All Miniature Models

Anker (Anchor) stones began life in the late 19th century with the Lilienthal brothers—yes, the glider-flying Lilienthals—who experimented with stone building blocks to teach structure and form. Businessman Friedrich A. Richter saw the potential, refined the material into a durable, precisely molded composite, and launched the Anker Steinbaukasten system from Rudolstadt, Germany. The magic was (and still is) the module: pieces follow an exact grid so arches, lintels...

I’ve spent years happily wandering the aisles of hardware stores, craft stores, and even supermarkets, imagining what each shelf could become in the miniature world—ice cube trays morphing into molds for concrete paving stones, clear plastic ballpoint pens turning into structural beams for sci-fi builds, bread bag clips reading as electrical junction boxes, and milk-jug plastic as frosted glazing for a miniature Victorian bay window...