I know I’ve been quiet for an awfully long time. It seems I
really needed to take a break from the blog to do a little . . .
Bird watching . . .
Check out the flowers . . .
And watch some wildlife . . .
I also took a trip that included this . . .![]()
In addition, I have returned to something else I’ve been
putting off for a long time.
Many years ago, when I was selling my crafts at local shows,
one of my sisters asked me if I would collaborate with her in creating 1/12
scale dolls. The scale refers to a size that equates to 1” = 1’. Though I was
nervous about my ability to make clothing for such small dolls, I agreed to
try. She would create the dolls from porcelain. So began my introduction to the
world of miniatures.
About the same time, I was reading a book by Peter Menzel
called Material World. He went on to do another called Woman in the
Material World with Faith d’Alusio, which I also read. The books show the
real life situations of up to 30 statistically average families from various
countries around the world. You can find out more about it here: http://www.menzelphoto.com/books/mw.php.
Also about that time, I came across statistics for a world
portrait, if the earth were populated by 1000 people. That, in turn, combined
with the miniatures and Material World information led me to design a
1/12 scale house I call the “World House.” (Since then, the statistics have
been updated several times. The current ones, for a world population of 100 people
can be found here: http://www.100people.org/statistics_100stats.php?section=statistics.
) While the statistics have changed slightly, they are similar enough that my design
still works.
In the house, I have a Chinese grandmother, Hispanic mother,
African father, Bhutanese teenaged son, Italian child daughter, and an Indian
baby boy. This is my solution for the problem of how to people the house in a
way that models the ethnic and cultural population of the world. The “people”
also conform to other details of the statistics, such as religion and
education. While the house is an American dollhouse and I am still working on
it, it has space apportioned according to the real world situations, material
goods for each “person” as they would have in their respective countries, and the
“people” have occupations similar to their counterparts.
In the intervening years, I have not had much time to work
on the house, as other things have taken precedence. However, I recently began
going through my materials, and then, got information about the upcoming Chicago
Miniatures Show, both of which reignited my drive to continue. Many of the
pieces I use or plan to use are made with recycled materials, giving me another
way to conserve resources and avoid having things end up in a landfill.
Have you ever thought about what the whole world looks like
in terms of human population or wondered what life was like for someone in a
different country? What would your choices be if you were designing a World
House?
Until next time, as always, I wish you peace and all good.
