Scale Miniatures

Handmade in 1:12 scale

I’m proud to be an Artisan with the International Guild of Miniature Artisans. Miniatures have been a passion of mine since I was a kid. You can follow my work on Instagram @craiglabenzminiatures. Or on my Facebook page, Craig Labenz Miniatures. I’m planning to start selling limited editions of my work soon and I’m considering taking commissions. Stay tuned.

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Tom Bishop Chicago, April 29 – May 1, 2022

Craig Labenz holding his handmade 1/12th scale electric chandelier

Craig Labenz playing with his handcrafted 1:12th scale croquet set.

1:12th scale miniature croquet set by Craig Labenz

Here’s a look at what I’ve been up to on Instagram:

craiglabenzminiatures

Miniature Artist. IGMA Artisan. In real life, I also build websites @craiglabenzdesign.

Progress last August on my 1/12th scale Connecticu

Progress last August on my 1/12th scale Connecticut Dressing Table. Lots of sanding still to do before painting. One of my favorite parts about the original piece I based this on was the lovely way the curve of the shell carving on the center drawer flows into the concave curve in the apron below.

(…Continued from my previous post) Now, a little

(…Continued from my previous post) Now, a little bit later, I’ve learned a lot about furniture construction. (And isn’t that one of the best things about making miniatures?) So this new version of my 1/12th scale, 18th century New England Tavern Table new table is, I think, a lot more accurate.

Like before, I used cherry for the primary wood. For the secondary wood on the drawers I salvaged wood from the drawers of a decrepit 100+ year old dresser that I bought many years ago at a garage sale. I think it’s poplar? It has a lovely natural patina. There are half-blind dovetails on the drawer fronts, and normal dovetails on the rear — some of them with gaps like they’d loosened over time. The wooden knobs are turned on a lathe. The drawer bottoms are beveled on three sides and there are tiny nails attaching the drawer bottoms to the drawer backs at the rear. The case construction, like before, uses mortise and tenons with sliding dovetail cleats attaching the tabletop to the base. The drawer glides are pretty accurate now, as is the drawer framing. And I’ve added lots of wear and tear like the original piece that inspired me.

Of course all of this takes more time. In the long run, will it be worth it to go to this level of detail as an artist who is trying to sell things? Will people pay for this level of detail? I honestly don’t know… But I’m also a collector besides a maker. And this level of detail makes my heart sing.

This is the new and improved version of my 1/12th

This is the new and improved version of my 1/12th scale, 18th century New England Tavern Table that I submitted earlier this Fall for my Artisan membership application in the International Guild of Miniature Artisans. I made the first group of these tables a couple of years ago. (I still have a few of those tables that I’ll be taking to sell at the Tom Bishop Show in Chicago in April.)

I wanted to include a tavern table in my application because, well, I’m a bit sentimental and those tables were some of the first serious pieces of furniture that I’d made. But the original tables I made lacked some detail. Part of that was just lack of knowledge. This table, like a lot of my pieces, was based on an auction piece. I rarely get the chance to see a period piece of furniture up close. I’ve never been able to measure a piece myself — or to pull out the drawers, or to look at the back or the underside. And when I first made the tables, I just didn’t know how the underside was likely constructed — or the drawer glides — or the dovetails. Beveled drawer bottoms? I didn’t know they existed! (More in my next post…)

New studio assistant, Bennet, “helping”. (Note

New studio assistant, Bennet, “helping”. (Note: productivity is down)

Cooking up some good things today. Feeling gratefu

Cooking up some good things today. Feeling grateful.

Progress on my 1:12th scale 18th century Connectic

Progress on my 1:12th scale 18th century Connecticut dressing table: I’m carving the “transition blocks” that visually connect the curves of the cabriole legs to the flat, vertical apron pieces. You can see a pair sticking out on either side of the leg in the foreground. The block on the rear leg on the left is already roughly carved to blend in to the Cabriole leg.

Even though this table ends up being painted, I was careful that the direction of the grain in the blocks was vertical to match the legs. I always think one of the biggest challenges when making miniatures is figuring out how to hold tiny little pieces like this when you’re working on them. I ended up doing the initial carving of the transition blocks on either end of longer length of wood and then sliced off the ends. (See the second photo). I only had to make three pairs because the original piece didn’t have transition blocks on the rear. I think that’s a fun little detail — or lack of detail.

A simple 1/12th scale bucket bench / dry sink that

A simple 1/12th scale bucket bench / dry sink that I made last year. It’s filled with mostly vintage miniatures — some quite old. There are a couple of Sam Dunlap bowls, and a Getzan copper pan (not so old). Some Steiff pewter from Williamsburg is peeking out of the sink. The brown pitchers are about 100 years old (I think). Next to it is a butter churn by Jane Graber.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Meet my new studio assistant, Mr. Be

ANNOUNCEMENT: Meet my new studio assistant, Mr. Bennet. Or you can call him Ben. He’s pretty new at this and will be learning on the job. I and his other daddy, @aburich_dvm, have high hopes for him. ❤️

(Note: no miniatures we’re harmed durning this photo shoot. But wow, it was close.)

In-process pieces and parts for my 1:12 scale Conn

In-process pieces and parts for my 1:12 scale Connecticut dressing table. The joinery for this piece includes mortise and tenon joints and sliding dovetails. The primary wood is Cherry. I salvaged the secondary wood from a broken drawer case on a 100+ year old dresser. I think it might be Poplar, but I’m not sure.

Here’s a closer look at the woven “cane” sea

Here’s a closer look at the woven “cane” seat on my 1/12th scale Falmouth chair. I used two colors of DMC cotton thread to give it some visual richness — alternating rows as I went. And in the end I “dirtied” it up a bit with acrylic paint. (That was a bit stressful…)

Figuring out how to make this seat in 1/12th scale was a puzzle. I was lucky to find a semi-decent photo of the seat of a full-size version of this chair which gave me some clues about the hole count. But of course there are angles, and the hole size was tricky because In a few places, as many as 10 lengths of thread go through a single hole.

The seat itself is about a scale 1/2” thick with mortise and tenon joinery at the corners. That’s pretty thin for those joints, and an early prototype broke at the corners from the thread tension. So I increased the depth of the mortises and made a frame to hold the seat firmly in place while weaving.

This is my completed 1/12th scale Falmouth chair.

This is my completed 1/12th scale Falmouth chair. The original chair I based this on is attributed to John Seymour, an English cabinet maker, who came to America in the late 18th century. He first settled in Falmouth (now Portland), Maine and then moved to Boston where he and his son, Thomas, rose to prominence. But the painting on the chair is attributed to John Seymour Jr., another apprentice son. John Jr. died in 1793 so that dates the chair right around that time.

I don’t know how many of these chairs the Seymours made. The first time I saw a photo of one was in a past @sothebys auction — and I immediately fell in love. Later, while researching, I found other examples online at @winterthurmuse, @metmuseum, @peabodyessex, and I found a reference that said there were some of these chairs in the @whitehouse collection. Someday, I hope I can see one in person.

Along with the gold pinstripes, this chair is elaborately painted — with painted marble columns, and the draped urn, the tiny gold rosettes and pink cabbage roses, it’s as if the Seymours threw everything at this chair. But I love it because of that — and because I kind of threw everything I had at this chair myself.

This chair was one of my five submissions for my Artisan Membership application in the International Guild of Miniature Artisans (@guild_of_miniature_artisans) in September, and… if you haven’t already figured it out, I was accepted as an artisan! 🎉🍾🎊 I’m really excited about that. It’s a huge honor. To say I underestimated the complexity of this chair would be an understatement... to make it, I ended up creating 35 main jigs com-prised of more than 125 elements (wedges, guides, story sticks, etc). I taught myself to weave a miniature cane seat out of thread. And of course the painting… which relatively speaking, was second nature from my years as a set painter. But in the end I’m glad I pushed myself. I’m really proud of this little chair.

Here’s a closer in-process look at the legs and

Here’s a closer in-process look at the legs and corner posts for my 1:12th scale Connecticut dressing table. I first turned the pad feet on my lathe and then cut the mortises with a Proxxon mill (you can’t see all of the mortises in this photo). After that, I cut the basic leg curves with a jewelers saw and then filed and sanded to refine the shape.

It really helps when shaping the legs if you can turn and rotate them squarely — so you can see there are square blocks on the top and bottom of each leg. My plan was to keep these blocks in place as long as possible. And…you can also see that I cut the tops off sooner than planned and then re-glued the blocks back on.

These legs are still pretty rough. Lots of sanding ahead.

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