How old were you when you started making miniatures?

[KathieB]

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.

[chapchap73]

Good topic, Kathie. I was always interested in tiny things as a child. My Dad made me a dollhouse when I was little (wish I still had it) that was played with for hours. I had not very many toys, but my Barbie accessories were the most treasured. I still have the ones I loved best and have been thinking about a shadowbox or something to display them in. I started to get the urge to build a house when I was in my 20's. There was a dollhouse/miniature shop in a town close to me where I loved to go and look at all their tiny treasure, but with a baby in a stroller and NO budget room it was just a dream. Fast forward to now, 2 teenagers one with autism, MS, still a limited budget, and no space for any more full scale houses; I'm even more in love with tiny things now, and thanks to the internet I'm able to make some of my dreams come true!

[havanaholly]

I also played a lot with dolls and my dollhouse when I was little. I made things for my dollhouse back then, but nothing like later; so the bug was always there. I saved the occasional magazine with a miniature project later on, even though I had all sons who were growing old enough not to share an interest. When DH suggested we make a dollhouse for the eldest granddaughter, we did so; and I had so much fun he let me get a kit when we spotted one in an unlikely place for a very low price. I was 50 and just starting Nursing school, and it was a great way to relax after classes, clinicals and care plans. It's hard to realize, but I've been doing this for over 20 years!

Getting younger folks interested is still a good idea, it's where our professional mini artisans and craftsmen will come from to continue on for several years.

[Roxxie2]

Me too Sarah.....I started making little scenes in shoe boxes when I was a little girl. I made furniture for my dolls and always loved the smallest dolls. I believe that I had one of those metal 1950's dollhouses I don't know the name of the company. I bought a Lego dollhouse for my daughter when she was little but she snowed no interest in it. I guess you are either interested in miniature things or you aren't....lol

[Dalesq]

I started making minis when I was around 9 or 10 using shoeboxes as room boxes. Before that my parents had gotten me a Sears (Marx) tin dollhouse, the one will the staircase, doorbell, and lights. I was 7 at that time but don't recall actually making dollhouse things until 9, though I was making clothing for my trolls (and Barbie) :Xmas:

It wasn't until my late 30s that I got an actual dollhouse kit (the Columbian was first)

[Selkie]

Hm-m-m-m?? Hard to answer the poll exactly. I was always a doll playing kid and had lots of small doll furniture. (I'm a pre-Barbie generation). I loved to create architectural sketches of houses and floor plans. I saved every piece of scrap paper available to draw them. I dreamed of being an architect but it wasn't the common thing to do for girls back then. Back then girls were nurses, teachers, secretaries, mothers and wives. Of course in cities and such, others had more options but not so much out in the country where I lived. There were different expectations for us at the time and I wasn't the "break the rules" kind of gal.

I had a huge paper doll collection and constantly made "furniture", clothes and houses for them. I used to cut pictures out of the Montgomery Wards catalog and make "families" from the clothes models. I made up stories about them with ages, jobs, hobbies, etc. I saved all those over the years but they were out of fashion by the time I had a daughter. She was more of a sports kind of gal anyhow and not into dolls, etc.

I have always done sewing, fine art, needle arts and woodworking and crafts of all manner but when I was in my 40's my mother got interested in building a full scale dollhouse. and that's when we discovered GL houses. She eventually purchased the Garfield kit but it was hers not mine. Years later, she passed away, and I inherited the unfinished building. From there it was downhill to full blown dh addiction. I can now be my own architect after all !!

[Roxxie2]

My Uncle was a carpenter and he built dollhouse furniture from scratch. I wish I had some of his pieces now he has passed away but the wood he used was beautiful.
I remember making beds for my dolls from match boxes because I loved how you could push the bed into the box. My mother use to give me a dime and I could spend it on anything in Woolworths. I use to buy the tiny plastic dolls in the toy section.

[jrchob]

It all started for me when I thought it would be nice to make a house for each granddaughter. After those were completed, I kept

going! I was @64.

[morgansmith]

I'm blown away by the number of times I just thought 'me too'. So, I am like all of the rest of you...I started MAKING mini's and crafting no later than 5. By 6, I had a beautiful playhouse in my back yard as well. I love ALL scales.

I had the tin dollhouse. I took architecture classes in school. I still have alot. Not dollhouses, but some of my Petite Princess furniture and the tiny dimestore baby dolls. Barbies, yes. I had a huge paper doll collection and LOVED Little Kiddles. I had a friend in school that sat next to me and we made tiny dollhouses and furniture from our milk cartons and construction paper. We kept them in our desks and invisible families lived in them.

[Roxxie2]

Morgan me too on the paper dolls! I love paper dolls! I just saw a book of Native American paper dolls in a tourist shop in town I wanted but I am trying hard not to start into that obsession again! :O

[havanaholly]

I stared collecting the antique paper doll books about 30 years ago, I've been using them for ideas to dress my little people, but if I live long enough to be unable to play with my power tools and knead clay, I'll cut them out and play with them, instead.

[Dalesq]

Does anyone remember yarn dolls? I used to make these in the 3rd grade. Gave them to all my friends, and yes, they lived in our desks at school; the old wooden kind with the lift desktop. I made the dolls in every size imaginable

[KathieB]

One time a nice neighbor bought two sets of movie star paper dolls, one for me and one for my sister. Without showing them to us, she told us the names of the stars -- Jean Tierney and I forget what the other one was. My 10-year-old mind translated Jean to Gene, and I didn't want to have anything to do with a male paper doll. I don't recall who ended up with which doll, but I do know that neither of us were disappointed. Silly child.

[Blondie]

I started at 29 when I saw a house someone built online. I'm 36 now, and I'm a "young person" in my local mini guild. In my Real Life, I'm older than most people I socialize with, so it's fun to be considered "the kid." I don't think I would have had the patience for this hobby in my teens or early 20s, however. I only learned how to calm down once I hit my 30s.

[kat57]

I was a Barbie doll nut for my whole childhood,up to age 13! I played with them with friends or solo,it didn't matter. I made all kinds of minis for them-my parents wouldn't spend the 'ridiculous' amount of $ that her houses and cars cost(Their words),so out came cardboard boxes and tape and scraps of cloth,along with a growing imagination!! I made an above ground pool in an old pot my mother let me play with,old evening bags became sofas. I had a blast every day,and really didn't want to give up my dolls at 13,but peer pressure won out.

While visiting a friend that same year,I saw my first 'real' dollhouse,fully furnished,lights,the whole nine yards! It belonged to the other girl's little sister,much younger than us. They had separate bedrooms,but I kept coming up with excuses to walk by her door and peer in at this incredible sight! I was in love!This was looked upon with very much disdain by my friend!lol Shortly afterward I discovered boys,so.....lol

It wasn't until I was 21 that I first saw dollhouse miniature furniture and other minis for sale,in the gift shop of a restaurant where I worked. I began to collect a few things then to put on a corner bookshelf in my room,buying what I could afford or making tiny things,to set up rooms on the shelves. My first 2 purchases were a rocking chair and a grandfather clock. I made a cardboard,foam,and fabric bed. My first furniture kit was a House of Miniatures chest on chest of drawers(name?). The chair and clock were given to younger family members long ago,but I still have the chest on chest of drawers.

In my 30s I discovered polymer clay and all you can make with it(yahoo!). I branched out to vignettes and Christmas theme roomboxes as gifts when I was in my 40s. This year,at 56,I discovered the Forum and am now working on a dollhouse just for me,with several other small house kits waiting. I learn something new about minis and dollhouses every day and am even more in love with this hobby-addiction-obsession-passtime-passion-lifeline,than ever before!

[mesp2k]

At about 10 I built a town/city for my matchbox cars on an old ping pong table. The town had streets, sidewalks & toothpick telephone poles. I used black thread for the telephone wires. My dad was renovating our house at the time so there was plenty of scrap wood to make mini houses. I think I used green painted sawdust for the lawns & coffee grounds for soil. The city was made with a Kenner's girder & panel set. Had an electric train going around the perimeter. I guess I was influenced by the trains at out local Hobby Town

Eventually I discovered real cars, girls & beer...and minis went to the back burner until age 55...can't remember why I started again?? :idiot:

[Jane S]

I was quite the tomboy when I was younger, more bikes, hikes and cars than any dolls for me, but I was interested in making miniature landscapes with moss and stones sticks. I would make the houses and gardens baskets anything I could think of for a small village.

When I was around 9 I went to my first miniature store in San Francisco, it was the first spark of mini obsessiveness I had. Although I have always loved little things, trinkets, scenes and the like I never got back into the obsession..er hobby till my daughter wanted a burger and fries for her first dollhouse.

Its been all down the mini hills from there. My first dollhouse when I was 35. Now at 36, I have 5 *cackle*

My 6 year old daughter is already a miniaturist, I can tell she has the spark and will always love this hobby. Sometimes I have to tell her to make things a little bigger she already is trying to make micro scale items!

Keep that circle growing!

Jane

[GirlPiper]

About age 4 I cut up spools from ribbon, oatmeal and salt boxes (they were so ROUND), saved tongue depressors from the doctor's office, and made little things. Luckily, even with our very small house, my mom respected my efforts and let the match box dressers, old compact mirror vanity tables, power puff beds sit until I took them apart and made something else instead. I stopped in junior high--several room boxes later--and finished school, then got back into small things when my then-husband shipped out to Viet Nam. In my thirties, no money, but 2 kids and a divorce later, the kids and I made toys--little and big--out of things found in the sewing scrap box and leftovers from repairing the house. They outgrew that age, I finished college, moved back to my home state, and just got back into the mini thing after a major heart attack 18 months ago. First kit--Orchid--had a blast, and reassembled some tools and materials, and have been having all sorts of fun ever since. My son still has the barn we built, and he has built doll houses (and furnished them) for two of his daughters. His son got a NASCAR garage.

[Dalesq]

Mike's comment "I don't know why I started again" reminded me that I restarted this hobby after 20+ years because I'd saved it all for "when I retire." When I realized I wasn't going to be able to retire any time soon (ever? ...bites nails...) I started hauling the boxes out of the closet. :Xmas:

[porcelainpoppy]

Good poll! My interest in miniatures began when I was in 5th grade. My father decided to build a dollhouse from scratch for my mum for her birthday. He worked at my elementary school so he built it in the workshop there so she wouldn't suspect. I would go in after school and help him with the simple stuff shingles, etc... When we were done, and the present was revealed I begged him to make one for me as well. My mum and I traded furniture and accessories back and forth for years! It was a wonderful family hobby!

[jbnmini]

Me too on the paper dolls! Like Selkie, I would cut out furniture, rooms, and a family from the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. I hadn't thought about that for years! thanks for the trip down memory lane.

I desperately wanted one of those tin dollhouses as a child, but my parents were poor farmers and couldn't afford such a thing. I do recall that my cousin let me borrow her dollhouse for a time. I loved my Barbie dolls as well.

When my oldest daughter was about 6 I was shopping in the new AC Moore store and happened upon the dollhouse miniatures aisle. I was in heaven! I purchased the Artply Barrington Victorian (I don't believe in starting small. LOL) and jumped in with both feet! Well, it didn't take long to realize that I was building this house for me - not my daughter! LOL

Fast forward 20 years or so - - I had to close up my bakery because of physical issues, my hubby sold his furniture business and we moved into town to a smaller house. It didn't take long to realize that I needed a 'creative outlet' now that I wasn't creating sugar art any longer. And so I dragged out my mini stuff and went to work, and have been loving every minute of it since!

[beckyjo]

I received my first house, a Greenleaf Madison, from my brother and aunt when I was 9. They built it for Christmas. I immediately fell in love, so my dad made a Greenleaf Glencroft for my 10th birthday. I then went on during my teen years and early 20s to build 5 dollhouses from Greenleaf and Duracraft. I also won a Duracraft Linfield as a door prize one year. When I married and had children, I sold all of these except the Glencroft due to space issues. I've now got a huge Woodline Victorian in the early stages of construction, and a tiny little Lisa's Country Cottage almost complete. My oldest, who is now 11, is working on a small Bungalow. She's hooked on the hobby. I just bought the Quickbuild Imagination, which will probably go to my middle daughter -- she's desperate to get a "real" dollhouse.

[CheckMouse]

I guess I should have changed my answer. I didn't start "official" miniatures until the 21-40 bracket. That's when I realized it was safe to come out of the mini-closet - I wasn't crazy, or childish, after all! I designed and made clothes for my dolls starting around 6 or 7 years old. My mother couldn't sew a stitch but my aunt was an accomplished seamstress, so Mother made sure I got off on the right foot with my aunt tutoring me. I had the metal dollhouse, too, but we moved a lot and it disappeared. But I was drawn to all things tiny since my earliest memories. The toy I remember best - and would give anything to have now - was a little sink, probably about a foot high, that had a water reservoir in the back. The faucets worked so my little sink had running water. I was totally captivated by it. Again, we moved, and it stayed behind. My mother wasn't the real sentimental type - I think all my toys went to my younger cousins. But my favorite doll is still with me, as are most of the clothes, and roller-skates, I made for her. One of my aunts gave her to me for my 9th birthday and by that time I was big enough to pack my own bag and she ALWAYS traveled with me. She has been to 4 countries already

[Dalesq]

CJ's story about the working sink toy made me think of the toy I wish I still had. It was a one inch scale working slot machine. Every time you pulled down the handle the numbers would all turn inside and then line up randomly. Each number wheel turned independently of the other, so the result was always different. I played with that thing for hours and hours :lol:

[morgansmith]

That's sure a different sink story than when I was a kid When I was about 6, my parents had a playhouse built for my little sister and I. It was made to look similar to the one my Mom had, which became the laundry/freezer room. I knew it as 'out there where the cake is' Anyway, before building one, my parents looked at some used houses for sale. One in particular had a sink. With you guessed it. Running water. Well there was water everywhere and my parents promptly decided we would have a new playhouse with NO water! Not even a pretend sink, just a counter. So I got a great playhouse but it was never what I wanted because it had no sink Is that why I hate doing dishes?