Miniatura

I started designing and building dolls houses back in 2003 and ran the business for a few years, even appearing on local tv. I was always fascinated by miniatures though my qualifications took me down the electrical/electronics and mechanical engineering road. Personal circumstances meant I could no longer run the business but always intended to start back up again, which I did in 2021.

Inspiration comes from many sources, my personal era that I like is art deco, though I have yet to make anything in that style and I love Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work, I wouldn’t mind designing and building a dolls house and furnishing it all based around his work. One day maybe, I’ll add it to the list.

Other inspiration can come from anywhere, usually daydreaming or I might be in a shop and see something that triggers another thought and I’m pulling a notebook out I always carry around and writing down idea’s or drawings. Having a mechanical/electrical/electronic background, I can usually work out how to make things work in 1:12 or even 1:24 scale and love that challenges that brings.

My first make was a dolls house for my little sister many years ago, I was tasked with building one and had no idea on construction, in the end, it was a double depth double fronted house, two floors, a roof that lifted off and all the walls slotted together for transportation, the walls were hollow and the lighting wiring was done the way a full size house would be, having wired a few, I thought I knew dolls house wiring! Well, it worked, all 70 odd bulbs. Everything was hand made, even the staircase spindles and rail, all from brass rod and soldered together. Window panes were old CD case plastic cut up. There was even working French patio doors. The down side was that it was huge and heavy and no longer exists, only photo’s.

I work from my garage workshop that has been kitted out with heating (posh I know) a decent workbench and equipment, enough but never enough but I have everything I need to build the dolls houses. I also have a craft room in the house, here is where the book nooks are made. I have a dedicated area that has two tables, one I work at, the other for putting stuff on out of the way, all the paints and such like are there, my work table has everything to hand.

Time to build things depends on what it is and to what level of detail the customer wants, a basic unpainted and unlit dolls house takes a few weeks ( I have a full time job at the moment testing industrial bakery ovens) a book nook takes about 10 days of evening work, a fully decorated and lit dolls house can take a month or two.

Skills? I was taking things apart at 2 years old, took a few years before I was putting things back together , a few more before they went back together and worked. I’m very mechanically minded and I bring those skills to my craft work and as a qualified electronics engineer, the electrical side is no problem. Tools I use vary, I like the traditional way of building a dolls house, all hand tools, a jigsaw, router, steel ruler, sharp pencil and a good square but I also have a custom built (by myself) laser cutter, modellers airbrush and a 3D printer as well as a large table saw and a Proxxon table saw and chop saw plus all the usual hand tools you would expect and maybe some you might not, I’ll adapt a tool to fit a job. Materials use varies from the regular MDF to ply, though to liteply and basswood.

Craftspeople I admire? Mackintosh for one, Dom from tiny design challenge was inspiring but all the contestants were, as wood is my main material of choice, I enjoyed watching his work. I still watch an occasional episode if I want to see how they did something. John Atkinson Grimshaw as a painter, a fellow Leeds lad.

Future projects are many fold. More book nooks in progress as are dolls houses and I am building an exact replica of the Bronte Parsonage and will be making dolls houses to sell of the Parsonage too.