MAY 16, 2023 – For several months leading up to Christmas last year, I worked single-mindedly on a gnome home project for our granddaughter, Illiana. What had begun as a simple, rustic concept morphed into a kaleidoscope of whimsical possibilities—and engineering challenges.
When Illiana’s delight at the unveiling of the magnum opus – gnomus domus was transferred to cookies and hot chocolate, I was already contemplating my next gnome home project but on a much grander scale of maxumus opus. For months, I worked not with birch bark, pine cones, mini-logs or the many other materials that I’ve collected over time, but with scratch paper and a pencil, experimenting broadly with a number of concepts.
Eventually, I graduated from scratch sketches to more elaborate drawings in a dedicated sketchbook. I even took the step of working on exact scale drawings in a spiral-notebook of graph paper. This went on for a ridiculous length of time without my touching any tools or materials.
Back in February when I was alone at the Red Cabin, I finally got around to taking action: laying two, eight-inch boards down side by side on a rug in front of the wood-burning stove and . . . contemplating the two boards as lower halves of a hinged base for the then current design of a super gnome home. The plans called for a structure that Illiana could open up to find rooms fully decorated and furnished with miniature furniture that I’d planned to construct once the house itself was finished. I stared at the boards while I tried to work out certain structural problems arising from the use of natural materials to connect the upper and lower halves of the base.
My next move was back to the drawing board, er, sketchbook. I’ve been at it ever since, particularly while waiting to pick up Illiana from school. To avoid landing at the far end of the vehicle queue of parents (and grandparents) retrieving their kids, I try to arrive just before the 3:00 news on NPR. School lets out at 3:15, and the 15-minute early arrival invariably puts me about sixth in line. I always carry paper and my set of pencils and erasers and . . . draw gnome homes. After Illiana is buckled into the back seat, I show her my latest rendition to get her reaction. The more fanciful my drawing, the greater her delight, and thus, the greater my own.
Recently, she unwittingly altered the path of my project. She did so by using markers to draw a wonderful picture on special, high-grade water color paper that Beth had acquired for next to nothing while on her weekly Good Will tour in search of books for her online book sales biz. When I examined Illiana’s work closely, an idea popped into my head: instead of worrying about building a gnome home and figuring out all the structure problems that I keep creating for myself, I’ll turn my design-drawing rut into its exact opposite—the destination itself!
I’ll invest in a set of high-end drawing implements—and some of that high-quality paper—and draw the super gnome home—I mean, lots of them—including elevations, bird’s-eye views and detailed floor plans. I’ll prepare structural drawings and make everything frame-worthy. The collections will be “décor quality,” as well as “blueprint caliber” for anyone—including myself!—wanting actually to build elaborate gnome homes.
Stay tuned.
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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson
