Collecting Miniatures

  • Mission Shopping

    We all love browsing and buying miniatures, but shopping can be extra fun when you are searching for specific items to fill a space. That was my mission last month in Chicago as I selected items for my newest commission by Mulvany & Rogers, Savage Manor. The 1/12-scale residence will reflect where my ancestor Thomas […]

  • Reel Life in Miniature

    Most of the homes and room boxes in the KSB Miniatures Collection are re-creations of particular periods of time—Spencer House takes you back to 18th century England, South Bend reimagines the Victorian Era, and Savage & Sons depicts jewelry shopping in the Georgian Period—to name a few. There is one, though, that merges the past with […]

  • Into the Light

    Diane Echnoz Almeyda has always enjoyed making jewelry, but when she stumbled upon a little-known technique called plique-à-jour, she fell in love with the challenging and secretive art form. Today, she is perhaps the only artist in the world who creates plique-à-jour in miniature. She explains the technique and what draws her to the tedious, […]

  • For the Love of Books

    Libraries have always been an essential part of my life and my being. My love of history is traced to books. My desire to keep learning is fueled by books. And my curiosity and imagination continue to be inspired by books. The 2nd Earl Spencer had his own fascination with the printed word and upon […]

  • In With the New

    Welcome to 2017! I hope you all are as excited as I am for everything the New Year has to offer. And while I doubt there will be an “out with the old” as far as miniatures are concerned, I thought I would share “the new” that will soon be featured in the collection. These […]

  • Sweet Creations

    Whether it’s made of gingerbread, covered with make-believe moss or fit and pegged using the same techniques employed in ancient times, any structure Teresa Layman creates immediately becomes a home. I have three buildings by the Connecticut artisan: a hobbit house called Pippin Lodge, a Gingerbread Kitchen and a barn and stable for the Nativity […]

  • Brushing with Greatness

    Lou and I are lovers of art, and the most favorite memories I have of our early marriage was the collection of paintings from contemporary American artists to English landscape and still life artists to the wonderful Dutch masters of the mid-17th century street and country scenes. Several of the paintings shown here are ones […]

  • Living Doll

    What young girl hasn’t dreamt of becoming a ballerina? Whether she, like me, was captivated by seeing Swan Lake as a child, or today is inspired by the grace and talent of Misty Copeland, I believe many a girl has envisioned herself in tulle and slippers elegantly sweeping through the air. Those ballerina dreams came […]

  • Music to My Eyes

    Music has always been an important part of history, so it’s no surprise that many rooms in the KSB Miniatures Collection feature scenes with instruments. In London during the 18th century social season, entertainment often included going to the opera and theaters, as well as to private manors where dinner party discussions revolved around the […]

  • Preserving the Past, Present & Future

    Like many miniaturists and collectors, I choose and commission pieces because they remind me of something special. It could be time I’ve spent with the artisan or I’ll acquire an item because I know another collector once treasured it, too. Others pieces are sentimental to me for personal reasons like the three 1/12-scale structures representing […]