The Beauty of Dreaming Small
In a world where we are always pushed to dream big, to go beyond, to work out of our comfort zone, to do something new, to challenge ourselves, I think we have forgotten the knack of finding delight and contentment right where we are in our own little corner, from where we can do so much. We can grow and thrive even if we feel cooped up and pinned down. One of the many ways to expand seemingly unshakeable limitations is to cultivate the pleasure of finding mini worlds. After all, many illuminating children’s tales take place in mini worlds and are essential to shaping the imagination and resourcefulness we all need to get by in life.
Through the Eyes of a Child
As far as I can remember I have always been fascinated by miniatures. One of my favourite tales was Thumbelina, and I used to long for a tiny friend I could share my secrets with. She would sit in my pencil case during classes to keep me company and travel in my breast pocket whenever I was out. Sadly she never materialised, but I kept bringing mini worlds to my awareness, especially when out alone in nature. It’s always been easy for me to see mini worlds everywhere, complete with mini people and their infrastructures. I see fertile valleys under trees and tiny clearings under garden shrubs, puddles become vast lakes and a carpet of moss is a never ending forest. I can get quite absorbed without going very far!
A few years ago I discovered The Borrowers by Mary Norton. I was immediately drawn in and captivated by the world she created, amazed to find an author who had so beautifully captured the world I had envisaged as a child and still see everywhere today. The illustrations delighted me and offered perpetual play on scale and perspective.
Opening Limitations with Mini Worlds
Like Mary Norton, I have been short-sighted since childhood, and I was very interested to read that the idea for The Borrowers might have come to her because she was used to only seeing things well in the near distance, feeling quite isolated from the bigger, wider world that she could not see clearly, and being unable to keep up with children who enjoyed better eyesight. I can certainly relate to that, and what could have been a limiting isolation prompted us to make connections and expansions in our immediate surroundings, therefore developing a very rich inner world. By describing this world, we can share it with others, invite them to imagine those mini worlds and refresh themselves through imagination.
Painting Miniature Landscapes
Although I often work on large scale paintings, I have a great fondness for creating tiny paintings which are just a few inches. One of my most treasured ways to reset my brain is to sit down and paint mini landscapes. I treasure each moment spent in those details, bringing to life a tiny scene where I can imagine the smallest beings interacting with a miniature land. There is something so soothing and satisfying in seeing a diminutive world taking shape as my hands work, and the immersion it provides is deeply refreshing. I love that they can be held in one hand like tiny windows onto the world, where the imagination can roam free.
Shaping Mini Worlds
In my house there are many little corners where a mini scene has been created, mostly through the use of plants, pebbles, twigs and shells. Mini seashores, mini forests and mini seabeds are some of the tiny worlds I like to be surrounded with. They are incredibly interactive and always invite me to pause and enjoy for a few seconds.
I have a big sponge which I use in the bath, and looking at it closely is always an invitation to be transported into its mini worlds of underwater wonder, full of corals, bright fish darting amongst the rocks and beautiful patterns in the sand. Alternatively, the sponge can take me to a very elaborate fortress carved in the sand over thousands of years.
Mini Pieces of Land
In my yarn art I love to recreate the colour palettes and textural interest of vast landscapes, such as the seashore, the ocean, cliffs, fields, forests and boulders. Sitting down to create in this way as the colours merge together and the textures appear is a beautiful way to pay tribute to nature and to make a piece of nature-inspired art destined to be a mini world in the home.
I think it’s a beautiful way to bring nature in. While cosying up in these heirloom blankets, I can go on imaginary walks and admire the colour changes of a tiny ocean or a sunny cottage garden wrapped warmly around me.
Mini Books
In The Borrowers, Arrietty loves to read and to write in her journal. Some of my recent projects have been to create a couple of tiny books I think she would love to use. Yesterday I made an inch-square book using infused tea bags for the pages (see first photo of this post). It might have been an old recipe book, but the writing is so tiny, I really can’t be sure what the it says! I loved making another tiny book with vintage fabrics, I think that might be Arrietty’s book of sewing and needlework…
Mosses and Lichens
Of all natural elements, mosses and lichens are those that fascinate me most. They have such an endless variety of colours, textures and shapes, and I am always delighted to see them. I am very fortunate to live on the West Coast of Scotland, where the pure fresh air and the very generous amounts of rain we get are the ideal conditions for mosses and lichens to thrive.
Just a step away from my house, I have access to endless varieties and I always think they make the best mini worlds instantly accessible. Seen from above, they invariably remind me of dense and mysterious forests. Some of them make structures like cathedrals or underwater fortresses. They are an endless delight for me.
The Mini Worlds of Plants
I find it more natural to sit on the floor than on chairs, and maybe that is what helps me to see miniature worlds in abundance. I love to take portraits of flowers as if they were the size of “human beans” and to take photos of plant groups from a very low angle to make them dramatically big and silhouetted against the sky, like a jungle.
The Mini Worlds of Animals
I remember when I had cats, they would lie on my chest when I was in bed and purr contentedly while I had an amazingly detailed view of their thick fur. One of them was a golden cat, and seeing his fur from so close, I always imagined he was a field of corn warmed by the sun where I could gently stroll.
My other cat was a little tabby, and she had the most interesting colours in her fur, grey-green, brown black and white. When she lied on my chest, seeing her fur so close looked exactly like the peat land which grows in the Kilmartin Glen: long white grasses, small darker plants, dark brown soft peat and minuscule blades of dark grass. I could so clearly see a tiny version of myself walking through her soft fur as if I was in the middle of a mini Moine Mhor.
The Sky is the Limit
This ball of quartz was gifted to me last year, and I pick it up most days to get lost in its tiny atmopsheric world: at times a mountain top wrapped in mist, at other times a trip over the clouds to see weather patterns, at other times an aerial view of a tiny planet with snow-capped mountains and golden treasures.
It might seem like a paradox that focusing on tiny details and mini worlds can expand our horizons, but by shifting perspectives, we come to see things with fresher eyes and perceive differently what may have become very familiar to us to the point of being taken for granted. What kind of mini worlds do you see and love?
I wish you much enjoyment!