How old were you when you started making miniatures?

[moonberry]

I got my first dollhouse from my grandparents when I was 7. I mentioned it before (but am still looking for photos to upload, they are somewhere "in a box"). Not quite any particular scale, it did have battery operated lights and looked fabulous at night. I never really "played" stories with the house, I preferred arranging things creatively and then admiring it for a few days.

I never owned a Barbie or playscale 1:6 dollhouse. I did get a couch one day from a bargain toy store, along with a Barbie washing line. I mostly played with my imagination. I used a rollerskate (the kind that clips on underneath your shoes) for a car, dragged a shoe box for a trailer behind it, and went on amazing adventures in the garden (when I was about 8). Wooden fruit crates became apartment buildings. I tried making Barbie clothes, but never had the patience for it.

I also had a lot of little cars. I would build roads out of pencils and pens in parallel lines running all over my bedroom floor. At intersections, I would artfully drape/sculpt baby blankets and sweaters to make "organic houses".

And I could sit in a bubble bath until I turned into a prune, playing with foam and building huge "snow" castles that nearly toppled over the sides of the bath.

I had a great outdoor kitchen - I was free to roam the entire garden and "play" with my two large bags of kitchen toys, I would set up my kitchen early on a Saturday morning and play the day away with mud pies, flower tarts, log stews and earthworm pasta. Seriously, I dug up large earthworms and then "cooked them" on my play stove. Much to my mother's horror !!! :groucho:

Then, when I was 13, our class went to the South African Voortrekker (Pioneer) museum and I saw a set of antique dollhouse furniture from the late 1800's. I really must try to find the photo I took on my blurry little Kodak camera. It completely blew my mind that there were "real" little wooden pieces of furniture that looked like the ones grownups had in their homes.

Also, when I was 13, My Little Pony came to town. They were on a special at the discount store, so I bought the Apple Family and a few other loose ponies. Then we had great fun making capes and berets for all of them. I have the capes/berets here in Dubai, for some strange reason, but the ponies are stored in South Africa.

For a brief few months, I wanted to be an architect when I was 14, drawing all kinds of bizarre house plans in weird shaped outlines lol. I would then draw the furniture and accessories for the houses, but that also didn't satisfy my miniature cravings.

I started quilting (another teenage aspiration that never happened) about 2 years ago, and have finished 8 quilts, with enough fabric for about 20 more. I kept all my scraps and leftover batting - for which my dollhouses will be very grateful!!!

The grownup mini bug officially bit earlier this year when I purchased a Garfield, and then things quickly went viral with the addition of my Lily, Arthur, 5 Adams and now a Magnolia on the way. Dubai certainly made this possible - in South Africa it would be only for the rich people, as shipping and import duties are so ridiculously high. At least in Dubai, the US$ is fixed against the Dirham, and with GL dollhouses being so affordable, it doesn't attract import duties in Dubai either.

So far, I'm quite enjoying the woodwork aspect of it, as well as the polymer clay experimentation. Interior design is also fun, and "out of the box" thinking to solve mini problems on a budget. I have vast quantities of art supplies, scrapbooking tools and fabric, and it is fun using them for minis in different ways.

I am blessed that I can do this at 39 instead of having to wait for retirement. And my friends are very encouraging and full of praise each step of the way. My one friend's daughters each bought some mini music instruments when they visited Italy - who knows, maybe when they see the completed Arthur, they might become interested in building something too.

[amyole]

I was a Barbie addict as a child. Like others on the forum, I did not receive the "fabulous" factory-made accessories (aka plastic), but my grandparents both encouraged me to make things for the dolls. We took a cardboard box and made a 2-room house. There were other things, too, that we made and it started me thinking about how things could be re-purposed. I think it is because they went through the Depression, so they knew these things. My grandmother knitted many little sweaters and outfits for Barbie. I still have them. I tried making some clothes, too.

I also received a tin house but did not like it very much. I think it bothered me that things were painted on and not movable. Every Christmas, the Yield House catalog would come and the second to last page was their dollhouse, fully furnished & it even had dolls in it. I drooled over it faithfully. I knew there was no chance of ever receiving such a gift.

After we adopted our children, one of my husband's colleagues was getting rid of her Yield House dh!!! She gave it to us, DH finished it up (the shutters, repainted it) and my daughter played with it for years. BTW, the kitties liked it a lot because it was so roomy! I found a book at the library on making miniatures and made some things for her house. I then decided to buy my own kit, the Orchid, and put it together (hot glue, oh, dear!). When my daughter saw the finished Orchid, I gave it to her and she "moved" in her furniture. We gave her larger house to a younger girl.

I always wanted to have a dh, but really did not have the time or know-how. When the nest emptied, I was looking for a hobby. I ordered a Laurel and in the instructions was the information for this forum. Without this forum, I am sure I would have given up.

[rbytsdy]

Well my Lily pictures in my gallery are dated Feb 2007 but I started on it during 2006, so that puts me somewhere around 30 I suppose. When I was a kid I had a rather extensive collection of Sylvanian Families (now morphed into Calico Critters), for which I made bits and bobs and housed in cardboard boxes-- I don't count those as real house builds though!

Now I buy Calico Critters for my nieces since I just can't justify buying them for myself, but they're so cute!

[redrobynyum]

As a kid, I had all the Barbies my family could possibly find me. And all the Bratz dolls and Polly Pockets and everything similar to them. My mom had a Real Good Toys dollhouse that she loved. I was obsessed with it too, but still to this day she won't let me near it. A few months ago I was in Hobby Lobby and decided to buy the Orchid with a coupon I had. Ever since then, I have been working on it and have even bought another mini project to start. This seems to be the perfect hobby for me!

[~morningstar~]

I never counted the Barbie collection.. I played with Bricks from the American Brick Company as a child and build many a homes from those, do they count? I guess if they do, then I'd have to say I was 8 or 9 when I started..

~morning

[luvitmini]

I got my first house when I was about 11..the grown ups had a good time putting it together..lol. I figured out how to make lamps at 12. Now at 44 I dont have the time I want but I still get a few projects started.

[havanaholly]

I started a few years after you, I just grabbed whatever time I could until we retired.

[elfprincess]

I adored doll's houses when I was little but was never allowed to have one. Finally, when I was 8 or 9, my Dad relented and permitted me to have a cardboard house as a Christmas present. Oh, how I loved that wee house! I played with it and played with it until its cardboard sides began to buckle LOL.

I, too, am a late returner to this hobby. I suspect that women in particular grow out of the doll's house passion when they become interested in boys! Pretty soon we date, get engaged, marry and have babies. We have neither the interest, nor the time, to 'play' with doll's houses.

Decades later, alone in our 'empty nest' homes, we need to find an absorbing, challenging and rewarding hobby - or go nuts. I speak for myself here, but I'm sure others will identify.

This is one very expensive hobby, another reason many don't pursue it. I've already spent my modest rainy day savings.

[havanaholly]

I can't say I ever "outgrew" dolls & toys. My mother decided for me by "putting away" my dolls and dollhouse, etc, "for (my) children"; the only thing that survived where she put them was a ragdoll my paternal grandmother made me. I made dolls and toys for my boys, and for craft shows, and finally for me.

[~morningstar~]

I'm in my 40s, and my Beloved is "allowing" me this hobby because it makes me very happy. My happiness is the one thing he really cares about. So long as I'm happy, everything else is inconsequential to him. He is a prince! I've only recently been really into this part of it.... like about 2 1/2 yrs or so.. because we've been busy with other things.. I'm glad I've been able to spend time learning about it. The rest of it started when I was a LOT younger.

~morningstar~

[JackieS]

After reading the comments, I remembered how much I loved creating roomfuls of paper furniture for cardboard houses when I was a child. We had a tin DH - the Marx from Sears, along with lots of plastic furniture and pink and blue people - but nothing satisfied like creating my own. Christmas wrapping paper and packaging materials were particularly inspiring to me! I'd forgotten all about it until reading the other posts... Happy thoughts!

[me-barbie]

I've described how I got started when I posted the photos of my beloved dollhouse that Dad built me. But, my sister resisted the bug (despite having her own house) until just last year....when I introduced her to Halloween minis ..... :wicklaugh: :wicked: .

So she got bit by the bug in her mid 40s

[Debora59]

Other than making furniture arrangements for Barbie out if anything I could get my hands on as a kid maybe 5 or 6 years old. I was a young mother with a 2 year old daughter and made a scratch built wooden 2 story Barbie house. Money was tight so I made and upholstered several furniture pieces[ farming in the 80s, farmers were going bankrupt and loosing their family farms in Iowa at an alarming rate, we held onto ours, just not the marriage, money being tight I could handle, life threatening abuse I could not]

My granddaughters own the home made Barbie house today

[thriftymini]

Built my first miniature in 2011 after I found Carlson's Old Time Store Kit at a thrift store. Not wanting to buy items to fill the store (and no idea at that time that I might be able to make some) I looked through drawers and boxes throughout our house to find small items to stock the store. Found miniature dogs in my DH's great aunts boxed up dog collection (wish she had collected more smaller ones). Went through old jewelry boxes and used costume jewelry and rings and pins. Attaching picture to show how I displayed the found items.

[kat57]

For some reason,Christine's post above keeps showing up in the 'line-up' on my screen as a new post-for several days now I have clicked on it thinking it was something new. So,maybe this will break the 'spell'! lol Maybe someone else who hasn't can post about their first experience with minis... ^_^

[havanaholly]

I just got this thread for the second time today as a new topic. Quit already!

[kat57]

And I got this March 15 post of yours again tonight,Holly,as if it were a new post-I agree,enough already,website gremlins or whatever!lol

[havanaholly]

Well I got it again yesterday as a new post, too.

[Bex]

I've been thinking about the concern that's been expressed here several times about the need to get younger people interested and involved in making miniatures. I, for one, was 64 when I got my first doll house kit, although I'd always enjoyed looking at miniatures. With the rest of life going on, it never occurred to me to begin a hobby that would be so time consuming. Now that I have the time, I find it a wonderful way to express creativity and use some of the skills that came with life experience. I don't feel pressured to keep to a schedule and, more importantly, I think, I can take the time to finish a project. That's something that bugged me as a youngster -- not finishing a project -- which happened more than once.

In recent posts, it has been revealed that a number of us came to the hobby late in life. I'm curious now as to when the rest of you became obsessed interested.Maybe we needn't fuss so much about getting young people involved. Maybe simply exposing them to what we're doing is enough to plant a seed that will sprout years from now.

I have to say, I have to agree with your thought about planting seeds. My Grandmother used to crochet doll pieces and she had these magazines I LOVED looking at and dreaming about putting my own pieces together. At my age, most of my friends are busy raising families. Unfortunately, that dream was snatched out of my fingers for reasons I don't care to discuss at the moment. I can't work; I had to find some thing positive to do with my time... so I found art and, by extension, miniatures. I haven't even built (or, for that matter, BOUGHT) my first piece yet, but I am absolutely exstatic to get started. Seeds planted years ago are finally beginning to sprout. I hope that soon they will blossom into a beautifully built house- next month perhaps? We'll see.

[chesterfieldzoo]

I think I was born with minis in my hand. I have had them and built tiny houses for as long as I can remember. Plus I had the tin house, the fold up barbie house, and I made a barbie house for my girls out of plywood. While delivering newspapers I found a mostly built Washington at the curb on garbage day, so I grabbed it because my mother had said she would like one someday. She never touched it for 5 years and I took it back (it's now my haunted house). That was the start of a very large collection of kit houses.

[Bex]

I lied! I am a liar! Ok, so it's not on purpose, but I thought I would add an edit to my last post. The first time I built a miniature, I didn't understand the term. I must have been 17 or 18. I was thinking of model housing, you know where you make the replica of a house/building you're considering building in real life? Only, I didn't expect to actually build my model, just have fun putting my model together and spending time with my grandfather. Any way, I suppose that's the same thing as miniature housing. Especially since I have yet to build my dream home- and I wouldn't build it like we built the model any way. Yeah, there are some problems with it. Please do take a look if you're interested. It's kind of buried in the forum. Since this is the thread that got me thinking about it, I thought I'd correct my error and show you my first house.

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=35629

[Guest Sculptor]

I was told that when I was very little I wanted and was given a dollhouse, pretty unheard of for a little boy in the early 1960s, but what I really remember was a visit- one of a few to an old cousin's estate on Long Island when I was around 7, my widowed grandma worked for her as her personal secretary and lived in the top floor of the house, so when I went to visit grandma at that time, it was visiting that house.

The 1890s era house on some acreage was built from stones that came from some historic place (I forget where, but it's in the Library of Congress archives about the house along with one photo) the cousin was a well to do widower and sculpted bronze figures too. She had full time servants- cook, housekeeper, and secretary, possibly even a driver and others, I only rememebr the cook and housekeeper.

The house had a real, formal library, the kind with wood shelves floor to ceiling and a permanent attached rolling ladder around the room to access the high shelves, what I remember most was the huge wood staircase that led to the main floor where the kitchen (and the cookie jar) were, and the library, in the library on two large tables were what I long thought were doll houses but turned out to be two very large antique room boxes full of expensive hand-made antique Victorian era furniture. They each had a glass front and were lighted inside, they were just sooo cool!

Cousin died very shortly after that period and the estate was sold off, I heard the two room boxes went to a couple of young female family members and I never heard about them or saw pictures of them.

The cousin was very well off financially, having been conencted to some huge ocean shipping line back then, so these two room boxes I have no doubt cost many thousands of dollars back then around 1967 (no idea when she bought them) and I have no doubt the little furniture, rugs and all in them were top quality and very valuable as well.

Sure wish I could find a photo of them, I only have a very faint mental image of one them- the larger one, and it was definitely a fancy, classical Victorian room with a fancy ceiling, wallpaper, wainscotting, wood floor and chandelier.

I don't remember and don't think there were any figures/dolls in them.

[Bonadea]

looking back, I've always done it. I even remember I found this little cheap bathroom set I bought when I was little and made my Memere a little miniature power room. I was probably 8.

I used to make additions to my Legos like little mailboxes. Even my favorite dolls were the dazzle dolls because they were miniature Barbies.

[L Swearengin]

I was thinking about this and the first doll house I built (the blue "farm house" was about 12 or so years ago. (time fades when you are old like me). My LOVE of miniatures started many, many years before that after a visit to Knott's Berry Farm and getting to go into Mott's miniatures. I do remember a school project (back before the dinosaurs) where my dad and I made an adobe house. I don't know how I ever forgot that adobe, since the scar is still in my thigh where I dropped the pocket knife. (dad's knifes were always super sharp). Wish I still had that "first" now.

[kat57]

Okay,Lawanda,you jarred a mini memory in me I had long forgotten that may be my first hand made 'mini'-at least I think it counts.

In 4th grade in California we were studying the 1849 Gold Rush. I decided for my related report and project to portray a man panning for gold at a stream. I don't have photos and I guess it eventually got thrown out. But,I made a stream and banks with a mix of flour and water heaped onto a cardboard box lid and shaped to look like a running stream,then painted blue and white after it dried...I don't recall if it had trees,but I'm sure I painted the 'banks' green.

The gold panner was a stick figure I made out of pipe cleaners/chenille sticks,with a paper hat. The most fun part was his pan,which was what gave me the whole idea. I don't remember what they were called,but when I was a little girl(I'm 57 now),there were these flavored tablets you could drop into a glass of water-like Alka-Seltzer-to make your own 'fizzy' soft drink. I remember the root beer was my favorite. Well,the tablets came in a foil package,each tablet encased in this foil shape that reminded me of a 'pan'! I talked my mother into buying the tablets,then I carefully cut out the pan and glued it in the panner's hands. I don't remember if there were more details to the vignette,but I did get an A!

Finally got around to looking it up-"Fizzies" was the name of those soft drink tablets.

Edited May 24, 2014 by kat57