The Little World

Show me.

If you recognise that phrase, you’ll know it embodies the scepticism and practicality of the Missourian. It must be hard to sell used cars in Kansas City…

But the miniature builder can satisfy even the hardest prairie mind – because the miniature builder need not be restricted to where they are or when they are. Their productions can range the world in space and time. Indeed – the best of the little scenes draw on cultures and artifacts that you can hardly get anywhere else.

Suppose you wanted to live in a suburban house built in 1949 and furnished in the 50’s…but not here in Perth – in Kansas City. A mid-century modern house 12,000 miles and 70+ years away. You could hardly gather the furniture and textiles to furnish it for under a million dollars and then the business of setting out to battle the local council for land and building permits on older designs. Good Luck – you’ll need it but won’t have it.

But set out on the same quest in the 1:12 scale and the thing becomes a real possibility.

Oh, you’ll need to do research, and read all the trendy outré magazines and websites you can get – and some of the tiny furniture will seem expensive – but look back into catalogues and see what a real Eames chair cost in the 50’s.

You can do it and will get more pleasure in your 50’s house in miniature than ever you would have in 1:1 life. And you’ll discover that naff taste is not just a modern phenomenon – it existed back then, too.