Love, Time and Alchemy in Miniature
The Hourglass on display.
The Hourglass is a 1/7th scale miniature room created by Geoff Mitchell and his team to illustrate a tale of love and sacrifice by an eccentric alchemist who has harnessed perhaps the most precious of all riches, time itself. Each item for this work of art was created by hand to capture the feeling of an old-world village apothecary shop, complete with flickering lights and colorful, mysterious potion bottles. Before we continue, we want to remind you not to miss the original haunting love story this miniature room is based on. You can find it at the close of this diary entry.
View into the emporium.
The creation of any scene in miniature is a thrilling experience, and the joy in part is that its creator(s) must go live within that world in a vividly imagined way, to experience it in every detail, each of which is vitally important. For example, if you look closely at the exterior walls of the apothecary, you will see that they are stacked with moss-covered stones and growing over with thin, withered vines. These stones were created by carving, breaking and sanding hundreds of small pieces of basswood and layering them with multiple coats of paint, and repeating the process of sanding and painting until the aging transforms them into convincing miniature stones. Fitted into place, in much the same way a real stone wall might be laid, the stones were then dusted in lush green moss and covered in twisting vines from the deteriorating, musty ceiling rafters down to the cobblestone below.
Cobblestone walking pathways.
The lichen covered paths of cobblestone that circle the shop’s exterior were also fitted together by an assortment of handmade and aged stones, only this time they were made by stacking cut illustration board into the stone shapes, sanding them for roundness and adding multiple layers of paint for an aging effect. Each piece was fit along the path before a thick glue mixture was poured into the crevices to create a mortar for the walkway. The cobblestones were then sprinkled with clumps of moss and glistened with gloss for a feeling of moisture.
The Hourglass is currently being expanded into a three-room miniature display set, which will allow us to illustrate the story, with its characters and settings, much more dynamically. Each of the story’s personalities, Eli, his mother and the shopkeeper (the alchemist), are being sculpted and added to the scenes, bringing each room to life through the charm of their presence.
The Shopkeeper’s chair.
The Shopkeeper’s desk.
When creating a story-driven diorama setting, it is important to imagine each character into a real person. To that end, each item created for their environment should be true to their life and experience … such as in this elegant Edwardian desk and chair set created for the shopkeeper.
Apothecary cabinet.
An alchemist as portrayed in The Hourglass would of course need a cabinet to store his many ingredients and formulas. This rustic piece of furniture was created to hold wonders and spells behind each drawer. You can only imagine what you might find inside if you were to open one!
Potions cabinet and bookcase.
A variety of potions and books.
Of course, integral to any mysterious shop of magic is the variety of potions it contains. As the story goes, this enigmatic emporium carries it all: a tar-like drink for melancholy, a liniment to cure a broken heart, even something to remove freckles. Geoff and his team truly relished creating every bottle on the shelves, each rendering unique mystical properties. Perhaps the most treasured of all oozes with liquid time in the form of sparkling gold droplets.
The shop display case which holds the special golden bottle filled with liquid time.
Carl R. Sahlberg from Creative Reproductions 2 Scale at work on lighting for The Hourglass.
Geoff was honored to collaborate with Carl Sahlberg from Creative Reproductions 2 Scale. He flew out to Anaheim from his home in Indiana to spend a week with Geoff working on lighting, not only for this particular miniature room, but also others that Geoff has created for the museum’s collection. Carl is a wizard when it comes to lighting in miniature. Many of his lights are smaller than a grain of rice with wires as fine as silk thread. He installed a flicker in the lamps along the cobblestone pathway to portray the nostalgia of Victorian era gaslight lanterns. He also devised a truly haunting effect behind the open door to the basement of the shop, illustrating the scene Eli is entranced by when first entering. He illuminated the shop’s red-velvet lined display case with a glow of enchantment. If you want to check out more of Carl’s incredible work, you can find his website here.
One of the lanterns handcrafted by Geoff and lit by Carl.
And now please enjoy the original tale that inspired this artwork, written by Geoff’s wife and creative partner, Amy Mitchell.
The Hourglass
Long ago, in a faraway village, there lived a young boy named Eli whose mother had fallen gravely ill. Day by day, he sat loyally by her bedside. One quiet evening, as the doctor hung his head in despair, Eli rushed out and onto Main Street where there was the strangest corner store. The peculiar shopkeeper kept all manner of eccentricities and magic potions: a tarlike drink for melancholy, a liniment to cure a broken heart, and even something to remove freckles. Eli was frantically searching the shelves for a potion to heal his ailing mother when a flickering light behind the back door caught his eye. As he moved towards it the shopkeeper grabbed him roughly by the collar. But as the boy turned to look at him, his grip softened. Many years ago, he had been sweethearts with Eli's mother and he still loved her to this day.
The shopkeeper sold one thing that was the most precious of all...time. He bought years from all sorts of desperate people and sold them to those with heavy satchels of gold. These special potions captured life in liquid form. His shelves were bare of it now, with the exception of one tall bottle filled with golden and glowing liquid time. Having a growing pain in his chest, the aging man had planned that very night to drink the healing elixir. Clutching the bottle, he slowly handed it to Eli, urging him to have his mother drink every last drop. The next day, Eli's mother decided to visit the man she so adored all those years ago, but the store was eerily empty. Near his desk hung a portrait of her when she was a young maiden, the same youthful face that now looked back at her in the reflecting glass.