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Meet the Miniaturist: Winners Edition!

Sponsored by HBS/Miniatures.com

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Excited to present more winners from the popular Creatin' Contest, hosted each year by the folks over at HBS/Miniatures.com at a special Meet the Miniaturist: Winners Edition on Sunday, June 27 at 4pm ET. We'll chat with each winner, hear about their mini-inspirations, learn more about their craft and see their work up close!


Dianne Gordon| Cheese Cellar

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We’ll meet Dianne Gordon, granted a Third Place Win by wowing the judges with an awesome Cheese Cellar complete with a wine pairing set-up atop wooden barrels surrounded by truckles wheels of cheddar, parmesan and brie.

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Dianne has been making miniatures since she was a child and is so passionate about making food miniatures that she opened up her own ETSY shop: TinyAppetites, where she sells hand-crafted miniature foods.

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Dianne also has an active Instagram account where she posts more of awesome food miniatures here: @tinyappetite.

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Montana Marshall | Demon Barber

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First Time Entry Winner Montana Marshall, from Portland Oregon, created Demon Barber of Fleet Street inspired by Broadway’s celebrated, but bloody musical, Sweeney Todd.

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Marshall describes herself as "equal parts silly, spooky, nerdy, and weird" and is influenced by themes which tap into horror and the supernatural. She has had several "firsts attempts" in crafting scratch-built items in Demon Barber including the cobblestone street, the wood pull cart and food miniatures completed using weathering and aging techniques to give the work a grimy, back alley look and feel.

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You can find Montana and follow more of her work on her Instagram account here: @darkersideofdollhouses.

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Ess Raja | Primrose Cottage

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We'll also chat with Ess Raja, a mom of three from Houston, Texas and another First Time Entry Winner. Ess is a self-proclaimed "artist by day and an artist by night" with a design philosophy based on traditional Japanese aesthetics called "Wabi Sabi" which is centered on the acceptance of imperfections. (I have to practice this BIG TIME).

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Ess created Primrose Cottage with a mix of hand-crafted elements as well as miniatures from her personal collection. The piece depicts "the journey we all take from shiny and new to eventual wear and dilapidation. It has seen many summers and lived through many storms. It’s not a place, it’s a feeling and we’ve all been there."

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Some of the key features of Primrose includes a beamed ceiling made from 200 year old repurposed wood, hand painted terra cotta tiled flooring and a really cool crawl space underneath the structure. Ess decorated both sides of this kit for a versatile piece which maximizes the wow factor!


Ess Raja can be reached on Facebook or on Instagram: @ess.raja.designs

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This event is sponsored by HBS/Miniatures.com, a family-owned company which has been supplying quality dollhouse products since 1975. For 27 years, the Creatin' Contest has excited, motivated, and inspired miniaturists from all over the world to create award-winning treasures in small scale, starting only with a simple kit and by adding skillful talents and gifted imaginations.


Details for the 28th Annual Creatin’ Contest have been posted on miniatures.com here, so start now and get in on the competitive fun – deadline is December 17, 2021.


Sign up at www.dthomasfineminiatures.com so you never miss an update and follow on our social media channels here:

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Until Next Time: #LiveYourBestMiniLife

Heidi Athay hails from Toronto, Canada and is a lifelong and passionate Elvis Presley fan, so much so, that she got married at Graceland in 2008, the mansion this rock and roll music icon lived in Memphis, Tennessee before his passing in August of 1977.

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While Ms. Athay has a creative arts background in tv, film and animation, she has never worked in miniature. When the pandemic lockdown hit, she decided to start an ambitious project of crafting a 1/24 scale model of Presley's mansion and scratch-building every element right down to his iconic white and gold baby grand piano!

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A classic mid-century modern sunburst clock framed in a brushed gold design adorns a wall of antiqued mirror tiles. The marble fireplace is complete with a coordinating firescreen with fireplace accessories surrounded by plush white carpet.

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The miniature version of the Knabe baby grand piano in white, considered to be one of the most significant pieces of Elvis Presley music memorabilia , was crafted using balsa wood, cardboard, polymer clay, beads and craft paints.

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Heidi replicated the stained glass doors decorated with peacocks located between the living room and music room. Elvis was a religious man and the doors made using peacocks, ancient Christian symbols of eternal life and resurrection.

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Some of the key features of this tiny build includes the luxurious heavy blue drapes trimmed with sweeping gold fringe, framed reprints of oil-painted portraits of the King himself, a miniscule push button telephone and a retractable samurai sword nestled in a drawer of the breakfront.

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Heidi expects it will take another year to complete the project. In the meantime, we're planning a special Instagram Live event on Thursday, June 17 at 7pm ET (@dthomasminiatures) so we can chat about Tiny Graceland, take a look at the latest developments on the tiny mansion and hear more about her trials and tribulations getting all of the parts just right!

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Follow the latest developments with Tiny Graceland on Heidi's Instagram account here: @tinygraceland .

Until Next Time: #LiveYourBestMiniLife

As I scour the internet each week I am continuously surprised, delighted and awestruck by the amazing miniatures I find online. This is just 6 of those I discovered this week!

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This awesome vintage inspired oil lamp by TS Trinh from @miniaturesintheory (now who didn't have one of these in their homes growing up in the 1970s?) . Extra credit for the faux greenery popping out of the base!

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This working pull-out kitchen spray faucet nozzle by the mother/daughter team over at My Miniature Life @MyMiniatureLife_YT. The kitchen gadgets we live to obsess over are now available in miniature!

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This 18K gold painted wine glass by Thai Miniature House @Thai_Miniature_House . Run, (don't walk!) over this Instagram account for images of the complete set and take a look at the video showing how theses glasses are blown by hand!

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More mini glass! Take a look at this Chihuly-inspired chandelier by Beth Carl Picard from @bethacarlpicard who is currently building a dollhouse from scratch with details on her website: www.minimansionsbybeth.com

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Excited to see real working miniaturists creating work for commercial media projects! These tiny treats were by created Erika Anne Pitera from @PetiteProvisionCo and were featured on very last contest during S1E2 of Small Fortune, NBS's new competitive game show featuring contests using miniatures!

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This little BIG Wheel by Nashville art director and prop fabricator Devin Drake from @devinsdrake.


I hope to make this regular feature so if you like what you see, let me know! In the meantime, sign up here so you never miss an update.

Until Next Time: #LiveYourBestMiniLife

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