(Catherine Hawkins - The Sorcerer’s Study)
Wonderful Wizardry
by Pam North

Catherine Hawkins specializes in creating room boxes, dioramas, furniture, accessories, and all the minutiae and details to bring to life a scene that she has envisioned. Her latest piece is called The Sorcerer’s Study, and it is a microcosm of a wizard’s quarters and workshop. Time-consuming, meticulous detail went into its creation, which was the catalyst for the resulting realism.
Catherine had made the piece for entry in a juried art show, so the piece had to be her own work. While she did use a few metal miniatures (the cat, bookend, candlesticks), most of the piece was made from basswood, paper, mat board, paint, glue, clay, and her own eclectic combination of found items, bits of plastic and metal, beads, and jewelry findings,
The Sorcerer’s Study is the smallest room box Catherine has made in 1:12 scale. “It’s basically a six-inch wood cube with a lot of stuff crammed in it,” she remarked. It evolved from a kit from Hobby Builder’s Supply, modified by replacement of the solid top with Plexiglas for more light and better viewing. The walls were covered with textured paper on which blocks were lined off, and the floor also is scrapbook paper. The table, stool, tall bookcase, wall shelf, sconces, and door were fashioned from basswood, and the short bookcase from walnut wood. The books and scrolls overflowing onto the floor are paper and card stock, with the open-book pages printed from her computer. Other books have “pages” of cardboard, mat board, or wood. “I love creating little books, whether they are just painted pieces of basswood, or  printed covers with real pages,” she said. The candles in the sconces are toothpicks covered with glue and acrylic paint, and the mounts in which they rest are dried pieces of glue popped off the hole in a bottle of wood glue. The string-bound bucket with rolled papers in it also is glue, dried in a container and pried loose. 
Catherine explained her love for miniatures, saying, “The beauty of the miniature-making is that it encompasses all hobbies - woodworking, ceramics, decoupage, painting, sculpting, paper crafts, sewing, glass-making, jewelry-making, diorama-making; whatever your passion is, you can indulge it in miniature. Also, I love having other people own and enjoy my work.”

Contact information:
Catherine Hawkins
Email: chawk909@yahoo.com
Phone: 256-390-2718
Address: 627 Lake Vista Point, Rainbow City, AL 35906