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Jimmy Landers retired as a regional manager for an international environmental Corporation several years ago. Upon retirement, he designed and contracted his new home in Southern Indiana. He spent a lot of time in custom designing his stairway and entrance area and even more time to get the correct individuals to complete his pet project. When it was all completed, he found he had more time on his hands than he could stand and started looking for a hobby. On January 6th, 20 06, Jimmy began construction of his Colonial Dollhouse. Having grown up in an area where there where lots of fancy, fashionable colonial houses and having been raised in one himself, Jimmy has always loved the design of the colonial and considers it his favorite. There was never a doubt that his first dollhouse would be a colonial in design. Having known very little about the miniature world at the time, it took awhile to find what was available and where to purchase materials. This is partly why most of his house is totally custom constructed using very few pre-constructed items. The fact that he never draws out any plans for his dollhouses is hard to believe but he manages to design and keep it all in his head. He says most of the design work comes about at night while laying in bed.
Shortly after finishing the Colonial (Brandywine) dollhouse, Jimmy started his second masterpiece. He named this one The Helmerich House and decided it should be a Victorian. The Helmerich is 7 feet
5 inches of customized uniquely designed woodworking. Mr. Landers has cut no corners in making this dollhouse. If you missed seeing these two houses at the Tom Bishop Chicago International show you can take a more detailed look by clicking on the Gallery and scrolling down to the Helmerich. The Colonial was sold at the Chicago show in 2012 and the Victorian was sold at the Philadelphia show in 2014
It took Jimmy just over two years to complete each of these two doll houses. Because he says he will not build another doll house of this magnitude, unless it is a commissioned work, he has switched to creating individual store fronts. He calls theses his 1900 series. He first started these new store fronts to be introduced at Tom Bishops International Show at Chicago in April of 2012. He introduced 4 different store fronts and sold all four 1900 series stores at Tom Bishops show. The 1900’s are Retail Store units that could have existed in your neighborhood in the 20th Century, or even today. The brick work is real brick ordered from England and is laid, one brick at a time. He also has some sandstone and limestone blocks being incorporated into these store fronts. In preparation for the 2013 years show, Jimmy completed his 1909 River Valley Hardware store. This store is very different from any of his other works. In addition to designing and constructing the store; Jimmy consigned a number of artisans to help furnish the old hardware store. All of these items are period correct and most are a one of a kind creation. The River Valley Hardware was on display at the Tom Bishop Show in Chicago April 19, 2013. For the 2014 show, Jimmy introduced his Flatiron building. For the 2015 April show Jimmy introduced a new series of 1/2 scale Victorian town houses. Jimmy is always working on new projects and different ideas. His next project presented for the 2016 April show he created a rendering of “The Charm” house, later renamed The Sabia in honor of Barbara Sabia. 2017, Jimmy once again introduced something very different from what he had done in the past and something he said he would never do. Jimmy took on a custom commissioned job and working from photographs, created The Alberta House for a customer who lives in Alberta, Canada. That same year he displayed a partially completed section of his next creation; The Sahlberg. This large piece of furniture would be completed for the 2018 Chicago show. 2019 Jimmy was absent from his conspicuous table positions #1 and #2 and roomer had it he had retired for health reasons. His retirement didn't last long as he soon realized he needed something to keep him busy; so he quickly called Tom Bishop to ask for his two tables back. Jimmy will be back in 2020 with another Library. He got so many comments on the library in the Sahlberg and he enjoyed making that library so much that he decided to build a separate two floor library and named it in honor of Terry Harville. Jimmy has already been busy mentally designing his next idea which he says will take at least two years to complete and will be the largest and most challenging project to date. (And he said he would never build something as large as the Sahlberg again). I am sure we will have a glimpse of it at the Tom Bishop 2021 show. Keep checking this website for more details.
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