Let's get small
October 3, 2017 12:51 PM Subscribe
The Big World of Teeny-Tiny Things
Miniacs are the makers, collectors, and fans of diminutive versions of, well, everything: dime-size dentures or tarot cards as small as pencil shavings. Miniature-making has long been viewed as an oddballish hobby akin to clockmaking, relegated to trade shows and obscure publications like the Nutshell News. But in the past few years, the miniac demographic has shifted to young artists and aesthetes who just happen to like objects more when they perch on the tip of a finger.
Reminds me of this previous FPP about micro-engraver Graham Short.
posted by zinon at 1:05 PM on October 3, 2017
posted by zinon at 1:05 PM on October 3, 2017
This is the World's Largest Collection of World's Smallest Versions of World's Largest Things .
posted by gauche at 1:07 PM on October 3, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by gauche at 1:07 PM on October 3, 2017 [8 favorites]
If you're into small, head to La Paz, Bolivia next Januarry 24th and check out Feria de Alasitas where they sell tiny anything which people use as a sort of sacrifice/fetish to petition fortune for whatever they want next year, so if you want to get anew car you buy a tiny one, if you want to graduate you buy a tiny diploma, etc. It's so weird and awesome.
posted by signal at 1:14 PM on October 3, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by signal at 1:14 PM on October 3, 2017 [5 favorites]
Lil' Biiiiiiiits
posted by SansPoint at 1:31 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by SansPoint at 1:31 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm one of these people, even though I'm not a collector or anything. It's just a weird fascination, almost visceral. I wonder if it's related to the ASMR response that other people have.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:31 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:31 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
I followed one of the Living Your Best Littlest Life links and discovered this nonsense taking place just a couple miles from my house. What is even happening? I feel woozy.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:35 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:35 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Goddamn it another hobby I've always wanted to do is now going mainstream.
posted by Melismata at 2:10 PM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 2:10 PM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
I haven't noped out of a thread this fast since the (truly excellent and bank account-wrecking) post on fountain pens last month.
So I am totally not following the Daily Mini IG account, nor reading anything linked here. Nope. Not me.
I love mini stuff so much that one year, look what I got for Quonsmas! Oh and the year before, there was this!
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:36 PM on October 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
So I am totally not following the Daily Mini IG account, nor reading anything linked here. Nope. Not me.
I love mini stuff so much that one year, look what I got for Quonsmas! Oh and the year before, there was this!
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:36 PM on October 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
A friend of mine (and fellow former tiki bartender) makes miniature food. She's constantly on the road at conventions so I never see her anymore.
As someone who has painted my fair share of wargame has miniatures, I find the whole miniature stuff world oddly familiar and alien at the same time.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 2:50 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
As someone who has painted my fair share of wargame has miniatures, I find the whole miniature stuff world oddly familiar and alien at the same time.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 2:50 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Goddamn it another hobby I've always wanted to do is now going mainstream.
...again. Scale model building was once *entirely* mainstream. Dollhouses and train sets used to be, like, 99% of all toys (definitely a real figure that I definitely did not just make up), and both had (and continue to have, albeit on a smaller scale) (I made a pun!) a whole miniature crafting culture around them.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:56 PM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
...again. Scale model building was once *entirely* mainstream. Dollhouses and train sets used to be, like, 99% of all toys (definitely a real figure that I definitely did not just make up), and both had (and continue to have, albeit on a smaller scale) (I made a pun!) a whole miniature crafting culture around them.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:56 PM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you are ever in Arizona, check out the miniature museum...
posted by SyraCarol at 4:38 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by SyraCarol at 4:38 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is totally up my alley and I'm excited to read this, but omg I thought this was a Steve Martin obit.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:27 PM on October 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Room 641-A at 7:27 PM on October 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
Miniatures are the perfect combination of America's new love of Tiny Houses and America's traditional hobby of filling one's home with "collectible" tchotchkes. The unborn heirs of the future will throw up their hands in the face of dearly departed Minimalist Grandma's vast collection of itty bitty Hummel figurines.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:00 PM on October 3, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:00 PM on October 3, 2017 [4 favorites]
SyraCarol, I'm a member of the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures in Tucson! It's just as good as you might think. The section of haunted houses is particularly satisfying to me, and they often have travelling exhibitions. Recently there was a really great ghost town!
posted by DSime at 9:50 AM on October 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by DSime at 9:50 AM on October 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
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I don't need another hobby.
I don't need another hobby.
I don't need another hobby.
I don't need another hobby.
dammit lexica
posted by seyirci at 1:04 PM on October 3, 2017 [13 favorites]