Category Archives: Miniatures

Farewell to Leroy and Patty—Our Stunt Guys

Posted on May 5, 2011 by smallhousepress

It must be May, our living room is full of packing boxes, bubble wrap and foam. We are prepping for our last teach-a-thon at The Guild School. Thirty years ago, Don Buttfield and a group of like-minded miniaturists started the … Continue reading →

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Further Dirt on Basements

Posted on April 28, 2011 by smallhousepress

First of all, pardon the italics below—some WordPress code gremlin has entered the blog which will take me some time to figure out… Backstepping a bit to last week’s post, titled For the Love of Basements, where I included not … Continue reading →

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For the Love of Basements

Posted on April 24, 2011 by smallhousepress

Moving a dollhouse is a dicey undertaking. These cumbersome and unbalanced objects have a way of expanding incrementally and secretly during construction. While we learned early on to design a house narrower than our 28” studio doorway, we didn’t always … Continue reading →

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How to Smoke a House

Posted on April 14, 2011 by smallhousepress

People were smoking a lot of things in the ‘70s, but we may have been the only ones smoking houses. And I’m not saying what might have been growing on our porch in those ancient times that might have caused … Continue reading →

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The Shasta Shoot

Posted on April 7, 2011 by smallhousepress

The South Bend miniature house has a two-part story, beginning with its initial construction in the fall of ’77, and its re-hab in 2005 for a new owner. In both cases it has found a happy home—first in California, and … Continue reading →

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Spider-rama, or, the Chocolate Summer

Posted on March 31, 2011 by smallhousepress

By June of 1977, with the start of The North Head, our 14th house, we were beginning to get down the vocabulary of Victorian. Noel came up with 3-point design of two gables with a tower between, plus a showcase … Continue reading →

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In Defense of Black Holes & Dirty Work Spaces

Posted on March 24, 2011 by smallhousepress

Our inner alarms went off a few years ago when we were asked to photograph our studio and workshop for a slide show comparing artisans’ work spaces for the IGMA annual Guild School gathering in Castine, ME. To say we … Continue reading →

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The Magic of Electricity

Posted on March 19, 2011 by smallhousepress

Between November 1977 and Nov 1978 we would produce three more houses, this time on commission. When we returned from the NAME show in early November we had two years worth of orders, but only a little money, so we … Continue reading →

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It’s Showtime!

Posted on March 12, 2011 by smallhousepress

Miniature shows are a whole world unto themselves, at times circus-like. Sometimes they’re the miniaturist’s version of a rock concert–imagine 11 yr. olds lining up for a chance to see Justin Beiber, and you get the picture. There may be … Continue reading →

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What Happens in Las Vegas

Posted on March 7, 2011 by smallhousepress

We celebrated the completion of The Seaview with a party at home, and the next morning packed it into the trusty camper for the trip to California. I can’t remember if it was Santa Rosa, Santa Monica, or Anaheim, but … Continue reading →

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