An Abandoned Room, 2022. Created in Amanda Kelly’s workshop “All the Small Things: Crafting a Miniature Abandoned Room,” through Atlas Obscura.

Over the course of the workshop, Amanda taught us how to achieve several different effects: wood flooring, bricks, and a peeling paint wall, along with general techniques for distressing and creating clutter. When it came to furnishing the room, we were given total freedom.

For my room, I decided to craft an abandoned printing office. At the time I made this I was working at the International Printing Museum, which had an enormous collection of printing presses that came from all kinds of strange places. One story I heard was that the museum founder used to drive out to ghost towns in the California desert to try to find presses for his collection. Drawing inspiration from things around the Museum, I tried to create a miniature abandoned print shop from the the 1920s or so. I purchased a phone, typewriter and regulator clock to furnish the space, which I distressed to blend in, and then made everything else from scratch.