A Port Moody woman is about to make it big, for working small.
Gabrielle Whiteley is one of 10 miniaturists from around the world competing in the second season of the reality series, Best in Miniature.
The show, which premieres Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. on CBC and the network’s streaming service, CBC Gem, challenges artists expert in designing and crafting 1:12 scale furniture pieces and dioramas to show off their skills against the clock and against each other.
The best miniaturist wins $15,000.
Whiteley started making miniature furniture about four years ago when she found commercial pieces for a dollhouse that she’d refurbished for her son, Max, and daughter, Millie, lacking in style and quality. They were mostly plastic, garish and pink.
Decorative panache
Whiteley said she wanted to bring a sense of decorative panache to the two-storey dollhouse that the kids could play with while scratching her designer itch.
Whiteley said she favours the simple, clean lines of mid-century modern, so she started researching full-size pieces and sketching out how to scale them down 12 times to the recognized standard for dollhouses.
She taught herself a computer program to aid her creative process, assembled the tools and experimented with materials to find just the right combination of versatility and durability.
Whiteley settled on 1/4-inch plywood which she now cuts with a laser. Individual components are assembled with glue and little tabs.
Striving to make her pieces look as realistic as possible, Whitely said she also relishes the challenge of making them functional, with drawers that pull out from dressers, cabinet doors that swing open on tiny hinges.
Recently, Whiteley acquired and taught herself to use a 3-D printer that transforms thin filaments of non-toxic plastic into scale countertops, stove elements, decorative vases, kitchen sinks and even a bathtub.
Pieces are kid-tested
Max, 7, and Millie, 5, are Whiteley’s product testers. If they like one of her prototypes and it can endure their playing, she adds it to her website, as well as her social media channels.
Whiteley said her business evolved from a previous side hustle she’d started refurbishing old dollhouses that had seen better days. The hobby was an escape and a way to reconnect with her own childhood growing up in London where she cobbled together her dollhouses from boxes.
Customers for Whiteley’s dollhouse renos found her on Facebook Marketplace. She said she was amazed from how far afield they shipped their little homes to be gussied up with minor repairs, new paint and even wallpaper.
Whiteley said putting her miniature furniture online was a little intimidating at first.
It may be a niche hobby, but practitioners are very devoted to their craft, attending conventions and trade shows around the world to catch up on the latest technology and survey new trends.
“I had no idea such a community existed,” she said.
Appeals to kids and adults
Whiteley said she loves that her craft caters to both adults who can appreciate her design and construction, as well as kids who just want to play.
She said a single piece can take weeks of development, honing its assembly technique, burnishing edges charred by the laser cutter so they’re clean and smooth, determining the details that can be miniaturized to give it pizzazz and personality.
While a tiny couch costs $40 and a scale sideboard goes for up to $48 on Whiteley’s website, she said dollhouse enthusiasts can design and decorate entire rooms for a fraction of the amount it would take to satisfy their interior design sensibilities in a full-size room.
“If you can’t afford it in real life, you can have it in miniature,” she said.
Girding for the possibility of new customers discovering her work once the TV show airs, Whiteley’s been busy putting together DIY kits, with all the individual components for items like a tiny Windsor bed, kitchen cabinets and range, Eleanor sideboard and a double vanity that can be flat-packed with instructions for assembly.
She said she’s also looking to increase her collaborations with sewers, needlepoint and macrame artists so she can also offer more soft furnishings like little blankets, pillows and cushions.
Whiteley said participating in the TV show and meeting other miniaturists from around the world has energized her to explore the possibilities of her craft.
“It’s made me feel if I can work under that kind of pressure, I can do anything,” she said. “The sky is the limit.”
