Sabrina Sane

I make small versions of large places — kitchens, libraries, courtyards, the rooms history left behind. Each piece is built at 1:12 (sometimes 1:24 when the space asks for it) and takes months. I keep the work honest to whatever period it lives in: hinges that fit the era, paint that has the right unevenness, wood with the grain pointed the way it would have been pointed.

I started this in 2019 in a corner of my apartment with a hobby knife and a stack of basswood. Now there is a workshop, a small herd of clamps, and a habit of staring at lath-and-plaster reference photos for too long. The pieces here are the ones that have made it past every doubt and out into the light.

What goes into a piece

Each piece begins in books and archives — period photographs, architectural plans, surviving examples in museum collections. I am not trying to copy a specific room; I am trying to learn what a room of that time actuallywas, so the miniature reads true at every distance.

From there it moves to drawings and a Fusion 360 model so the proportions are settled before any wood gets cut. Construction is mostly hand-tools and patience, with some 3D-printed parts where they help — small hardware, complex moldings, things that would otherwise be invisible at scale. Everything visible gets finished by hand.

What I work with

Basswood and plaster for most structural work. Brass and copper for hardware, drawn down to wire when the piece calls for it. Acrylics with a lot of glazes and washes — newer paint, but used the way a restorer would use it: building color in thin layers until it sits right under glass.

The blog

The longer build notes, process photos, and the things I learned the hard way live on the blog. If you are curious about the why and how behind a piece — or what is currently sitting half-built on the bench — that is the place to go.