When I was seven-years-old, I prayed for a pocket-sized friend after reading Tom Thumb. At age 11, I discovered the Smurfs. In high school, I made a palm sized record player with Play-Doh but it quickly aged and cracked. That concluded my initial foray into miniatures. While earning my BFA in Creative Writing, I took a drawing class and was startled at my ability to create what I meant to. Throughout the next thirty years, I tried many forms of creativity: clay sculpting, stone carving, painting, pastel, stagecraft, paper-crafting, embroidery, scene-creation for a model railroad…

Now, I employ all of those skills and talents to make miniatures using repurposed materials. There’s something meaningful in turning discarded things—like packaging, bits of metal, or scrap wood—into places that feel real and comforting. One of my little front doors has the house number 4, which was a product’s inspection number.

My hope is that these pieces make people pause—maybe feel curious, nostalgic or even comforted. Taking things that were on their way to being thrown away and giving them a second life in a small, meaningful place is at the heart of what I do.