Doll House Miniatures

When I first heard about Doll House Miniatures, I was a tiny little girl, and I got excited thinking about designing doll houses. There had to be a secret in the concept, because I knew my heart desire was to design incredible doll houses for little girls (especially for me). I wanted to design doll houses with tiny wall paper patterns and joyful exuberant people living inside. More than anything else, I wanted miniature Christmas Decorations inside my doll houses.

There in lies the secret to my treasure…

Doll houses decorated for Christmas. Aha! That was a moment to remember…

Then I grew up and forgot about my desire to decorate doll houses and create miniature Christmas ornaments for my doll houses. At least, I’d forgotten all about it until I moved a doll house, together with several friends, for Ava Betz. I’d known Ava for many years as the publisher of a local news paper, and the wife of the editor, Tom Betz.

As retirement loomed ahead, Ava had started creating shadow box rooms using miniatures. Her miniatures were fun to look at, and even more fun to explore. On many occasions I found myself searching through her creations, watching for new ways to create the bits and pieces that looked like treasures from the past. A shell casing from a small bullet might become the base of  a lamp, or a fingernail clipping could become the corners of a picture frame, or a led light could be a globe on a tiny desk. Ava created the most interesting miniatures for her doll house shadow boxes. I was excited just seeing the latest invitation… But then there was more. She started building real multi-room doll houses.

Those were a sight to behold. Two and three stories tall with stained glass windows, wall paper borders and chair rails, stairs to the next floor, and furniture… Oh my, the furniture was amazing.

Turned leg tables and china closets filled up with china filled the dining rooms, and upholstered couches and chaise lounges filled the living and bedrooms. I’ll never forget the first four poster bed I noticed, built out of chopsticks she’d salvaged and glued together with tongue depressors to create just the right sized bed.

Tiny crocheted coasters made rag rugs in the nicest rooms while tiny patterned blankets covered the beds. Miniature fuzzy pompoms became teddy bears and beads became curtain finals. I still couldn’t get enough of the detailed presentations Ava created with miniature tools and left over bits of this and that she collected in tiny trays that filled up a stack of storage shelves.

So came my interest in doll house miniatures and the processes of designing doll houses for “big girls”. Although I have a granddaughter who will eventually love the creation of my first doll house – an over-sized painted lady that must be moved in multiple trips and reconnected with piano hinges that line the three story walls to open the structure, my doll houses aren’t quite appropriate for little girls. They’re more styled for ladies who simply love the miniature world.

Come by and visit often for pictures and details of my latest structures.