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Lehigh Valley Small on Scale presents 45th show ‘Turn it upside down and it’s a hill’

Published August 03. 2024 12:22PM

BY APRIL PETERSON

apeterson@tnonline.com

The green plates came first.

Members of Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club were working on ideas for a children’s activity for their annual show, club member Mary Breidinger explained, when Jenn Hershberger, another member of the club, spoke up.

“I said turn it upside down and it’s a hill,” Hershberger said of the green plates.

And the hill became the miniature playground aspiring the young miniaturists’ build during the club’s 45th annual show and sale at the Delta Hotel by Marriott, Breinigsville, on July 14.

Each tiny playground featured a tree, thanks to Hershberger’s husband who had been pruning bushes in their yard, a swimming pool crafted from colorful plastic bracelets, a teeter-totter and a jump rope fashioned from embroidery thread with tiny beads for handles.

“This was a group think thing,” Hershberger added.

The project combines a variety of lessons including the physics of how a fulcrum works in creating an operational teeter-totter; upcycling objects available around the house in new ways such finding new uses for paper plates, branches and costume jewelry; taking a break from electronic devices to make something unique and collaborating with others.

Kids who wanted to do the project must be accompanied by an adult, Breidinger emphasized, guaranteeing parents and, sometimes grandparents, uninterrupted time with the young crafter.

While grandparents join the budding miniaturists, parents and other caregivers are free to take in the displays and exhibits of projects made by club members and, of course, to shop.

Kiely Ostfeld, of Itty Bitty Interiors Modern Miniatures, brought her shop of contemporary miniatures to the show.

Ostfeld’s interest in miniatures sparked during the COVID-19 lock down in the spring of 2020 and continues to grow, she said.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” she said. “It was kind of a weird way to go about it but here we are.

“I found my niche. It’s my outlet.”

Ostfeld also works full time as an assistant principal. Her students know she enjoys miniatures.

“For being so little it makes such an impact,” she said. “It is so cool and brings such joy.”

Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club hosted its 45th annual show and sale at the Delta Hotel by Marriott, Breinigsville, July 14. The event includes displays of projects made by club members, vendors tables and a kids’ activity for budding miniaturists. The year’s kids’ activity was a miniature playground complete with rope swing, kiddie pool and teeter-totter. The green plates provided the catalyst for the project.
Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club Krista Jones stands with her book nook project featuring a scene fashioned from the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” The project, a collaboration involving her husband and her father, displays the meeting of the dragon Smaug and Bilbo Baggins.
LED lights created the candle-like glow in the cave. Krista Jones’ father made the maps. The project is crafted to look like a book standing on its spine and took a few months to complete, Jones said. “I can’t sell it, if anyone asks,” Jones said.
Lehigh Valley Small on Scale member Mary Breidinger gifted fellow member Melissa Schwartz the bug sitting atop the mushroom, which inspired this project.
Each October, members of the Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club join other members in the national parent organization National Association of Miniatures Enthusiasts on NAME Day to create a project like this one of a cart created for a seller of French pastries.
Kiely Ostfeld features a variety of contemporary miniatures at her table for her business Itty Bitty Interiors Modern Miniatures including tiny “succulents” and other decorative accents.
These beach chair hammocks are made from crocheted ribbon, Kiely Ostfeld explained.
Popular culture also provides inspiration for creations in miniature such as this item from the Harry Potter-verse.
“The Musicians’ Break,” created by Lehigh Valley Small on Scale member Jenn Hershberger, features a miniature cello, flute and violin.
PRESS PHOTOS BY APRIL PETERSONKiely Ostfeld brings her business Itty Bitty Interiors Modern Miniatures to the Lehigh Valley Small on Scale Miniatures Club at the Delta Hotel by Marriott, Breinigsville, July 14. “For being so little it makes such an impact. It is so cool and brings such joy,” Ostfeld said about her hobby.