Roxanne Fern

Dieters Beware!

by Pam North

Dieting miniaturists better have resolves of steel before being faced with Roxanne Fern‘s miniature kitchen vignette. Everything about it is centered around the world of food, and tiny, delicious-looking  baked pies, cookies, and candies are part of the montage of items that she has so skillfully made, collected, and mixed together. The New York City artist recreates kitchen and baking-themed miniatures in all scales, focusing mainly on 1:12 and 1:6 scales. 
She started making miniatures in 2006, and opened her Etsy shop, turning the endeavor into a full-time job in 2010. Initially, she was fascinated by miniature sculpted babies, and wanted to try her hand at them, but soon she branched out into miniature clothing, crocheted blankets, decorated cribs, and accessories (even adorable tiny pacifiers), for the babies. Her journey into miniatures soon turned into a full-time occupation, and BakingInMiniature is now her full-time job to which she dedicates all of her time designing and building miniatures. “I love what I do,” she said happily, “and I enjoy every moment of the process that allows my passion to come across to others. I am excited every time I get an idea or inspiration to create something in miniature, and seeing a finished product gives me a great sense of joy and pride in my work.”
Combining home life and miniature making can be challenging, but for Roxanne they blend together just fine. Her family fully support her, and her young children think it‘s wonderful, and love helping her come up with new ideas. She can make miniatures in her home studio and concentrate on filling orders in the daytime while her children are in school, then work in the evening once the kids are in bed. “I work best in a peaceful and quiet environment,” she explained.
She finds inspiration everywhere: real life, television, magazines, and social media sites such as Pinterest. “I love dreaming up new miniatures to create that are fun, sweet, perhaps a bit vintage, retro. or shabby chic and unexpected
One of Roxanne’s projects, a kitchen scene, is part of her personal collection, and includes some of her favorite miniature baking items. She set it up as a background for photographing the constantly evolving selection of kitchen minis that she makes. “It is somewhat of a miniature replica of how my real-life kitchen is coming along, and includes many of the vintage and kitschy items I have collected and have displayed in my ‘bakery-style’ kitchen. It makes me happy to have it set up in my work space, and I constantly am adding little things here and there to make it look as it does today. I started working on it about three years ago, after I built the baker’s table from scratch, along with the tall cabinet that sits next to it displaying all of my favorite kitchen accessories. Next was the vintage plate rack that holds all my mini pots, pans, and baking essentials. Then I made the display shelf to showcase my vintage ice cream containers, and slowly it all has come together beautifully as the mini kitchen of my dreams.”
Materials used were: wood for the furniture pieces, photo card stock, plastic, paint, glue, polymer clay, and printed fabric. “The cookies and donuts were made by a dear and talented friend of mine, Catherine Parsons from SweetPetiteShoppe. I love the polymer clay miniatures she creates, and they always work so harmoniously into my kitchen and baking scenes. The cakes, wooden pieces, and other accessories were handmade by me. There are a few plastic and metal pots/pans and kitchen tools that were purchased and customized by me as well. A personal favorite for me are the holiday sprinkle bottles that I’ve recently created. I spent many hours sculpting each teeny tiny bottle out of polymer clay, making sure to create enough colors that I could mix and match to create a fun assortment. The glass bottles were sealed, given hand-painted tops and placed in the wood rack I had made for displaying them. It was very time-consuming to create them, but well worth it. It’s a mini replica of the real one I have in my own kitchen. I also loved recreating all of the vintage ice cream containers in miniature, with all their soft and pretty colors.”
Self-taught, Roxanne swears by a good pair of sharp scissors as her most valuable tool for cutting the paper and card stock she uses so much in her work. Realism is paramount in her endeavor, and inspiration comes easily to her, in real life, television, magazines, and social media sites such as Pinterest.”
All of the miniatures Roxanne creates are available in her Etsy shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/BakingInMiniature.