Florence Lambert is a La Jolla artist who creates scenes of fantasy and beauty on a very small scale. After peering into a birthday scene where cupcakes and party hats on a pink-laced table are smaller than a fingernail, regular-scaled life suddenly seems bulbous and awkward. Lambert has collected, sold and handcrafted miniatures for the past 35 years. She’s lived on Cardeno Street in La Jolla for the past 40 years. An animal-rights activist for 20 years, Lambert created a whimsical scene of a Friends of County Animal Shelters (FOCAS) board meeting where bonnet-wearing dogs sit on colorful settees and discuss the issues at hand. For the box, Lambert made tiny pencils to rest on pads of paper by painting sewing pins yellow with black tips, using a large magnifying glass. She also shaped toothpicks into slender, red candles. “It’s fun to make things out of nothing,” said Lambert, who also crafted a miniscule chandelier from jewelry pieces for another scene. These tiny, fantastical worlds are a retreat from the more mundane and painful realities of everyday life — and the hobby is addicting. “We have control over a tiny world of our own,” Lambert said. “Miniatures allow us to have everything just the way we want it … Miniatures also enable us to become immersed in our fantasies.” Artists also use miniatures to recreate and preserve scenes from the past. Lambert owns pieces by a woman who once journeyed across the country on a covered wagon. In her eighties, she made small articles from lace by the traditional method of tatting. Lambert filled a box with the woman’s miniature handiwork to display the miniscule doilies, nightgowns, gloves and fans Harlan had tatted, and called it “Mrs. Harlan’s La Frivolité.” In a tiny world, every detail matters and must be precise. Lambert pointed to the ruffles on a skirt worn by a miniature woman standing on the end of a gypsy caravan as an example of the importance of details. “It’s okay to mess up on one detail but not two,” Lambert said. Lambert’s partner, Brian Sticht, marvels at Lambert’s creativity and precision. “She should have been a jeweler or watchmaker,” Sticht said. Lambert was further lured into the world of miniatures after spotting a “darling” dollhouse on a trip to Lake Tahoe. She purchased the dollhouse and soon after discovered groups dedicated to the art. Lambert didn’t take classes to learn the craft but used her own ingenuity and learned from others. She also saves everything. “We can contrive so many things out of other things,” Lambert said. Miniatures were also important in the lives of Egyptians, according to Lambert. Egyptians placed tiny replicas of important worldly possessions like toys and pets into coffins so the body would know what it would need in the afterlife, Sticht explained. “It seems there is a universal affection for things small and miniature,” Lambert said. Miniatures show set for May 22-23 Florence Lambert and her partner, Brian Sticht, are hosting the F&B Miniature Collectors Show and Sale on Saturday, May 22 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday, May 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Al Bahr Shrine Center at 5440 Kearny Mesa Road. The show will feature handcrafted and manufactured miniatures as well as accessories for dollhouses and room boxes. “There will be something for every taste and budget, including items for children, beginners and the sophisticated collector,” Lambert said. Lambert has also planned an unusual pairing for some of the miniatures: floral arrangements, an idea she hatched after creating floral arrangements to complement art pieces at museums in Balboa Park through Art Alive. Lambert has commissioned artists to design floral arrangements to reflect the nature of the miniatures. General admission is $6 and $3 for children under 10. For more information, call (858) 454-4959.