Ever since she was little, Shevaun had promised herself a “proper” dollhouse, not a pre-decorated Barbie Doll one but one built to her liking with real furniture, wallpaper, kitchen utensils — basically one with loads of really tiny not-child-friendly-at-all details.
Thanks to the 2020 lockdown, she now has not just one but two and a shed is on the way.
She and her partner Steven moved house shortly before lockdown and their plans to start renovating had to be shelved.
“I was getting bored and frustrated,” Shevaun says. “My usual dull hobbies like crocheting, reading Terry Pratchett novels, and obedience training my cat, Greebo, were losing their luster. I needed a new creative outlet, one to keep me busy during lockdown but that didn’t take up much space (or make the cat fat). I’d heard that boredom breeds creativity and sure enough, it did: building a dollhouse popped into my mind. I could make much of it from scratch and take out my renovation frustrations in miniature.”
“I reached out to my beloved Terry Pratchett books for inspiration. Pratchett has this marvelous talent for taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. I searched for one house but came up with two: Granny Weatherwax’s cottage and Mon Repos, the Death’s residence.”
“I’ve gone into a level of detail I never originally planned on. By enlisting help from the very enthusiastic online Pratchett fan group, I was able to track down references in the books, get helpful suggestions, and even source specific details like the scythe blade in the Grandfather clock — a suture removal scalpel suggested by a nurse.”
“Each house has at least three dozen references to stories in the books, some quite subtle, such as an owl fireback in Granny’s Cottage that gets a single mention in an early book, or the more obvious, such as Death’s house being overrun with cats.”
Another of Shevaun’s dull hobbies, cheese appreciation, came in handy. The wool pads used for insulation in their monthly cheese subscription were repurposed as thatch for the cottage.
Lockdown provided a unique opportunity for Shevaun. “It allowed me time to embrace a truly dull commitment to tiny details, careful adherence to descriptions in the books, and an excuse to buy a whole set of truly minuscule modeling tools. The miniature shed, complete with tiny workbench, is on the future projects list. A silver lining in tough times, one I’m very grateful for.”
Greebo: real and miniature
