NO SMALL FEAT Miniature enthusiasts gather at show
By April Peterson
Jeanne Atkinson of Allentown never thought it would come to this.
Her enthusiasm for miniatures started with collecting.
“I started by simply collecting things and putting them together in an appealing way to me,” she said.
On Aug. 7 at the 43rd Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club Show and Sale, held at Delta Hotel by Marriott, Fogelsville, Atkinson displayed a quarter-inch scale house she built from the ground up including all furniture and landscaping.
The tiny home, Pickett Hill by name, fits on a table top but is a world onto itself.
“I loved the look of the house. It really did speak to me,” Atkinson said.
“I was able to do what I feared the most,” Atkinson said of the project.
Working in miniature holds a charm to which many club members, vendors and shoppers attest.
Marina Neff, of West Chester, started working with miniatures during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, purchasing a little dollhouse for her daughter to fix up.
“She didn’t want any parts of it,” Neff said. “I got addicted.”
Neff brought her new line of contemporary dollhouse furnishings and fixtures, a style she describes as modern farmhouse, to the Aug. 7 show. She specializes more in interior design, she said, and has done custom interiors for clients who found her through social media. Her business, Marina’s Miniatures, also now offers a kit for a modern farmhouse featuring her aesthetic. The kit is new, she said.
Neff and her husband are seasoned house flippers, she said.
“It’s a much better budget when it’s little so my husband loves it,” Neff said of her new business. A former medical technologist, working with miniatures is now Neff’s full-time job, allowing her flexibility in her family life and relieving stress.
Mary Breidinger, joined Small on Scale 15 to 20 years ago, echoed Neff.
“It’s so satisfying,” Breidinger, club president, said of her work in miniatures. “It’s forever. You can pass it on,” she said. She has made miniature masterpieces as gifts, including a liquor store her son, who works in the industry, displays in his office and ballet-themed miniature scenes for her daughters.
“I love the camaraderie when we have our play dates,” Breidinger says of her club members and meetings. “Everyone is so generous about sharing ideas.”