thin mahogany from the inside of a cigar box. The drawers are edged with double-bead molding.
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From Lee Weinstein:
Here are a couple of Torahs I made for my grandchildren's Bar and Bat mitzvah memory boxes.
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From Suzie Aguilar:
I recreated an m&m cake for a friend for her birthday from a photo. It was a challenge but also a lot of fun. She loved it! It won a prize at one of the NAME conventions too! This miniature 1/12 scale cake is one I created (everything is handmade from polymer clay except the bag and platter).
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From: Carmen R Cintron
I have included two pictures of real (left) & mini (right) replica. One of these bears belongs to my 4 year old she has had it since birth and even when it ripped she is so attached I feared losing it and not having something to remember it by. So I enlisted one of my favorite and dear miniaturist friends from Spain and she worked on making them into a mini for me to cherish and always have to remember and as my daughter gets older she will always have this to remember * The alphabet Cat *
The other orange cat was something I have own for over 20 years and it's been the only stuffed animal I've ever owned and even kept around long enough. Having small children those Things no longer belong to you Lol so as my kids took my precious orange cat I had a tiny mini version made for my dollhouse.
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From: Carol Shea
I was using one of these when I made a quarter inch one.
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From: Marie Weeks
I’m sending in a picture of a 1920s radio that I completed (right) along with a photo of the original (left). It’s all made from various wood grain scrapbook papers. I actually owned a radio like this but now my sister owns it as I moved and couldn’t take it.
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From: Jackie Williams
Lounge chair, British Bobbie, broom, 1/48 scale sunglasses, hats, and shirts
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From: Julie Stuckmeyer
These are two kits by the late Linda Groesch-Bobb. I always thought her kits were perfect little replicas especially in quarter scale. These are two of my favorites.
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From: Vicki Scidmore
Love the challenge and immediately thought of this. My grandmother gave me a brush and mirror when I was small that I used for years and later added a button hook and file in same pattern. I assume they were from her or her family. In recent years I saw similar pieces in antique malls and couldn’t resist adding more. The miniature dresser set came from a show (sorry, I don’t know the maker) but they looked like my set and I couldn’t resist! Of course, I can’t use the mini set now but keep them with the full size pieces.
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From: Pat Williams
My infatuation with miniatures began in High School where I was tasked with creating a diorama of my bedroom. Life and family got in the way of pursuing that infatuation until the early 1980’s when I learned there was a Dollhouse trade show in Seattle. I went to it and immediately met a very gregarious “dealer” who would become my “lifelong bestie”, her name is Georgia Matuschak.
A new world opened up and while attending my first NAME convention with her I started collecting everything. I quickly realized what caught my interest the most were miniatures representing my “real life”.
Eventually I put some special items together in a frame that I call “Our Life in a Nutshell” full of replicas of actual things in my life with my husband Jim Williams.
For example, we boated around Puget Sound in a 36ft Chris Craft. I found a man who was able to make me a replica. You will also see several Siamese cats that are replicas of our kitties and miniature Teddy Bears that I made and collected. In real life I collected Lenox china, teddy bears, raggedy Ann’s and was always thrilled whenever I found them in miniature.
In the frame are photos I reduced of my husband and I when we were children, in High School and when we got married. We both worked for “Ma Bell” so of course I had to include telephones. He was an engineer for the phone company hence the drafting tools and he frequently said he “was up to his ass in alligators” so that started his alligator collection!
