{"id":702255,"date":"2026-01-17T14:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/702255\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:20:11","slug":"the-sheffield-man-turning-childhood-memories-into-tiny-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/702255\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sheffield man turning childhood memories into tiny worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Working patiently at his desk, scattered with tools, wood and paint, Lee Smithson brings entire worlds to life in miniature.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 45-year-old from Sheffield carefully crafts scenes inspired by everyday life, long-forgotten buildings and treasured childhood memories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;As long as I&#8217;ve got a photo to work from I can usually recreate it,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lee&#8217;s passion for miniatures began in childhood, sparked by hours spent building Airfix kits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His knack for detail later led to a career as a clinical engineer for the NHS, but in 2016 he took the plunge and set up his business, Sheffield Miniatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2024, he expanded further when fellow miniature maker John Gittens retired and Lee incorporated JG Miniatures into his business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Working patiently at his desk, scattered with tools, wood and paint, Lee Smithson brings entire worlds to life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-702255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-sheffield","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115910884020814700","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}