.Name: Gina Zetts Won second place
Email: ginazetts@gmail.com
Phone: 814-366-0499
2836 Stephen Dr. Richmond CA 94803 (After March 10, 2017) 
Where do you live? Oakland CA 
What specifically do you make?  I am very new to making traditional miniatures, aside from a children’s dollhouse that I made for my niece in 2015, this is my first true dollhouse miniature. 

I am a formally trained glass artist. I primarily work in cast glass. I use 1/12th and 1/24th scale architectural miniatures to create molds for my glass work. If you’d like to see some of this work, here is my website: www.ginazetts.com  (also here ↓) 

When did you first become interested in miniatures or how were you introduced to the hobby? I have always been interested in miniatures. My father made me a dollhouse when I was young. I spent many hours making furniture and accessories for it out of scrap wood, fabric, and clay. 
As an adult, I was purchasing a lot of architectural miniature pieces to take molds of for my cast glass work. After a few boxes worth of objects built up in my studio I decided to use them to build my four year old niece a dollhouse for Christmas. After that, I was hooked.  

What do you do for your career? 

I work full-time as an Administrative Coordinator at the Oakland Museum of California. I teach glass casting and occasionally glass blowing classes in my off-time. And I am a professional glass artist who shows work nationally and internationally through numerous galleries and museums.    

8. What does your family think of your interest?

My family is very supportive of how I have turned my interests into a career.  

9. Who is your biggest fan?

It’s hard to say who is the most supportive in my family, my mom and my husband equally take the titles of my biggest fan. 

10. Is it easy combining home life and miniature life?

As an artist, there is little separation between my home life and my artistic pursuits. I consider myself very lucky in that my husband is also an artist so he understands and supports my need to be constantly making. 

11. Where do you find inspiration?

In my miniatures, I find inspiration from the museum I work at most often. I am also very inspired by my vibrant urban surroundings. 

The piece that I made for the Creatin’ Contest was inspired by a photograph from the museum’s 19th Century daguerreotype collection. 

12. Have you made anything that you can’t bear to part with?

All the time. Sometimes it is very difficult to part with my work, but when you find someone who loves it as much as you do, it is a very special and satisfying experience. 

13. Describe your workplace.

In my day job, I work at the Oakland Museum of California. It’s a multi-disciplinary museum which focuses on California. Its collections comprise more than 1.9 million objects including seminal art works, historical artifacts, and natural specimens. Its programs explore and reveal the factors that shape California character and identity, from its extraordinary natural landscapes, to successive waves on migration, to its unique culture of creativity and innovation.  
At the museum I am the Coordinator for the Center for Administration and Business Operations. It’s an office job in one of the most inspiring settings I can imagine. 
In my off-time, I work in many glass studios around the Bay Area, including a small studio which I share with a friend. I have a wonderfully creative space in which I make my own art, facilitate projects for clients, and teach private lessons.    

14. Where do you sell your products?

I am yet to sell any miniature projects, but I do sell my glass works through various galleries, exhibitions, and fundraising auctions. 

15. What is the price range for your products?

I make small works which are generally under $500. My larger work tends to be in the $1-5K range.    

16. Do you belong to any groups or clubs?

I’m very new to miniatures, so no groups or clubs yet. 

17. Do you run workshops?  If so, please tell us about them.  If not, do you plan to?

I don’t run any miniature workshops, but I do teach glass casting workshops in the Bay Area and Northern California. You can check out my website for updates of where I’m teaching and showing throughout the year. 

18. Have you made any special items (i.e. something for a celebrity, a piece on display at a museum, etc.)?

I have glass work in the collections of Alfred University (Alfred, NY) and Bullseye Glass Co. (Portland, OR) I have shown my work at the Burchfield Penny Art Center (Buffalo, NY) Pittsburgh Glass Center (Pittsburgh, PA) Bellevue Art Museum (Bellevue, WA) Bullseye Projects (Portland, OR, Emeryville, CA) and numerous galleries throughout the country.  

19. What do you love most about miniatures?

I love the tangibility of them. I love that you can hold them in your hands and feel an intimate connection with them. There is a wonder to objects that are very small, they have an otherworldly quality and preciousness that is so immediate and visceral.   

20. Do you have any formal training in your miniature field (i.e. art instruction for a painter, architecture for a dollhouse builder, sculpting for a doll maker, etc.)?

I don’t have any formal training in miniatures specifically, but I do have a Bachelor’s Degree Sculpture form Alfred University’s New York State School of Ceramics and a Master’s Degree in Glass from the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  

21. What is your most valuable tool or what tool could you not live without?

My X-acto knife. My Dremel tool is a very close second. 

22. What’s the biggest difficulty involved with working in miniature?

Patience. I tend to work very fast in most every other aspect of my life; miniatures take patience to get right. 

23. What do you think about the future of miniatures?

This is a very interesting question. As a professional artist who dabbles in the miniature world, I am so excited by both its traditional fine craftsmen practicing age old traditions and by the younger generation who are bringing highly conceptual ideas to their miniature work.

24. What’s next for you and your creations?

I was recently named as a Saxe Emerging Artist by the International Glass Art Society. I will be giving a lecture as part of their annual conference in June. I will be working much of the rest of the year on my miniatures in glass, but I also have a few ideas bouncing around that may be used for a 2017 Creatin’ Contest entry.  

25. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about you?

What is the name of the piece we are highlighting from the 2016 Creatin’ Contest?

The Alta California 

How did you come up with the idea for this piece? Were you inspired by one certain item or moment, or was it a gradual accumulation of ideas?

I work at the Oakland Museum of California – part art, part history, and part natural sciences – it’s a museum all about California. Originally from the east coast, I grew up intrigued by the westward expansion and the innovative and resilient resolve of the late 19thCentury. In this spirit, surrounded by early California history and art I began researching newspapers and print shops during the gold rush era. This is not a literal interpretation of a singular print shop, but an amalgam of many print shops from this era. The name is homage to a very common newspaper name of the time, in fact there were newspapers all over California and even Nevada who claimed the name Alta California. The most famous of which, in San Francisco even boasted Mark Twain on its writing staff as a foreign correspondent. The printing press is based on an early 19th Century press that was brought by wagon train to the west coast before the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Many of the images and printed newspapers (including the insulation on the roof) are digital copies of original newspapers, railroad advertisements and maps from the time period. The wanted posters, and advertisement and propaganda posters on the outside of the building are all original replicas from the era. I particularly love the one advertising the touring “Head of Joaquin Murrieta,” a famous California outlaw and a legendary story out here in the west.   

How much of this piece was made, and how much was bought or collected?  I made the glass elements in the print shop by hand. My goal was to spend as little money as possible (poor, young artist) and make as many objects as I could from scratch.

Are there any other artists whose work is included in this piece? I purchased the typewriter from Wright Guide Miniatures and the small ceramic bottles were made by a friend while we were in college

What materials did you use to make this?  wood, clay, handblown glass, ceramic, paper, natural materials, paint, etc.  

Can you share your technique for creating the piece? I used a lot of wood glue. 

Did you use a unique process or unconventional method for creating this piece? 
Not really :) 

What was the hardest part about making this miniature? Did you encounter any insurmountable difficulties? Trying to keep everything within the theme and general time period was difficult. I did a lot of research on each element. I ended up making many items because I couldn’t find commercially produced objects.   

Did the idea for this piece morph over time, or did the final piece turn out exactly as you had envisioned? It ended up looking very similar to my original planned design. There were a few aesthetic changes here or there, but no major revisions. 

What’s your favorite part about this piece? I love the printing press. It was the impetus for the entire project. I named it G&S Co. Philadelphia in honor of my husband and I (Gina & Spencer) and my being from Pennsylvania originally.

What part of this was the most fun to create? I really loved making the attic ceiling. 

Are you going to sell this piece or display it? If you sell, what price range will it be?
I would love to find someone to purchase this piece who will love it as much as I do.