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Hello! My name is Erin Zavala, I am 44 years old, and I have loved miniatures since I was about 6 years old, maybe younger. There’s just something so magical and captivating about anything small. I currently live in Washington DC, where my husband is stationed as an active duty military member. Originally from Los Angeles, I was incredibly lucky and blessed to be able to shop at stores like Dollhouse Lady Miniatures in Arcadia, Mott’s Miniature Museum in Anaheim, Angel’s Attic in Santa Monica, Larrianne’s Small Wonders (then in Camarillo), and later, at the Carole & Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures gift shop (both locations). When I was in Kindergarten my friend Amanda had the most amazing dollhouse - her Mom was an interior designer and had kitbashed a beautiful Farmhouse for her. It really was beautiful and filled with so many mini treasures I just wanted to sit and look at it and rearrange the pieces over and over again. This obsession with my friend’s dollhouse led to my Grandparents getting me a Holly Hobbie Homespun Honey & Spice dollhouse, and completely furnishing it from top to bottom. It was my most treasured possession. At around age 8 (in the early 1980’s) I started a nearly lifelong subscription to Nutshell News and Miniatures Showcase (which didn’t last very long, unfortunately). I started seriously saving my money for the exquisite (and often very, very expensive) miniatures I saw in NN and at the Museum and shops. I could only afford small, accessory pieces from artists like Ron Benson, Todd Kreuger, Betsy Niederer, The Doll’s Cobbler, Harry Smith, Mosaic Press, Barbara Raheb, Pete Aquisto and Victor Franco, amongst others, but the accessories … these teeny tiny daily items rendered so perfectly, so artistically simply took (and still takes) my breath away. I started trying my hand at realistic renderings of furniture and accessories when I was older, with kits, kit-bashed and my own designs from scratch. My dollhouse held a continuous rotation of every kind of miniature I could populate it with, and into my teens and twenties I continued to hunt down treasures and make things for it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take it with me when I got married. My husband was and still is Active Duty in the Navy, and we move around too much for me to pack up the house and all of it’s tiny pieces every 2-4 years (if anyone else here is either in the military or a military spouse they will understand why military movers would absolutely destroy it, and most likely a lot of my collection would be “lost” forever), so I left it at my parents with their blessing. Well … one day my Papa went to move it, and he dropped it. It splintered into pieces beyond repair, and that was that. Thank goodness I had, over the years, brought all of my miniature furniture and accessories to “live” with us. Cataloged, wrapped up safely and stored in numbered bins, they had waited to reunite with their home, and now it was gone. I have looked for my childhood dollhouse for the last decade +. I have had yet to see one come up at auction, on eBay or Etsy or on the mini-boards; but just yesterday, through kismet, a wonderful lady found an old post of mine on here and told me she had found a kit, still in box, in her Grandmother’s attic. This part is hers to tell, but she has agreed to sell it to me!! I haven’t felt elation like this since we entered the pandemic years, and I am so insanely happy I feel as if I could split in two!!! Since this has already become an encyclopedia of giant proportions I’ll just say that today, in 2021, I collect fine artisan, up and coming artisan, eBay, Etsy, handmade, homemade (by me) and factory made pieces almost exclusively through the internet. My latest purchase was a beautiful Marcia Backstrom doll, dressed by Marcia and absolutely perfect down to the feathers in her hat. I love how kind, sharing, compassionate, empathetic, creative and passionate the miniature world is … it’s always been this safe, creative and quiet place to be when I’m feeling crazy in the world. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much! I tend to go on and on about miniatures, and I’ve never had anyone to really talk to about them! I have lurked here for forever, and was a member of the Tiny Talk and Small Talk miniature forums when our phone lines still plugged us into the internet!!! I’m attached a photo of my minis I made in my early teens (hence Mr. Pink Bear getting deconstructed and given a strong tea bath; he needed a little makeover, hahahaha). Also attached is a picture of me in the 1980’s as a child with my Holly Hobbie house. Much ❤️, everyone, and happy mini-ing!!!!

Homemade Miniatures is available on Facebook with new inventory weekly! Sharing 3 generations of love for dollhouses and miniatures! We create modern and organic 1:12th scale furniture kits made from solid wood and soft fabrics. These kits are enjoyed from miniaturists filling their dollhouses to loved ones looking for a hobby to share together. Our furniture kits include instruction booklets, pre cut pieces, sanded & unpainted wood, and linens (if applicable). These kits are ready to be designed, painted, and turned into one of a kind pieces that are homemade and handmade by you!

So I'm hoping for some advice from the furniture builders out there on how to hinge an oven door. I'm building myself a little stove for my San Franciscan, because 1. I don't have a lot of room and needed something to fit a particular space & 2. I just couldn't find anything that size that a. I liked. b. wasn't too expensive c. fit my theme of retro enough to be cozy comfortable but not olde worldy... lol So anyhoo, I've been building one out of the wood inserts from the windows of my kit (reuse, recycle, repurpose!) and I've hit a snag.... how on earth do I hinge my oven doors??? I've looked at my RL oven and don't think I could replicate the complicated contraption that is a hinge in that one! Then I looked at mini ovens on ebay and see they use kind of a U shaped hinge & pole contraption. Not sure I could master that either. Does anyone have any ideas. I've quickly mocked the pieces up below so you can see what I'm up against. There is paper bunched inside to hold the pieces in place and obviously the handles will be in two parts not across both ovens in one stretch but you get the idea. The tiny bottom doors are actually draw fronts for warming draws.. (oh, and my edges aren't that rough.. it's masking tape on the inside so that I don't get the enamel paint I'm using on the exterior on to the black interior.)

FarmerMarketMiniFood is having its grand opening sale on Etsy this weekend. 15% off your total purchase with coupon code GRANDOPENING. Come check it out! https://www.etsy.com/shop/FarmerMarketMiniFood?ref=ss_profile

Hello everyone, long time no see. Between a big move to my art studio last Summer and more Dollhouse/Art shows being added to my schedule, my miniatures and I have been zig-zagging across western/central New York. It's been an interesting experience and come September (Sept. 25th - WNYME Dollhouse Show in Hamburg, NY), all of my tiny creations will start traveling again, but for now most of my inventory plans on spending the Summer online. So if you missed me at a show, or you would like to browse my artist offerings, you can find my work available at my Etsy shop; https://www.etsy.com/shop/KyleLefort And a large portion of my inventory is also posted at my eBay store; http://stores.ebay.com/kylelefort I have been posting a few new items each week on eBay and once I'm out of store listings there I will start adding more to Etsy, so feel free to check back later. ~ By request, I also have plans to focus more on 1:48 scale items this year. Since 1:48 is a scale I only began working in because I was asked to a few years ago, I'm open to suggestions for new items. If there's anything in my shops that you'd like to see made in 1:48 or there is something that you have a tough time finding for your collections fell free to shout it out here. I'm not planning on accepting any commissions, but I would like to make sure that the super tiny things I create are actually things that other people would enjoy. I have a big magnifying glass now (such a good idea) and am more willing than ever to attempt to do cool stuff in that tiny scale.

Hello there, I recently completed building a 1:12 scale dollshouse, my first attempt at such a dollshouse. I set out to utilise salvaged materials and things that were easily (and cheaply) obtainable as much as possible, so there were no prefabricated dollshouse components used. It is made to be played with so is built deliberately robust. I thought you might like to take a look, any feedback is welcome. A video of the dollshouse can be viewed on Youtube here. And an album of photos can be seen here. Thanks for taking the time to have a look, Dan Inglis.

Hello my name is Sarah and I make 12th scale miniature food from polymer clay. My website is www.dollhousekitchen.com Please have a look I have some new St Patrick's Day themed miniatures and I am about to start work on my Easter Collection.