The dozens of artists and craftspeople featured in this volume create
miniature representations of real-world scenes--everything from
housewares, such as a thumb-sized rice cooker, to storefronts and
cliffside dwellings suspended in test tubes, all the way up to entire
multi-story buildings, with every detail preserved inside and out. Each
of these exquisite works tells an intriguing story, encapsulating
history, culture and memory, and elevating everyday items--the signage
on the side of a garbage can, a rusted downspout--to objects worthy of
artistic representation, prompting us through this striking shift of
scale to perceive the world in whole new ways.
Among the featured artists, Tatsuya Tanaka brings Japanese iconography
into his master work "Miniature Calendar," while Joshua Smith, from
Australia, keeps streets and addresses and memory alive by re-creating
them in miniature, freezing them in time, complete with weeds and water
stains. This book not only digs into the stories behind the works, but
provides guidance for those who are ready to try their own hand at mini
crafts. Three masters share their inspirations and techniques by
revealing a detailed process of a single masterpiece.
