Tag Archives: miniatures

Au Petit: aka Artisan’s Cottage/Golden Lane, or, how we managed to stay married all these years

Posted on September 24, 2017 by smallhousepress

Eons ago–in the early 1980’s–a miniatures columnist wrote that Noel and I looked “slim in our jeans,” a term which still makes us laugh. We, indeed, lived in jeans, in our studio, building mini houses as fast as we could … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Miniatures | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

An Ode to the Odd: The Castine Gallery

Posted on September 5, 2016 by smallhousepress

On almost any day in June of 1994, at about 8:00 a.m., if you were to head to downtown Castine from the Maine Maritime Academy–home to the IGMA’s annual Guild School mini camp—you might cut across Deadman’s Alley, turn down … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Miniatures | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Wrap Party: Curtain Call for the Davis Theater

Posted on April 23, 2016 by smallhousepress

Most of the year 2000, while the world recovered from Y2K madness, we spent in the studio wrapping up the lagging miniature theater project. It became a matter of, finally, shelving everything else to finish in time for the client’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Miniatures | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Midnight Factor: Faces of the Moon Part II

Posted on April 6, 2014 by smallhousepress

It was early 1992, or thereabouts, when we began to cut wood for Faces of the Moon. For background entertainment we had the end of the Bush-Quayle era (marked by a widely-televised diplomatic dinner where Bush vomited and passed out … Continue reading →

Posted in basements | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

A Roof, Gepetto, and the Moon: Faces of the Moon, Pt. I

Posted on March 16, 2014 by smallhousepress

In 1984, a new client (whom some readers will know as Melanie Wilson) called to say she was smitten. She had just seen the newly-completed Pippen Hill–our semi-fantasy Old European toymaker’s workshop inspired by the paintings of Anton Pieck–and asked … Continue reading →

Posted in Houses, Miniatures, People | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

String Too Short to Be Saved: Building the Maine Idyll Bathroom from Salvage

Posted on January 11, 2014 by smallhousepress

What Noel began in 1974 as an odds and ends drawer in the studio overflowed to engulf an entire wall of shelves, and most of the surrounding drawer, floor and wall space. Found bits like Ronson lighter springs, trout fishing … Continue reading →

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Maine Idyll, # 48, 1991: The Outers and Unders

Posted on December 1, 2013 by smallhousepress

            To unwind from the 1990 Guild School workshop in Castine, ME, we took the slow, winding route down the Maine coast. Just north of Freeport, where Route 1 prepares to enter the Maine Turnpike, … Continue reading →

Posted in Miniatures, Teaching | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Frosty II: Putting It All Together

Posted on September 4, 2013 by smallhousepress

The customer for Frosty was an avid fan we could never say no to. She liked our work so much she built a room over her swimming pool (the same pool we and our dog swam in on previous deliveries) … Continue reading →

Posted in Houses, Memoir, Miniatures | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Frosty Malt Shop: Part I

Posted on August 14, 2013 by smallhousepress

Started soon after the Greene & Greene was delivered in 1989, the Frosty Malt Shop was completed in late 1990. The months while Noel and I built counter stools and neon signage in miniature, the newly launched Hubble Space Telescope … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Miniatures | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

The Airplane Cafe: Lunch on the Road

Posted on April 7, 2013 by smallhousepress

In the late and frivolous 1920s, Americans loved flying aces, motion pictures, and automobiles. America was motion crazy. We idolized the daring breed of ex-fighter pilots who flew the U.S. Mail Service by the seat of their pants. On the … Continue reading →

Posted in Houses, Miniatures, Teaching | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments