Terri Correll and Donna Deal often live in a world where a couch is no bigger than a fingernail. The two women share a hobby of creating miniatures.
Correll and Deal have been building tiny worlds for a combined 56 years. The women will display many of their creations Sunday at the China Grove Roller Mill Museum’s Artisan Faire.
The fair is free to the public and will include hand-sewn crafts, spinning and hat making. The event is from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum, 308 N. Main St.
It won’t be the first time Correll and Deal have shown their craft. In July, the women had several miniature pieces on display at the South Rowan Library.
Terri Correll
Terri Correll has been creating miniature scenes since the mid-1980s using various objects, including a Coca-Cola crate her father used when she was a child. She’s even created a miniature scene out of a large lemon-shaped bottle and a Kleenex box.
Early on in her hobby, Correll built some of her pieces. Now many of the pieces come from kits and even Esty shops online.
Correll, a drafter by trade, designs many of her miniature structures, sketching ideas on a piece of paper.
When she was a child she had a metal dollhouse. Somewhere along the way it disappeared, but her love of dollhouses never went away.
In 1986, her husband Bob bought her a dollhouse and she began making items go inside.
“It was a kit. It took me ages to put it together,” she said.
Correll calls working with miniatures her therapy.
Correll admits the hobby can get expensive. She attended an event where someone paid $100 for a miniature chandelier. The crafters who create the miniature people, furniture and other objects put a lot of time and energy into the pieces, she said.
Her latest project is bunka, which is Japanese embroidery thread that is used to make rugs.
She’s also created some yo yos, little rosettes made by gathering circles of fabric. Yo yos were quite popular in the 1940s with quilters.
Correll has created memory boxes for her children and grandchildren. Each memory box contains a small version of something that represents that particular family member. When her daughter got married, she had a replica of the wedding dress made and placed it in the box. She also created a similar box for her daughter-in-law.
Correll and Deal are both members of Miniature Reflections, a miniatures club in Mooresville. The two also attend state workshops and conferences.
Donna Deal
Deal discovered her love of all things miniature when she attended her first dollhouse show in 1981 while she and her husband Nick lived in Maine.
“I saw a dollhouse and my husband bought it for me,” she said.
The hobby was big in Maine, and she found it interesting, Deal said.
Over time, Deal collected furniture pieces and finished the dollhouse. The dollhouse took her about a year and a half to complete. She just recently gave the dollhouse away.
The house was one of the biggest miniatures Deal has ever owned, but now she sticks to room boxes or smaller scales. The miniatures range from one inch to 1/144-inches, which is the smallest of miniatures.
Deal would say she pays attention to details – so much so the salt and pepper shakers she made from beads for a Halloween miniature actually look like they contain salt and pepper.
Since she works with some pretty small pieces, Deal uses a few magnifying glasses with lights.
She hopes to continue working with miniatures as long as she can see the pieces.
While some miniature enthusiasts use kits, Deal prefers to make many of her pieces. She’s found that making things like flowers and grass herself cuts down on the cost.
Her husband Nick, who owns Firehouse Garage, leaves this hobby up to Deal, but does look at her finished work. He did help her with one piece – a Halloween room. She had a hangman’s noose in the Halloween-themed box that Nick made.
She said she went small mostly because there just isn’t room to store larger pieces.
In the majority of Deal’s room boxes, she’s created elements herself – from flower petals to soup cans.
“I love making a lot of accessories. I’ve made food out of clay,” she said.
When she wants to create water, Deal uses resin.
Deal also creates rugs using Japanese embroidery thread.
This is a hobby of patience, Deal said.
She also finds it relaxing to sit in her craft room and work on a piece for hours.
“I sit down, listen to music and work. It’s peaceful,” she said.
In her head are lots of future projects including a tree house with rooms and Santa’s workshop with eight reindeer.
Deal works full time at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast as an administrative assistant.
Both women will have some miniature rooms featured as part of an exhibit at the Southern Christmas Show called Enchanted Village in November.