The World Of Miniatures

"If you think of dolls houses as usually being period houses, it's time to think again! This compendium of miniature buildings looks at the many other styles of construction that are increasingly being created by miniatures enthusiasts, including cozy cottages, modern loft apartments, churches, garden sheds, lighthouses and windmills."--

Embrace the not-so-small world of minis! From teeny burgers and minuscule handbags to furniture no larger than a quarter, this mind-blowing collection of squeal-worthy miniatures features more than 250 of the tiniest creations from all over the world. Kate Ünver, a lifelong collector of nearly 1,000 items, has curated unique and extraordinary miniatures on her Instagram account, @dailymini, since 2012. In The Book of Mini, she selects hundreds of pieces of artwork--many of which have never been seen before--and organizes them into sections on tiny food, diminutive wildlife, petite pottery, and more. Also included are interviews with collectors and artists exploring their methods, influences, and how they came to adore everything mini. Featuring hundreds of photographs, The Book of Mini is a must-have book for the tiny lover in your life.

Bestselling, award-winning writer Simon Garfield returns with an enthralling investigation of humans’ peculiar fascination with small things—and what small things tell us about our larger world. “[Simon Garfield is] an exuberant truffle-hound of the recondite and delightful factoid.” —Sunday Times (London) Simon Garfield writes books that shine a light on aspects of the everyday world in order to reveal the charms and eccentricities hiding in plain sight around us. After beguiling fans with books about everything from typography to time, from historic maps to the color mauve, he’s found his most delightful topic yet: miniatures. Tiny Eiffel Towers. Platoons of brave toy soldiers. A doll’s house created for a Queen. Diminutive crime scenes crafted to catch a killer. Model villages and miniscule railways. These are just a few of the objects you will discover in the pages of In Miniature. Bringing together history, psychology, art, and obsession, Garfield explores what fuels the strong appeal of miniature objects among collectors, modelers, and fans. The toys we enjoy as children invest us with a rare power at a young age, conferring on us a taste of adult-sized authority. For some, the desire to play with small things becomes a desire to make small things. We live in a vast and uncertain world, and controlling just a tiny, scaled-down part of it restores our sense of order and worth. As it explores flea circuses, microscopic food, ancient tombs, and the Vegas Strip, In Miniature changes the way we perceive our surroundings, encouraging all of us to find greatness in the smallest of things.

Instruction for the beginner as well as the advanced craftsman; design settings; basic boxes; lighting; uses of such new materials as acrylic, foam, plastic, as well as fabrics, glass, ceramics, and metal. 700 photographs, including 23 in full color.

Christine-Lea Frisconi explains how to make a beautiful miniature French country house with deep recesses, fancy panelling and wall niches to add character and instructions to make a range of French-style furniture, fittings and even flowers!

"Naricissa Niblack Thorne began collection miniatures as a young girl. Her fascination grew and as an adult, she gained world-wide recognition for hundreds of miniature rooms created with such exacting detail that they became educational tools for students of architecture and interior design. She left 68 of her rooms to the Art Institute of Chicago, where they remain on permanent exhibit in a Gallery devoted solely to Mrs. Thorne's masterpieces. Thorne Rooms are also in the permanent collections of the Phoenix Art Museum and the Knoxville Museum of Art."--Amazon.com.

Miniaturisation is the creation of small objects that resemble larger ones, usually, but not always, for purposes different to those of the larger original object. Worlds in Miniature brings together researchers working across various regions, time periods and disciplines to explore the subject of miniaturisation as a material culture technique. It offers original contribution to the field of miniaturisation through its broad geographical scope, interdisciplinary approach, and deep understanding of miniatures and their diverse contexts. Beginning with an introduction by the editors, which offers one possible guide to studying and comparing miniatures, the following chapters include studies of miniature Neolithic stone circles on Exmoor, Ancient Egyptian miniature assemblages, miniaturisation under colonialism as practiced by the Makah People of Washington State, miniature surf boats from India, miniaturised contemporary tourist art of the Warao people of Venezuela, and dioramas on display in the Science Museum. Interspersing the chapters are interviews with miniature-makers, including two miniature boat-builders at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall and a freelance architectural model-maker. Professor Susanne Küchler concludes the volume with a theoretical study summarising the current state of miniaturisation as a research discipline. The interdisciplinary nature of the volume makes it suitable reading for anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and artists, and for researchers in related fields across the social sciences. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

~Over 50 easy to follow step by step projects~Includes a list of all tools and materials needed to complete all of the projects in the book~Over 900 colour photographs~There's tips and advice on working with wood~Includes a suppliers' web directory~Includes projects for the laundry room, the kitchen, the attic, the garden and more!