I would love to introduce you to our August Member of the Month, Brae (Otterine). Brae has been a member of the Greenleaf forum since August 21, 2009. Just her nickname gives me ideas of great things. She fascinates me because she reminds me of my family now and growing up. She is a true artist but she loves to dip her toes in all the mediums. Miniatures included!  You can visit Brae`s art and photography website here.

Brae has lived in the Chicago suburbs all of her life, though she has traveled quite a bit in the past ten years. Most of her travels have been in the US and Canada for hiking trips where she photographed landscapes and structures. Several years ago, she and her Mom hiked the Scottish Highlands. She says it was a magnificent trip. Art has been a major part of Brae`s life ever since she was a child. She took painting and drawing classes when she was young and built model cars from kits as a young adult. Her great grandmother taught her to sew at the tender age of eight. Nowadays she makes most of the clothing that she wears as well as costumes for both Halloween and historical reproductions. She earns her living as an Executive Secretary for a large company and she is lucky to be working with some extremely nice people.

When Brae was a child, she had a Lundby-like Lisa dollhouse with electric and everything. She loved that house. The things she made for it were limited to art, clay animals, and food. As she grew up, it eventually made its way to the basement. She and her Mom bought a Dura-Craft kit sometime in the late 1980s, but it was only ever partially built.  Brae felt that it was way over her head at the time, and there was not the internet like today where she could have found some guidance.  Most of the pieces ended up in the trash after a flood in the basement.  In early 2009, her Mom asked her if she would mind giving up her childhood dollhouse to her young cousin for her birthday. It was dirty and needed much TLC. She told her that she would fix it up first. After much online searching and many days of demolition she flipped the house into something great. But she also found out something else. She found that she wanted to work on Miniatures again. Brae gave up her childhood dollhouse and in return, her Mom bought her the base house for the Newport in brick for her birthday last summer. Brae bought the two story addition and the Foxhall Conservatory kit to make a garage and that is where she is now!

Brae never knew she was a builder after trying to build the Dura-craft. But she loves to build now. The Baslow Ranch (the Greenleaf Garage) is her first completed project. She is having so much fun bashing the Newport into a great estate. She loves decorating also. She tries to take photographs that fool the eye. She wants people to wonder, "Is that miniature or real?" She has also discovered that she loves scratch building furniture and accessories. She has been burning up her library card checking out book after book it find suitable projects. It is challenging for her but often the only way to have contemporary pieces is to do them herself. Scratch building also saves money so she can afford the pricier pieces on her wish list.

Brae has always enjoyed decorating shows and magazines. She loves to see if she can recreate elements from those sources in mini. It is a challenge to figure things out. She loves that aspect, though she admits she has lost sleep over some projects.  She thinks it is fabulous that there is such an extensive network of miniaturists online. She never tires of reading over people’s blogs and looking at all the eye candy. Seeing this network is part of what got her going in the first place, she started her own blog to "pay it forward" and share her knowledge and experiences with those that are interested. You can view her wonderful blog here.

I asked her what she hated about building dollhouses.  She has the same hate that I do. She has no experience with power tools so most of what she needs to cut has to be done by hand (me too Brae... me too).  It is a workout cutting 3/8" MDF with a utility knife!  When it came to working on her very first house, she was overwhelmed not knowing how to do things: saw, build, and electrify. All the things she wanted to do seemed way over her head. In the end, she thinks the fears were unwarranted since if things don’t work, she still learned. She is still so new at this hobby that it is all still a dream to her. She has been venturing out to the local shows when they come to town to see what possibilities are out there.

 Brae has some plans for the rest of this year. The Newport is a huge project so it occupies almost all of her miniature time. But she did recently buy two 1:144 scale kits to try. She is intrigued by that tiny scale and figured it would be a nice break from the Newport from time to time. She also wants to give scratch building a try. She says there is a beautiful dollhouse that she has found but the seller is either out of business or just does not reply to emails. She has the photo of only the outside, but it is a fairly simple structure. She would likely bash the interior anyway. She realizes that she might have to get some power tools now.  Brae loves her Baslow Ranch. She says that winning the contests with it was great, it was more about being able to build something that matched the vision she had for it in the first place. She did much of it from scratch. She was in such awe visiting the ghost town in Bodie, CA with its old buildings. Her original plan was to recreate the firehouse in Bodie, but once she saw the kit in dry fit, she knew she had to make it a barn with a room for rent.

She refuses to choose which house she would keep above all the rest... she will chain herself to the Newport and the Baslow Ranch!  One of these days, Brae would like to take a class with a master artisan. She is intrigued by Teresa Layman`s gingerbread houses. Brae would also love to learn how to work with paperclay.

I asked Brae is she could give any advice to any of the newbies out there in the miniature world. Don’t let your fears stop you from giving something a try. If you enjoy the hobby, who care how long it takes or how many tries you need before succeeding. That’s how I’ve been doing things....just trying stuff out and being pleasantly surprised most of the time. Great advice Brae!

If I had the room, I would have posted every single solitary picture in Brae`s gallery because there were all so drool worthy….but I could not. So you can look at them yourself here in her gallery.

For her participation, Brae will receive a $25 gift certificate to the Greenleaf Store.