When he was furloughed from his marketing job in the airline industry, 28-year-old Kieran Wright did what many others do in tough times; he decided to downsize a bit.
But he didn’t do it by moving into a smaller home to save money or anything along those lines.
Instead, with time on his hands, he started shrinking famous Los Angeles landmarks down to size — like really tiny sizes — by creating meticulous miniature models of well-known places like the hot dog-shaped Tail o’ the Pup stand that was originally located on the corner of Beverly and La Cienega, Taix restaurant on Sunset and The Apple Pan on the Westside.
“Normally losing your job would be a terrible thing but I feel it opened a door, it forced me into doing something creative. I never would have been a miniature maker if it wasn’t in a way forced upon me,” said the Miracle Mile resident, who now sells his models online starting at $1,000 a piece.
And he’s quickly becoming a sought after artist. He is sold out of models and for now he’s working on commissioned pieces that typically start at a cost of $2,000 each.
While the money is great, it isn’t the main reason Wright is creating a mini city.
“I kind of think of this whole thing as preservation. I like the idea of showcasing and bringing attention to iconic buildings or business,” he said.
Wright, who moved to L.A. from New Zealand three years ago, said he has always had a passion for architecture and in particular with his new city’s landmarks as well as miniature models.
Shortly after he was furloughed because of the pandemic, he visited the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco and was amazed by a miniature version of Disneyland that’s on display.
“It’s quite a sight. I could have stared at it for hours looking at the tiny little details of Disneyland. And I love miniatures and that’s when I thought that maybe I could have a go at making one,” he said.
Later while eating lunch at Rae’s restaurant in Santa Monica, which opened more than 60 years ago, he decided he wanted to try and recreate the famous spot in miniature.
But there was a small problem.
“I had never done anything creative before, I never painted anything or built anything,” he said.
But there was a solution — YouTube.
“There are just tons of tutorials on how to make miniatures, so YouTube was my school,” Wright said.
Using a dense foam that he can carve into various shapes, as well as plaster and plastic, Wright recreated the restaurant down to its aged details, from it’s rooftop neon sign to its weathered paint, which he aged by using several layers of paint and by adding the look of rust in certain places with the use steel wool and vinegar. He even recreated graffiti that’s tagged on the restaurant’s awning.
The first model took eight weeks to complete and was a dead-one replica of the restaurant.
Happy with his first creation, Wright began making miniature models of other landmarks he loved using similar methods, perfectly recreating details like the worn-out paint of Morgan Camera Shop on Sunset and the aged rock wall facade of Fugetsu-Do, a confectionery shop in Little Tokyo.
Wright makes all his models at his apartment and most are constructed in 1:24 scale, which means miniature building facades are approximately 12 inches wide and 16 inches high.
Currently he is working on a commissioned piece recreating Philippe the Original, the long-standing downtown restaurant known for its French Dip sandwiches.
“I never anticipated that I would start building these things and have people ask for commissions or to buy them. I was just doing this as something for myself and now people are asking for commissions and I’m kind of booked up for the next few months, which is wild,” he said.
See his work on Instagram at instagram.com/smallscalela/ or smallscalela.com
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December 29, 2020 at 11:51PM
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How this artist is preserving L.A. landmarks by building miniature versions of them - Press-Enterprise
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