Jacqui Marlin
AKA: Goddess of Chaos

Please visit my website for handcrafted items, tutorials & miniatures gallery: http://chaosgsolfot.tripod.com/goddessofchaos

I got interested in miniatures because I was brainwashed! My mother was always fascinated with beautifully made tiny things and I would love to go shopping with her. She would see little creatures or a small teapot and always her first concern was "Is it the right scale?" She was a collector but she wanted only things in 1" scale and she truly brainwashed me. People who knew how much she loved little things would often give her gifts and she had a separate shelf in her display cabinet for the things she was given which weren't just right. Of course they had to be displayed as she would never want to hurt someone's feelings, but privately she would explain to me why they weren't just right.

I didn't really start making miniatures myself though until quite late in life. But . . . I had plans. I once saw a beautiful dollhouse made all of glass (in a glass shop. Where else?) and I thought "one day I would love to make something like that!" Still hasn't happened, but I am much closer and probably as I get closer to age 120 I may get to that project. Once a craft store was closing out their stock of House of Miniatures furniture kits so I bought as many as I could afford. They were stashed in my storage locker for the day when I would have the time and space to make them. I would see them stacked and wish I could work on them, but I lived in a Condo with a husband who did NOT encourage this kind of silliness!

It seems that I spent most of my life building up to this hobby which I finally was able to begin shortly after my husband died and my daughter went away to graduate school leaving me to care for her large house. HEAVEN! I taught arts and crafts - every craft you can imagine from needlecrafts to stained glass. I learned how to build furniture and to blow glass. I learned to weld. And all of it lead me to miniatures. When I finally had a place to work I went crazy buying tools and finally planning my first dollhouse. I started it 7 years ago and it is still not finished. I ran into a few hurdles and I may get back to it one of these days. But I certainly learned a lot from this house. I learned to plan how the house was to be arranged and to make the changes in walls and doors before assembly. Making individual clay bricks takes forever! Plywood warps badly in Hawai'i. And Crayola Magic does not work well for slate roofing because it gets moldy in damp climate!

I found Small Stuff Digest on the internet and it was a place to ask questions and learn. But the group was too large and somewhat unwieldy and I kept seeing a strange signature with the letters GSOLFOT. My curiosity was piqued and I wrote the person to ask about it and when I learned more I realized it was the most perfect club for me. I proved I was just crazy enough to become a member and was accepted. It would be difficult to find a warmer, more talented and imaginative group of people in a hobby full of warm, talented and imaginative people.

My husband always complained that I "flitted" from one hobby to another and I have not changed one bit. I now flit from making dolls to making houses, to ceramics, to woodworking, to designing. I am forced to make everything because there is nowhere to buy them where I live in Paradise (just outside of Hilo, Hawai'i.) I plan to remain young forever and will happily share whatever knowledge I can.