My love of dollhouse miniatures stems from the dollhouse that my mother made for me when I was 12 years old.
While attending the University of Montana, I tried my hand at making miniatures. I thought that if my Nana could make and sell them, so could I.
After selling my first miniatures at a Girl Scout Craft show and then a Montana State Day in Missoula, Montana, I was hooked for life. Shortly thereafter, Mountain Creek Miniatures was born.
After graduating from college and meeting my husband, I moved to Georgia and started selling my miniatures at dollhouse miniature shows in Georgia and Florida. The website was then created in hopes of reaching more miniature enthusiasts around the country.
Two years later, my husband and I moved back to the northwest to Post Falls, Idaho. Three years later we moved again to Fort Collins, Colorado, stayed for three years and once again moved back to the northwest, to eastern Washington. I continue to make and sell miniatures at shows.
My husband and I have been in Washington since 2014 (and don't plan to move again), and now we have a two toddlers. I hope to continue to make miniatures and sell them at shows (when I am not working, taking care of my kids or making cakes (creativecakesbybeth.com).
On May 14, 2023, I was mentioned in the New York Times Newspaper regarding the Tom Bishop Chicago International Miniature Show: "Beth Pothen, 42 who runs Mountain Creek Miniatures and is a full-time postal worker, is a second generation miniaturist, making items like goth furniture and Christmas cookie trays (she got her start at a Girl Scouts craft fair). She drove from Spokane, WA, for the convention and hoped to recoup the cost of travel and lanor, and then some, she said."
On November 26th, 2023, the Spokesman Review newspaper had a long article in the Northwest section about me:
"When Beth Pothen bakes for the holidays, she decorates with the tiniest of details, making shapes and cutouts with icing, swirls and sprinkles.
Bells, Santa hats or rounds go into the oven – but they’re nonedible treats from clay – sized for 11/2-by-1-inch cookie sheets.
The Greenacres resident crafts these replicas and other handmade miniatures she sells at shows and online.
Her customers are called miniature enthusiasts, buying Pothen’s tiny chocolate bars, wizard tools or vegetables for dollhouses or one-room themed boxes, which mimic rooms in a home, a special setting from tales like “Harry Potter” or a business.
“It’s a lot of fun, and it’s relaxing,” Pothen said. “If I make large quantities of one item, then it can be tedious. Other than that, it’s fun.
“People’s reaction is one of the best things. People say, ‘I love your stuff. You’re so talented. They’re so tiny.’ ”
(the article continued onto a second page and had two color photos, including the photo below)
My miniature Fancy Christmas Cookies, Fancy Iced Christmas Cookies and Christmas Cupcakes on Pedestal were featured in Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine in January 2024.
