New Dollhouse & Miniatures Books for 2020-2021
Updated marked *
(See more books released earlier on the 2017-2019 list on top tab.)
Dolls, Houses and Projects
* 20 to Craft: Kawaii Charms in Polymer Clay, Ruth Thompson - Make 20 charms and trinkets from sushi earrings to panda paper clips. (These look like they'd be useful in dollhouses for toys and flower pots.) 48 pgs.
Create 12 Simply Super Miniature Houses, Lucy Foxworth - Creator at Paper Glitter Glue website specializing in paper/cardboard houses. Digital download book with over 100 photos.
* Macrame' for Beginners, Avery Johnson - Not exactly dollhouse items, but this can be useful for learning how to make pot hangers and decorative items. Step by step directions. 91 pgs.
* Making Dollhouse Miniatures in Polymer Clay, Jewelry and Trinket Boxes, Darlene Gregory - Make a selection of tiny boxes that look like various materials from wood to enamel. 56 pages.
* Making Miniatures with a Cricut Maker, Lisa Sones-Peck - Interesting development in miniature making. Covers the basics and making three projects. 145 pages.
Mini Doll Secrets, Dana Burton - If you've never seen Dana's beautiful dolls, you're in for a treat! All kinds of tips in a 24-page ebook tutorial to dressing your own miniature doll. $15, download. Other doll draping and dressing booklets are on her website page at link.
* Modelling Historic Buildings and Imaginary Structures: A Guide for Railway Modellers and Diorama Makers, David Wright - Some of the best building and how-to tips can be found from those working with model railroads. Tips, photos and illustrations, with emphasis on using scrap and low-cost materials.
Ribbonwood Cottage's White Christmas, Debbie Booth - Short booklet of simple projects and ideas.
* Techniques - Rik Pierce - Illustration booklet offers instructions from the "Paper Clay Man." Tips on fake fires, making stone fireplaces, lead glass windows, landscaping and more. RIP to a legend.
Variatie in Vintage, Jacomine Mink - Directions for eight shops and assorted furnishings. See other books here. Now includes a translation in English.
Fiction
* Malice in Miniature, Jeanne M. Dams - A cozy mystery. Bob has been arrested for stealing a seventeenth-century tea set created for a doll's house at grand English country house, Brockelsby Hall. The Hall is the home of the Museum of Miniatures, a spectacular collection of doll’s houses assembled by eccentric aristocrat Sir Mordred Brocklesby. Then the old housekeeper is found poisoned. Can Dorothy unmask a murderer without putting herself in mortal danger?
* Murder in Miniature, Book 1 of the Miniatures Mysteries, Camille Minichino (Margaret Grace) - The Miniatures Mystery series is being reprinted with great new covers!
Recently retired California English teacher Geraldine Porter now has more time for her lifelong hobby — building dollhouses and miniature scenes. But her miniatures world is not so trouble-free when she and Maddie, her 10-year-old granddaughter find Geraldine's friend and a miniature desk missing, and face robbery fraud, and even murder. (The series is being updated and has a new cover as shown. Other books will be added as updated.)
* Murder in Miniature at Honeychurch Hall, Hannah Davison - (Pre-order, releases Nov. 4) When a miniature replica of her mother's carriage house goes missing, Kat realizes someone is harboring a secret worth killing for...
Miniature Food
Building a Pizza Parlor Diorama, Project Playbook Vol. 2, themousemarket - Cute idea. Make pizzas, cups, soda and ice, wood and handmade tile counter, pizza rounds and more. 51 pages, PDF digital download. $19.
How to Sculpt Miniature Summer Foods from Polymer Clay,Dollhouse Chef Series, themousemarket - Make dozens of summer foods from corn dogs to melon slices and more. 95 pages, digital download on Etsy. $39.95. She also has a full series of various digital books for making different foods.
Non-fiction
* 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics, Bruce Goldfarb, curator of the Nutshell Studies - (New biography) The story of a woman whose ambition and accomplishments far exceeded the expectations of her time, 18 Tiny Deaths follows the transformation of a young, wealthy socialite into the mother of modern forensics...Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes, and made it her life's work.
Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of dollhouses that appear charming—until you notice the macabre little details: an overturned chair, or a blood-spattered comforter. And then, of course, there are the bodies—splayed out on the floor, draped over chairs—clothed in garments that Lee lovingly knit with sewing pins. Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.
* Life in Miniature: A History of Dolls' Houses, Nicola Lisle - History and photos of British dolls houses, including history on some individual houses. 199 pages.
Tiny and Mini Books
Mini Zoltar - Figure in 4" high container of the famous fortune teller. Speaks, has light-up crystal ball. Hard to tell if it's a figure or a picture. Comes with 16 fortune cards.
Teeny-Tiny Tinsel Tree - 4" silver tree comes with - yes! - a winding rotating color wheel, plus beads and a 32-page Christmas countdown guide. Look in the suggestions for other even odder pairings. (Running Press has a whole category of mini books and other items!)
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