The Little World

In a house? In a suburb? In a certain time?

What if you could create your own little world? Some scale model railway makers do that – and their layouts can be as bare or as detailed as their resources and imagination may dictate.

Scale model diorama makers as well – they have little slices of life on bases in their model showrooms and can imagine themselves really there…

However, the champions of the Little World are the people who build miniature rooms , houses, and vignettes. Mainly, but not exclusively women and girls, they draw upon a vast resource of ready-made items as well as plans and patterns. They build, I believe, their own worlds and live in them even more surely than the scale model makers of other genres.

Their abodes need not be classic doll houses – though I did note several commercial historical houses displayed at South Perth in a state of preservation or restoration. These structures may have been seen as toys by some but have gone far beyond what a shop might provide – and are historical items in their own right.

The miniature need not be complete – I saw several garden settings, greenhouses, or simple tool sheds that were as neat as my own home environment is not. And here is the secret for many builders – it is hard to make the miniature perfect but it need not be done instantly, nor maintained against a rampant nature. The small plastic or paper vine will stay where you glue it and not take over the whole damned back yard.

It is hard to get sunburned or insect-bit when making a miniature garden. You will not be swooped in nesting season. Few prowlers will pinch your potted palms. You might buy a scale lawn mower but you need not push it or pay someone every two weeks to cut the paper grass!

And you need not be subject to the whim of the weather. If you fancy a snow scene or a tropical beach when the calendar doesn’t agree, just start cutting and gluing.

If the overseas holiday is always out of reach, you can bring the distant close – the miniaturist is truly an universal citizen.