Helping Hands: Miniature club, big fundraiser

Imagine a garden fountain that fits in the palm of your hand or a piano no bigger than a thimble. Welcome to the world of miniatures.

The term miniature describes the hobby of creating and collecting items in a specific scale. Although some people might think of it as a child’s activity, in reality, it is a sophisticated art form, according to miniaturist Judy Krueger.

“Miniaturists create amazingly intricate model rooms and houses,” said Krueger. “They are the original recyclers – finding a use for everything.”

Krueger, Priscilla Spivey and Sharon Moore are members of the Itty Bits II Miniature Club. Annually the club selects a community organization as the recipient of their fundraising efforts.

Club members have been working the past nine months building, designing and decorating a K-9 Country Inn Bed and Breakfast doll house valued at $10,000. The doll house will be raffled Nov. 24 at Silver Lake Mall.

Raffle tickets are $1, with all proceeds going to the purchase of a K-9 bomb dog for the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

Bomb dogs smell explosives and can locate a gun in a meth house or can find evidence such as “spent” cartridges, according to Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson.

“Right now, if we need a bomb dog we call Fairchild Air Force Base and the dog may or may not be available,” said Watson. “We have had suspicious incidents where it would be a real asset to respond immediately with a dog.”

Watson says the K-9 program is completely supported by donations and would not happen without the generosity of the community.

The idea for the raffle began when Spivey began to wonder what she would do with the wooden shell of a doll house she owned. With a bit of help from Krueger’s husband, Wes, another floor was added.

Each club member adopted and decorated a room, at their own expense, and eventually the entire house was remodeled.

Spivey has collected Barbie dolls for years and has been actively involved in miniatures since 1977. Working on the doll house has given her great joy.

“We papered, painted, roofed and sided the house just like you would do with a real house,” said Spivey.

Moore has been interested in miniatures since the 1990s. She bought a doll house shell, took three years to completely decorate it, and in the process met Krueger at a local arts and crafts store. They rekindled their friendship that began in high school.

Krueger started decorating shadow boxes as a child and has completed many room boxes. A room box is a popular way to display miniatures without building a whole doll house.

“Room boxes generally have a theme and, as the name indicates, are a box that you turn into a room,” Krueger said.

Krueger has owned a retail shop, Coeur d’Alene Creative Gifts and Miniatures, for many years. A walk through her shop, gives visitors the impression that miniaturists really do believe it is a “Small World After All.”

“Miniaturists pay a lot of attention to detail,” said Krueger. “If a miniature has moving parts that make it functional like the full-size model all the better.”

People have been fascinated by miniatures for centuries. Miniatures have been found in 5,000-year-old Egyptian tombs where it was speculated they would be needed in the afterlife.

Collecting miniatures is the third-largest collector’s hobby in the United States, after stamp and coin collecting, according to the Home and Garden Television Web site. Modern technology has now made it possible to produce large numbers of detailed miniature replicas at prices the average person can afford, but it used to be a hobby for the very wealthy.

Itty Bits II Miniature Club members belong to the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts. NAME is an educational, nonprofit organization dedicated to the miniature collector and builder through sharing ideas and experiences among its members.

NAME sponsors State Day workshops where members make room boxes with titles like “Secret Garden,” “Little Girl with Red Shoes,” and “Garden Room with a View.”

Itty Bits II Miniature Club will be hosting the two-day event at St. Pius Church in May. People attend from all over the United States.

“Our goal is to link people of like minds in order to share our love of the hobby that captivates us,” said Krueger.