Anyone can spend this weekend watching 350-pound bruisers beat each other up on the football field. But it takes a special kind of person to show up for the Atlanta Miniature Society's (AMS) annual show instead.
A very smallminded person.
"Mini" is big and getting bigger in Atlanta. AMS is one of the most active chapters of the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts (N.A.M.E.), which itself has experienced a 25 percent growth rate in the past two years. AMS's 36th annual show, featuring exhibits, demonstrations and a charity silent auction takes place on Friday and Saturday at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria hotel.
There, in (full size) meeting rooms, you can gawk in admiration and disbelief at the “room boxes” created by local members — pint-sized, perfectly turned out replicas of rooms and even entire houses in which the bookshelves are lined with wee volumes, tiny braided rugs grace the floors and luxe linens outfit the beds. Most of these artists (see their creations just once and you won’t dare call them “hobbyists”) work in 1-inch scale, meaning that something that measures 1 foot in the real world translates to 1 inch in the miniature one.
Two years ago, the AJC wrote about the AMS show, which included chapter president JP Sligh's room box replica of a third class cabin on the Titanic (he consulted actual floor plans from the doomed ocean liner). This year he's created a steampunk lab, complete with a tiny goggled lab guy, inside an old clock. To get an advance peek at all the AMS members' creations, check out Friday's preview reception, which starts at 6:15 p.m. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, go to atlantaminis.org.
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