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Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Lee Ann Rucker began constructing miniatures two years ago after watching Norm Abram build life-size pieces on 'The New Yankee Workshop.' Her work is featured in this month's 'Dollhouse Miniatures' magazine.It is not uncommon for Rucker's cat Cyril to invade the little workshop and to bat pieces of wood as Rucker works.

It's a Small World

Lee Ann Rucker's recreation of a famous workshop earns national recognition

By Pam Marino

Silicon Valley computer programmer Lee Ann Rucker has scaled down her lifestyle.

To 1-inch scale, that is.

After a long day of creating Java computer programs at Apple Computers as a liaison from Sun Microsystems, Rucker comes home to her Sunnyvale condominium and creates 1-inch scale indoor and outdoor furniture.

"My hobby used to be computer programming, but now it's my job, so I needed a new hobby," Rucker said.

Her miniature handiwork is featured in this month's Dollhouse Miniatures magazine, as part of International Dollhouse and Miniatures Month, along with the other winners of a contest that challenged contestants to create a room box based on a television show. Rucker's replica of Norm Abram's workshop from his PBS show, The New Yankee Workshop, came in ninth behind replicas of The Waltons' kitchen, the All in the Family living room and scenes from I Love Lucy, among others.

The scaled-down workshop features furniture projects Abram has built on the show, and even has a doll Rucker had made to look just like Abram himself. Rucker posted pictures of the workshop on a Web site at http://members.aol.com/leannr/
minis.html/.

The award-winning workshop replica will be on display this weekend at the 23rd Annual Showcase of Miniatures at the San Jose Civic Auditorium's Parkside Hall, along with more than 100 other displays by Bay Area miniaturists.

Miniatures, which date back to the pharaohs of Egypt, according to Dollhouse Miniatures, gained steam 20 years ago as a hobby and has been expanding since then. Associations, both professional and amateur, exist, along with local clubs, Web sites, and publications all dedicated to the hobby. The National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts estimates there are more than 100,000 people in the United States who engage in the hobby. Companies now make 1-inch scale accessories that include 12-packs of Coca-Cola and bags of Doritos.

Rucker said she started in miniatures 20 years ago, when she was 12 years old growing up in Texas, but she left the hobby behind in high school.

Two years ago she was watching Abram's show The New Yankee Workshop.

"I was watching Norm build something and I thought, 'I'd like to do that,' " Rucker said. Only, she wanted to do it in miniature.

Her two-bedroom condominium became her workshop. She equipped her second bedroom with a table saw, a miter saw, a router and other power tools. She uses her dining table as her workbench, where she carefully glues together the miniature components of the furniture.

Rucker's first project was a bathroom medicine chest. She has created all the projects from Abram's first season of the show, including a picnic table, a china cabinet, and even a mini dollhouse of Abram's workshop, which sits in Rucker's dollhouse-sized replica of the workshop.

Other projects Rucker has completed include an intricate lattice-work gazebo with a matching arbor. The arbor even comes with a climbing red rose bush.

Her miniature furniture takes anywhere from a couple of hours for something easy like the picnic table, to 20 or more hours for something as complex as the gazebo.

While many miniaturists use the soft and pliable bass wood in their projects, Rucker found that to make the type of furniture Abram's show was featuring, she would need to use hardwoods, which necessitated the power tools.

Craft shops and catalogues provide much of the wood, hardwood and other components Rucker needs for her hobby, but sometimes she has to improvise. For a red wagon with removable sides she used computer disk parts to create the metal braces that hold the wheels to the wagon.

Rucker often has to contend with her two cats, Cyril and Scrounge, getting into the act, although Cyril usually gives her the most trouble. Cyril loves to bat at the pieces of wood as she works with them and, if given the opportunity, will try to invade Abram's mini workshop.

Cyril is given to chasing shadows, which might explain why one time while Rucker was watching The New Yankee Workshop Cyril batted at wood Abram was swinging around that, had it been real, would have swung out of the TV set.

"So I have a woodworking cat," Rucker mused.

Abram, who also co-hosts This Old House, has seen some of Rucker's creations and told her he's impressed. While visiting her mother in Dallas she took a few pieces of the furniture to the International Builders Show where Abram was appearing.

Still following Abram's projects, Rucker is currently working on a chest of drawers that is so precise in detail the drawers are put together using "dovetailing." The sides of the drawers are connected not by nails or screws, but by cutting the ends of the pieces in almost a jigsaw pattern and fitting them together. That's admirable in full-size carpentry, but in miniature it is a wonder that Rucker is able to accurately cut the tiny pieces of wood into exact dimensions so they can fit together.

Rucker said working on miniatures takes the "same kind of concentration you need for computer programming, except you can finish them and there aren't any bugs in them," she joked.

The 23rd Annual Showcase of Miniatures to benefit San Jose's Planetree Health Library is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 11. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for children ages 5 to 12, and free for children under 5. The Parkside Hall is located at the corner of Park Avenue and South Market Street, in San Jose.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 7, 1998.
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