(Frances Hulcher – Izzy’s Curative Cauldron)

Capturing Memories in Miniatures

by Pam North

Maryland resident Frances Hulcher, a retired computer specialist, loves retirement because she now has more time to indulge her passion for miniatures. She makes 1:12 and 1:24 scale room boxes, houses, and furniture, and finds that building minis is a very relaxing and creative outlet for her. “I lose myself in it,” she remarked. “I get a peaceful feeling imagining a perfect miniature world where all is well.”
Books led her as a child to being interested in small things. Reading tales such as Thumbelina, The Borrowers, and Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, introduced her to wee characters and small-scale settings, and she was fascinated, imagining a little bed in a matchbox or a nutshell. The love of mini things endured, becoming a major part of her life through subsequent years. Over the ensuing decades. Frances has built a house for her three grandchildren, as well as room boxes and houses for herself, enjoying making her creations as realistic as possible. “I love how you can create an imaginary setting where everything is just as you like it,” she said.
Frances always had wanted a dollhouse, never having received one among all the toys she was given in childhood. When she was 28 years old, her firefighter father took a picture of a beautiful house in Baltimore, and in his spare time at the firehouse he built a dollhouse from scratch for her, made to look exactly like the real thing. He made the bricks, siding, windows, floors, roof, and all the components of the house by hand. In the process, he told her how he accomplished each element, giving her the additional legacy of teaching her to build, measure, use tools, and have the desire and confidence to create her own miniatures. Mini saws and mitre boxes were no longer mysteries. Since her father has now passed away, the dollhouse he made is a special treasure for her, one which she someday will pass on to her granddaughter.
Her latest piece, Izzy’s Curative Cauldron, came about after her 10-year-old granddaughter, a big Harry Potter fan, visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Florida with her grandfather. “It was a magical trip for both of them, and I wanted to capture the feeling of wonder she experienced,” Frances recalled. “While I wanted to memorialize her trip, I didn’t want it to be literal, but rather to pay homage to the wonder and feeling she had when there.” That goal was achieved, as the piece perfectly crystallizes the magical aura of a time of fantasy and spell-casting.
The project began with a kit as the basic structure, and metamorphosed from there, with Frances creating her own versions of bricks, the stone floor, shelves, walls and wainscoting, and the exterior. She sculpted the exterior and flooring from Paperclay to form bricks, stones, shingles on the overhang and the exterior walls, simulating concrete peeling away from brick. It was the first time she had used Paper clay, and an Xacto knife was the carving tool. She mixed sand into the paint for interior walls, made wainscoting with coffee stirrers, and built shelves from balsa wood. Paint was applied in a dry brush manner to age and antique, resulting in a realistic ambiance. “The hardest part was making the shop appear old and spooky; it’s easier to make something look new and pristine,” she explained. She purchased the table and the owl chair from Heirloom Woodworks in Frost, Texas, and many of the potion bottles from various sources all over the world.
As miniaturists go through their creative processes with each project, the finished pieces can mirror the original vision, or they can evolve in unexpected ways. While Frances’ basic concept of a Harry Potter-inspired potion shop was realized, each item’s creation gave birth to new ideas. “My favorite part is the back interior brick wall because it set the stage for the rest of the project. I enjoyed the fun of making it, especially making the exterior look like worn concrete with bricks showing through, moss on the walls, and old iron rain spouts (made from the centers of rolls of dog waste bags). Working in miniature sometimes can be very expensive, and it also is difficult to handle very tiny items, especially as I grow older and it is more difficult to see.”
She plans on keeping her creation, saying, “Hopefully it will be cherished by my granddaughter and passed on to her family one day.”
The future of miniatures is bright in Frances’ opinion. “I have a 10-year-old granddaughter who is just as fascinated with minis as I am, so I believe there always will be people in every generation who share a love of tiny things. I create for my own pleasure, and I’m gratified that others appreciate what I do.”
She is looking forward to bringing new ideas into reality. “I’d like to create something nostalgic from my childhood, some places that were meaningful to me then, such as replicas of rooms in my grandparents’ homes, as well as stores and places I visited.”

Contact information:
Name: Frances Hulcher
Email: bozfran1@verizon.net
Phone: (410) 437-6219
Address: 7901 Nancy Road Pasadena, MD 21122