Photograph courtesy Ingrid Farnam Koblish
Miniatures will flood into Cincinnati this week as members of the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts (NAME) prepare for its 2025 National Convention at downtown’s Westin hotel. The convention runs from August 14–17 and is open to the public on its final two days.
Envision elegant Victorian furniture, a stately row of shops, smiling people, and whimsical scenery. Now imagine these anywhere from several inches tall to smaller than a penny. This is the world of miniature—a world that intrigues the roughly 2,900 other members of NAME.
“We’ll have some great exhibits,” says Nancye Claypool, the chair of NAME’s 2025 National Convention. “People will bring them on the plane; they’ll bring them in their car; they’ll be anything from a tiny, tiny piece like a 1:144th piece [1:144th of the object’s size in real life] . . . up to one inch.”
Photograph courtesy Nancye Claypool
For guests, the convention features two main attractions: the sales room and the exhibit room. The sales room offers a wide variety of items at all prices. Thirty-eight dealers from locations across the U.S., Canada, and Germany will bring products ranging from specialty miniaturist tools to miniature furniture, pottery, food products, and other accessories. One dealer can even make miniature replicas of people on the spot. A free youth workshop will also be available for children to build a take-home miniature ice cream stand.
Nearby, the exhibit room will display around 60 miniatures for visitors to admire. “Mini Shops of Cincinnati” is one of the convention’s main displays and depicts a street of tiny shops selling a variety of wares.
Photograph courtesy Susan Ostheimer
“Even just coming to see the exhibit room is worth it,” says Jean Ellsworth, founder of the Miniature Society of Cincinnati, a local NAME club. Ellsworth says she is amazed by the variety of miniatures she has seen over the past several decades—from modern furniture and outdoor landscapes to fantasy scenes, historic models, and holiday displays.
Ellsworth’s interest in miniatures led her to leave the nursing field in 1975 to open a dollhouse shop in Madeira. While running the shop, she made an interesting discovery: “People were coming in who had been making miniatures . . . but they didn’t know anybody else in the city that was into dollhouse collecting and making furniture and [other miniature] stuff,” she says.
These conversations inspired Ellsworth to establish the Miniature Society of Cincinnati, uniting many of the Queen City’s miniaturists. Presently, the society has about 50 members and is celebrating its 50th anniversary. “It’s just been a wonderful experience,” Ellsworth says, “and it’s so exciting to be having the convention here in Cincinnati again when it’s our 50th anniversary; I think that makes it even more special.”
Photograph courtesy Susan Ostheimer
For people like Ellsworth and Claypool, creating miniatures is more than just an art project. Ellsworth says miniature making transports her to other worlds. “It lets you live through that experience in that period of time [while] in today’s world,” she says. She has also seen couples and families use miniature making as a bonding activity. “It’s just a wonderful hobby, and you make lifelong friends,” she says.
The convention is designed to both foster this existing community and welcome curious guests to enter the world of miniature and see where it leads them. As Claypool says, “Anything that’s in real life can be made in miniature.”
Photograph courtesy Nancye Claypool
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