In September 2021 I took an online class through the Smithsonian called “Build a Tiny House”. I joined people from all over the US in building our own versions of the tiny house. I made three of them and I’ll show you the results in three different posts.
Thank you to my classmates and to our teacher, Marcie Wolf-Hubbard.
Here is the first house I made. I used a shipping style small-medium cardboard box set on end and added an attic made of cereal box cardboard. Here are views of the house from front, back, and sides:
Materials used included acrylic paints, markers, fabric, paper tape, magazine pages, and some odds and ends of items I found around the house. I painted, printed, and scrawled all over this house before I was finished.
Here are some detail pictures:
It took me about a week to put this all together, including making the rickety chair (I tried several different methods and finally figured out what worked best for me). I did explore creating some origami furniture but I just can’t figure out the diagrams, so I gave that up.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Impressive, I’ve always wanted to do a doll house based on the house I grew up in, I suppose I could do a tiny house version as well.
All you need is some paint, cardboard boxes or the like, and tape and glue, and I feel sure you could do it.
Yeah idk maybe
What an enchanting little house
Thank you. It was fun to make it and an outlet for my collage skills in a new way.
Oh boy! The one with Bob hanging out on the loft! Where’s his Wawa coffee???
He drank it all up and is thinking about running out to get another cup.
What a great project. (K)
Thank you. It was a carefree and yet very absorbing project, these houses, and surprisingly full of opportunities for all kinds of art techniques plus putting the whole thing together so it would not fall apart.
I’ve really enjoyed making things from boxes for the Kick About, but I’ve not attempted anything this elaborate, A house! Endless possibilities.
It looks more difficult than it is to make a tiny house (if you do it my way, some people in my class used more elaborate techniques like papier mache or repurposing interesting containers that had challenges, and some made a lot of furniture. But, it’s up to the maker to choose the most fun techniques and go with those, that is what I say. You are right, when you go 3D like this the variations increase exponentially and in a good way.
These are really great and I love it that your stamp is all over the project!!!
Thank you. I really liked making these. Who knew my childhood interests could come to this!
The Smithsonian has online classes?!?! These are so wonderful and your talent continues to amaze me!
Thank you. I love dollhouses and this was a perfect fit for me. Yes, the Smithsonian has online classes (as well as in person which they are just starting up again, I don’t think they had online until the pandemic). A wide variety of offerings in a lot of subjects. I reccomend it.
Thanks I will check them out!
This little art house is just mesmerizing. So beautiful, fanciful, and full of movement — lively but lyrical, too. It’s been open in its own tab since early this morning and I’ve looked at it at least 5 times. And the day isn’t over. What a treat!
Thank you. It was so much fun to make (this one and the others that I will be showing). And it was also interesting to see what the other class members made, too, as the weeks went along. There are so many surfaces to work with in a house, I think you’d enjoy such a project yourself.
Oh this is a complete joy! What an absolutely perfect project for you, Claudia! Your love of architecture, your style of drawing manmade structures, and your wonderful creation of visual textures and pattern all combine in this project to create something wonderful.
Thank you. I knew when I saw the class description it was for me. For all the reasons you state. And, I like that the materials all came from household items. I did not have to buy anything except glue (I used a lot as you may imagine).
Claudia, your range in mediums and methods continues to delight me, so well done, congratulations!
Thank you so much. You know, I think thiese houses draw on skills developed 50+ years ago – we used to make buildings out of shoeboxes. And I found that all the surfaces of the houses gave me so much room for collage and paint, it was really great just to let it all go and see what emerged. Plus, I don’t think I have ever lost that childhood feeling of wishing I could shrink down and get inside one of my houses!