A big deal for a mini artist
New store is part shop, gallery, studio space for miniaturist Shelley Acker
It’s big news for mini art. Shelley Acker has opened a new shop in Kentville featuring tiny pieces of art created with great detail.
Miniaturist Acker says she’s retired from her “real-life job” and is looking forward to showing people why she argues making mini creations is not a craft, but an art, at her new business named Freedom Miniatures.
The shop and gallery space is located at 45 Webster St. in Kentville, and is the only space of its kind in Atlantic Canada solely dedicated to selling miniatures. The space has become Acker’s new job, but feels more like a big dream come true for the minimaker.
“I’m retired, so this isn’t meant to be stressful. If I’m not smiling as I walk through the door, I’ll change something. But so far, I haven’t been able to wipe the smile from my face,” says Acker.
She creates miniature objects and dioramas on a one-12th scale, meaning if something measures one foot in real life, it measures one inch in the diorama.
She’s a regular at Camp Mini Ha Ha, a retreat for miniaturists that began in Berwick and has since moved to the Annapolis Basin Conference Center in Cornwallis.
Acker describes feeling inspired to open the storefront in late July when she was driving through Kentville and spotted the ‘For Rent’ sign in the vacant shop’s window. She went ahead and contacted the landlord on an impulse.
“It wasn’t a long-term plan and hasn’t been all thought out, but it’s something that is making a lot of sense so far,” says Acker, who also uses the gallery and shop space as a studio for her miniature creations.
“I’m able to work on things every day, and also bring awareness to people that you don’t need a dollhouse to appreciate miniatures.”
The shop displays both pieces Acker is showcasing, and others she has for sale, just as in an art gallery.
Creating miniatures as an art is obvious to anyone looking at her pieces – a studio, a workshop, a mini wall of books carved into a life-sized stack of books, a bakery – and each show a staggering amount of detail that’s impossible to miss.
Many fellow miniaturists have dropped in, and many mini new- comers as well – most of whom have been dazzled by how real each piece appears.
“It’s a lot of awe at just what it is that can be created, and an appreciation of seeing what you experience in real life, recreated in a smaller scale,” says Acker.