(Morgen Bearse – Elle Peint)
That Perfect Artist’s Studio
by Pam North
Morgen Bearse has collected miniatures since she was a child, finding common objects and tiny treasures to incorporate into shadow boxes. Her long-held dream of owning her own dollhouse finally came true 5 years ago when her husband presented her with one on Mother’s Day. Now living northwest of Boston, she currently is a stay-at home-mom after several years of working as a floral designer. She always has been drawn to making smaller versions of items. As a florist she sometimes made miniature arrangements from fresh flowers as jokes for her coworkers.
With no formal training other than watching YouTube tutorials, Morgen has not let that stand in the way of her enjoyment in crafting miniatures, and, in the process, learning about tools and techniques. “Toothpicks are essential!” she exclaimed. “They are great for spreading glue, acting as a long skinny finger to hold something down or move around tiny pieces, and they are cheap. My second favorite tool is my utility knife; I use it for cutting everything. I’m a very frugal person, and I really enjoy the challenge of making things myself with the supplies I already have. I can get lost for hours when I’m creating, and I am still learning,” she explained. “Thankfully, my three kids and my husband help keep me grounded in reality.
“My larger projects are inspired by my dreams of who I would like to be (an adventurer, an entrepreneur, a full time artist, etc.),” she continued. “My smaller projects usually are more fanciful. For those, I usually find inspiration from an object. I’m working on a little garden in a lantern that was inspired by an urn I had sitting in my stash. One day I woke up and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.”
Morgen’s latest piece, Elle Peint (French for She Paints), is a perfect 1:12 scale microcosm of an artist’s studio, and it won first prize in Hobby Builders Supply’s 2019 Creatin’ Contest. “My husband and I are fans of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an American period comedy-drama web television series. A few episodes of the second season were set in an artist’s studio in Paris. I remember thinking how amazing it would have been to be a painter in Paris in the early 1900s, and that’s when I knew that I wanted to use that theme for my project. Making that vision come to life became my mission, and I created the piece to prove to myself that I could do it.”
The project started with the contest’s basic kit, Serendipity Shed #72019, and evolved from there. Extremely frugal, Morgen would rather build or alter something than buy it, so Elle Peint is nearly all her own work, with about 90% hand-made and 10% purchased, the latter being altered for the effects she wanted.
Materials used were: wood, plexiglass, matboard, paint, glue, metal, and paper. The floor is hand-cut walnut laid in a herringbone pattern. “I started by cutting each piece of thin walnut to be 1.5” long, and then sanded them slightly to make sure the ends were smooth. Using a jig I made out of one of my son’s Lego blocks, I glued the wood at 90-degree angles on a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard) for the floor. To prevent any warping of the walnut pieces, I would press the floor under another piece of MDF and a few heavy weights until the glue was dry. After all the full-size pieces were glued down, I needed to go back and cut customized pieces to fill in around the edges. When all of the glue was dry, I sanded the entire piece, being careful to sand with the grain of the wood, which was somewhat tricky. After sanding and dust clean-up, I added a coat of Polycrylic to bring out the color of the wood and seal it. I waited 24 hours before using the floor just to be sure it was fully dry.”
She used her Cricut Maker to make all of the doors and windows. She wanted to keep them as close to the original kit as possible, but needed them to be taller, so after taking a lot of measurements she created templates on her computer and used the Cricut to cut them out of matboard. She also used the Cricut to make the banisters for the balconies and the wood frames for the canvases.
The hardest part about making the miniature scene was designing the front facade. “While building the front, I learned quickly that I’m not that great at making things square! Thankfully, the stonework helped cover up a multitude of sins. The only thing about the front that I would change is the removable panel that opens up the artist’s studio. I didn't consider ease of removal when designing it, and I now have an idea of what I would do differently. The idea for the interior aesthetic of the piece morphed slightly over time, but overall it turned out pretty close to how I had envisioned it.”
One of her favorite parts about the piece is the chair littered with paint and painting supplies. “I found a picture of a chair that Picasso had used for the same purpose, and I loved how much life it had. I knew I had to create the same thing for my studio. It also was fun making the tiny art supplies and paintings.” 
Miniatures have become a passion for her. “Watching people get pulled into a miniature scene or dollhouse is probably my favorite thing. It brings out a childlike sense of wonder in people. The future of miniatures is exciting. With the internet, social media, and sites like YouTube, more and more artists can share their work, making miniatures more accessible and mainstream. People seem to be captivated by miniatures. There are so many new avenues through which to experience miniatures, such as tutorials on YouTube, ad agencies using miniatures for advertisements, and the amazing cooks and bakers who use working miniature kitchens to actually cook/bake miniature foods on social media. I’m also excited to see how expanding technologies such as 3D printers, Cricut-type machines, and laser printers will further open up the world of miniatures.”
Looking forward, Morgen is starting to plan her next big project for the Creatin’ Contest 2020, as well as finishing up her current smaller project, the garden in a lantern. “I have a few things I’m working on, but I just need to narrow down my ideas first.”
So far she has kept all of the miniatures she has made, preferring instead to display them herself. “I’ve played with the idea of selling some things, but it would be hard to part with what feels like little parts of my soul,” she said, “however, I am exploring the idea.”

Contact information:
Name: Morgen Bearse
Email:morgenbearse@gmail.com
Website: http://anothertinyobsession.wordpress.com
Instagram?  @mymanysides
Phone: (321) 432-3021
Address: 76 Wolf Rock Road, Carlisle, MA