Among my earliest memories is listening on summer evenings to my grandparents' stories on their front porch in Oklahoma. My Uncle Jack used to tell tall tales that enthralled all the children, and all her life my mother told stories, mostly family histories, as well. The first story I can recall making up was in answer to my grandfather's question as to why little people didn't come to occupy the little houses of leaves and twigs that I made in the woods.
When I was growing up, I was read to, given books as presents, collected Cracker Jack and gumball machine prizes, made dioramas in shoeboxes, vignettes for paperdolls, and wrote stories on thin onionskin paper in tiny handwriting so it would last longer. And I made up bedtime stories for my younger brother and sisters as they added details lying beside me in bed night after night.
In the early 70's I filled a type tray with miniatures and worked with my daughter on her dollhouse. As an English teacher, I made up stories to illustrate lessons and encouraged my students to create settings to show what they had learned. In the 80's I discovered the adult world of miniatures and started taking miniatures to school. I have been living happily ever after, telling stories and making miniature settings, especially since retirement.
My friend and miniature dollmaker Tayna Miranda was the first person to say, "Wanna, you have to have a website." She guided, taught and encouraged me through this website's creation and launching in 2001 until I learned how to maintain it myself, and I shall be forever grateful.
For a long time I felt guilty because I never "completed" certain projects, winding up in a kind of creative paralysis - not wanting to go forward without finishing what I had started, but clueless as to why I couldn't do it. I finally realized that some of my miniatures only exist long enough to tell a certain story, and that is enough. Long after they are discarded, or remade, or given away, through the pictures on this website they will stay real for me and hopefully for others, too.
I have tried to separate my more obvious fictional stories into Slightly-Straighforward and Fantasy, but I am not sure how to categorize them all, frankly. I leave it up to you as to whether you Wanna Believe or not.
I hope you enjoy your visit and will return.
