My mini garden this year (facing a heavily trafficked sidewalk) is a miniature Disneyland. I didn’t try to replicate Disneyland as much as evoke our memories of it (we went dozens of times when we lived in California). Some of the objects are old toys, some are 3Dprinted, and a few things are new. Scales are all over the place but who cares: I miss Disneyland and this is a fine reminder for me of it. VIEWING AREA MONORAIL AND SUBMARINES JUNGLE CRUISE HAUNTED MANSION LITTLE MERMAID DISNEYLAND RAILROAD SPLASH MOUNTAIN BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN RAILROAD AUTOPIA Want to know more about Walt Disney an ..read more

The wonderful website myminifactory.com hosts thousands of free and inexpensive 3D files. Their project called Scan the World offers object files from museum objects that can be downloaded for printing. They have just posted a blog about my 3D printed Great Goddess Bar and Grill entry in an art show. You can read the blog HERE. It gives the background to my work in anthropology and technology and how that has informed my more recent art work. The files used in this project were mostly found in the Scan the World pages ..read more

The amazing miniature work of Jill Orlov is now on display in a special exhibit at the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures in Tucson, Arizona until September 15th. Jill works in metal, welding steel and other materials into unique miniature scenes that are both realistic because of their accurate scale but also unlike any other miniatures you have seen. The exhibit is titled “Borrowed Time/Borrowed Books” and it features six miniature scenes of libraries from movies (All the Presidents Men, Fahrenheit 451, Wings of Desire, The Time Machine, and The Breakfast Club) and from the Twilig ..read more

Any miniaturist who has tried replicating a scene they have seen in person, in a picture, in the movies, or even in their own memories knows it is nearly impossible to include all the elements that scene actually includes. To successfully create a miniature representation of a scene, Ron Hoess (Chair of Miniature Settings at the Philadelphia Flower Show) explains that you have to selectively compress some elements of the scene. In order to fit everything and also to keep the proportions of the elements visually correct you have to remove or reorient some things. Ron does this successfully and ..read more

IF I had been in the 2020 Philadelphia Flower show, my exhibit would have been the last moments of Pompeii before Mt Vesuvius devastated the region. Pompeii met all the criteria for the 2020 exhibits: it was a “vacation destination” in the region of the Mediterranean know as the Riviera. Wealthy Romans, especially from Naples, had second homes there as well as fields, vineyards, and access to debauchery in the form of brothels. First the visual inspirations. The scene will be an interior looking out at a courtyard, a typical Roman design. Plants will be both inside and out. The wall are ..read more

I don’t see too many miniature things on Twitter although master miniaturist Tatsuya Tanaka still posts his daily creations (https://twitter.com/tanaka_tatsuya). So I was pleased when I came across a tweet by Aline Roberts with this image: She explains it is a tea set made from used bullets during World War I. Here is her explanation (in response to a thread on interesting family stories): “My French grand-father spent 4 years fighting during WWI, and he got really bored. He took the used bullets and shells and moulded it, and we still have a tiny tea set for dolls from war trenches.” Than ..read more

I finally got to go back to the Chicago International miniature event and this happened: SNOW! Yes snow, Chicago, April. But at least I was able at the last minute to get a room in the event hotel so I didn’t have to leave. Unfortunately I was only able to visit one of the three shows going on simultaneously but that was actually enough to cover in the time I had. As with the other miniature events I cover, I usually choose some artists I have never seen before or ones whose work impresses me. Here they are for Chicago 2019. Keenderson Miniatures had these perfectly printed 3D ..read more

IF I had been in the 2020 Philadelphia Flower show, my exhibit would have been the last moments of Pompeii before Mt Vesuvius devastated the region. Pompeii met all the criteria for the 2020 exhibits: it was a “vacation destination” in the region of the Mediterranean know as the Riviera. Wealthy Romans, especially from Naples, had second homes there as well as fields, vineyards, and access to debauchery in the form of brothels. First the visual inspirations. The scene will be an interior looking out at a courtyard, a typical Roman design. Plants will be both inside and out. The wall are ..read more

BANNED from the Flower Show? Yes, it sounds like a funny title for a bad sitcom but I have, indeed, earned a lifetime ban from ever exhibiting in the Philadelphia Flower Show. If you are interested in the story you can go to this separate page. But if you are here for the wonder of miniatures, the way to make and appreciate miniatures in all their forms, don’t bother reading that unpleasant story. Instead, enjoy the pictures and stories that make up this blog dedicated not only to five years of Miniature Settings exhibits at past Flower Shows, but highlighting the work of contemporary mi ..read more

I don’t see too many miniature things on Twitter although master miniaturist Tatsuya Tanaka still posts his daily creations (https://twitter.com/tanaka_tatsuya). So I was pleased when I came across a tweet by Aline Roberts with this image: She explains it is a tea set made from used bullets during World War I. Here is her explanation (in response to a thread on interesting family stories): “My French grand-father spent 4 years fighting during WWI, and he got really bored. He took the used bullets and shells and moulded it, and we still have a tiny tea set for dolls from war trenches.” Than ..read more