If you look for Chris Toledo on Instagram, you’ll find him at @ibuildsmallthings. The reason is simple: he does build tiny historic interiors that you’re going to love right away. But before we show you what they’re all about, let us tell you a little bit about the artist and the inspiration behind his 1:12 early 20th Century reproductions.
Chris Toledo is a miniature artist with incredible patience and a major passion who spends hours building very detailed historic building interiors. His inspiration is the early 20th-century architecture and his works have got him over 62k followers on Instagram so far. He always makes sure to place a real object in his settings, such as a toothbrush, paintbrush, a pencil or just his hand so you will fully remark the extent of detail and the real size of his work. Otherwise, you’d be fooled into thinking those are real-size interiors which have been photographed by professionals. You really would, that’s how amazing these works are.
Chris has always loved architecture and art ever since he was a child. His biggest passion was to create and when he discovered the art of a miniature, he says it was love at first sight. This art form is a complete mixture of every medium he’s ever loved and it seems like the bond between him and his passion is forever.
“When creating my miniature pieces, the process can take from one month to almost two years to create a single piece. Each model I create starts with extensive research of the era and time period I’m trying to recreate”, says Chris Toledo in an interview for Bored Panda.
As you are about to see below, his works are incredibly similar to their older counterparts. They look like taken out of history and art books and you cannot help but wonder the number of minutes, hours, days and weeks it took to create this whole collection of miniature home plants, buildings, staircases, bathroom interiors. The secret lies in Chris’s extensive knowledge of the early 20th century designs and trends and his ardour to read and document everything so his pieces are 100% accurate.
He posts his works on Instagram and sometimes shares with his followers some insights into the whole process, like this one about a beautifully-detailed stained glass window he’s done for one of his interiors: “It took me a few tries to get the stained glass window just right, but I couldn’t be happier with the results. To create a natural-looking back-light, I used LED strips placed in specific locations around the window to cast just the right amount of light onto the walls and the floor”.
As you can see, artist Chris Toledo is not afraid to share with us his work process and techniques: “Many of my pieces start off as simple sketches. I draw out several different floor plans to determine what will have the right flow and overall look. The scale I strictly work in is 1:12 or one-inch scale, which means one foot in normal scale translates down to one inch (…) Many of the tools and materials I use are just scaled-down versions of their normal counterparts”, says Chris of his work.
You can see how passionate he is about this and how inspirational his whole work can be. It speaks of something greater, it speaks of dreams and purpose in one’s life. We all fight to find our purpose and sometimes we don’t find it because we don’t put in enough work or just give up because we’re tired. Chris never did and at some point, it seems like his work fueled him to keep creating. From the son of a contractor and woodworker to a miniature artist there’s a long way and he has done it.
Now it’s time to check out these amazing tiny historic interiors and gasp at their incredible finesse and real-feeling!
1. Check out that pencil and then try not to be surprised
2. Is that just a huge hand? Nope, it’s an artist’s hand — the “hugest” of them all
3. Check out these tiny kitchen tiles!
4. This is a 15 x 15 inches dining room!
5. Kitchen lighting is real and tiny, extremely tiny!
6. The whole process looks frightful. I don’t think I would have been able to pull out something like this
7. But then you get the result and it’s stunning!
8. The smallest bathroom on the planet? Maybe, it’s only 6×8 inches, but it looks incredible!
9. The kitchen is almost ready! Check it out!
10. That fountain and that patio…
11. Come in!
12. The details in here are amazing!
13. Just look at those walls and that staircase
14. The artist Chris Toledo is still at work
15. The works are never done when you’re this professional
16. Just a little polishing so it will look clean?
17. The pencil never lies! Neither does the artist. Art is pure and you’re here to get inspired by it!
18. Through the window and into the house
19. Check out this chandelier Chris created in collaboration with another miniature artist. And the ceiling as well… marvellous!
20. Now a little bow for the artist?
Via PLAYJUNKIE
