Why I started making houses out of matches

People often ask me why I started making a house out of matches. I am not 100% sure why I turned to making a house, but I do know why I used matches. It wasn't long after I had read an article about this man, Jack Hall, that I started thinking about model making. I have always be into model making and fascinated by stop motion animation. Just making tiny little things from stuff that most people wouldn't have even thought of. I had read about Jack Hall around 2006 or so but it wasn't until late into 2008 that I even tried to make something.

I have always been interested in trains and so I decided to try my hand at an old train car (The hobo hoppin' kind.) I wanted it to look real so I was thinking about what I could use, and thought that matches would make a good scaled down looking board. I never would have thought of using matches had I not read about Jack Hall a few years before.

I started with the door, because that is really the reason I wanted to make the train in the first place. I wanted to make a wood panel door with the two crossing beams across the front that made the "X", for some reason that catches my fancy. At this point I don't fully know why or how it turned into me making a house but it did, and it ended up looking like this. After I realized the house was going to be too big I scrapped the idea and just made it into a kind of stand. I ended up throwing it away sometime later. I wish that I hadn't.

A month or so after I graduated in 2009 I wanted to take another shot at making a house. Now I knew a little more about building with matches and how to make a much smaller house. This became the first and only house that I have finished thus far. You can see the house here. It took me a week to make it, base and all.

I didn't start anything else until 2012, which is the house that I am working on now. I wanted to scale up the size of the project. Which wasn't too hard, as the first house was only just over a matchstick and a half long. I still want to build that train car that I never even really started. I have a few other projects on my mind as well.

I am always looking for new things to try. Looking at how to scale items down. I want to try and work into making stop motion animation movies. I really like and study the company Laika, which made Coraline, Paranorman, and are currently working on Box Trolls. But for now I will just make things out of matchsticks.

I will leave you with a list of awesome things people have made with matchsticks.

Problems with laying large sheets of matches and how to prevent/fix them

When building a model out of matches you have to lay large sheets for the floors and walls. The problem with this is the matches will bow, and it is hard to get the sheet to lay flat when the glue is dried. I am currently working on the first floor of my model matchstick house. So I thought that I will show what I did and what I did wrong and how to prevent UTTER CATASTROPHE!!!!! or just a minor problem that can be fixed You be the judge of the severity.

You can see how the right side is curved upward. As the glue dries the matches like to curve in this way. To prevent that you must lay supports running perpendicular to the rest of the matchsticks.

I cut out the floor plan of the section that I am going to build out of a piece of paper, you can use something thicker to add support but I used the paper so it wouldn't add any more height to the floor. I wanted the matches to run horizontally so I laid the supports vertically. (this also gives you something to glue to.)







Because the piece is larger than the length of one matchstick you will need to add side supports to these as well. I forgot to take a photo of this step, but you add another match at the connecting points like you see here. You only have to glue a match on one side of each support but you can do both sides. If you are doing a larger piece than this I would do both sides, but something small like this wont have too much pull.

The weak points are shown here with a red line. They are where the piece will bend if you do not add the extra supports. I thought the top line would have been fine because it was a smaller section, but I was wrong. So make sure to cover all the points the first time because it can be hard to correct fully.

To fix the problem I flipped the piece over and with a scalpel I cut the paper away. I then used a razor blade to cut large blobs of dried glue away from the points where I needed to put my extra supports. Be careful not to cut away too much glue as to loosen any matches. You want to be able to brace you new support matches against the existing ones so that you have two points of contact. Otherwise it will be no good.

You want to work fast when glueing these matches down. If the glue had started to set before you do the next step it will pull the matches loose and wont set properly. I added two matches per support just to make sure that it would hold.

I placed a spare strip of paper across the matches where I had put glue. I did this so I could put a weight on top of the section of floor without having to worry about it getting glued to it.

I used a large encyclopedia for the weight and I left it sitting like this for an hour or so. I then flipped it over and placed the weight back on. You can just leave it upside down if you wish. I left the book on it for another hour.

You can see here that It did in fact flatten out. It bows a little still, but it isn't overwhelming like it was.








I really liked having the paper on the bottom instead of seeing the glue covered mess on the bottom. So I glued the floor onto another piece of paper. I then laid the book back on top of it just to for added measure.









After it was dried I cut off the extra bits of paper and then used an emery board  to sand the edges back so there is no overhang.










And you are all set to attach the piece. Trust me its so much easier to just do it all right the first time. I should also mention that this is more for single layers of matches at this scale. I don't have the same problem when doing double layers that I used for the walls of the upper room. But at larger scales you would want to build the walls with studs as in a real house. You can see videos of my matchstick house here. and the video that involves this section of the house is here

Matchstick house: backstory drifter

A few days ago I posted a little back story on my matchstick house. I have been trying to flesh out the rest of the story. If you watch my youtube videos you may know the story doesn't stop there. There is a room on the top floor that I named the anne frank room. And in the room there is a moldy pillow and blanket in the corner of the room with a Jack Daniel's bottle laying between them. Leaving the thought that someone must have been staying in the house since the man's passing.

Being the man stayed in the hidden room I am brought to the conclusion that maybe he is a drifter. Someone looking for shelter and unknowing of the house's history.

The man enters town during a rather bad summer storm. With no money for a room he stumbles drunk through town. As he approaches the edge of town a crack of lightning fills the hot night's air. It illuminates what little of a house is visible through the overgrown trees and shrubs off in the distance. He figures that it is far enough back and covered enough that he could stay without anyone noticing that he is there.

He approaches the house and pears though the windows. He can't make out any signs of life. So he tries the front door. The knob no longer present, the door easily swung open. There was a sense of uneasiness and sadness in the air. It was hot and thick from the midsummer storm, but also it was something more. Maybe it was just the fact that he was walking around an abandoned house that did not belong to him.

He searches the house blindly in the dark, but can not find a light. So he lays down in a corner away from the door in case anyone saw him poking around outside. In the morning he gives the house a look over and finds a little door under the stairs that leads to a small room. A few books line a shelf, the seem to be children stories. He likes the room it's small and hidden away. The room feels different, lighter than the rest of the house. He builds a bed in the corner of the room out of a pillow and blanket he found downstairs.

He was used to being on the move. As a young boy he would see people and hear things. After he told his parents this they began beat him. They took him to a doctor who had diagnosed him with schizophrenia and started to use electroshock therapy on him. It didn't help though, he just learned not to pretend like he didn't see or hear the things he saw and heard. He soon ran away after the treatments started. Later in life he found that getting drunk helped him with the things that alienated him from everyone else. He rarely stayed in the same place for long. People don't normally want a drunk schizophrenic man staying in town or being around their children. He tries to hide it and act like nothing is there, but its hard. The last town he was in he broke down in the street. He had just left the liquor store. The people where all around him flickering, whispering. He dropped his bottle yelling to leave him alone and that they weren't real. He covered his ears and ran down the street still yelling for them to stop. People stared in horror while others pulled their children inside homes and shops to protect them from the site.

The drifter had been in the house a few days before he had started seeing things again. He had noticed a small amount of money downstairs in a jar. He took the money into town and bought a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Normally this is when he would skip town. But, he felt oddly safe in the house and he liked his makeshift bed. It was rare that he got to sleep in doors.

Over the next week he tries to stay out of the main part of the house. He only to go down to eat from what little canned food he found. His visions normally follow him around and whisper things he can't quite make out. But, this one is different he doesn't even really take note of the drifter being there. He just stands there, looking out a window.

Going into the second week of being in the house he grew curious as to what the man is looking at. He walks over to the window and peers out of it. The only thing he could see was a bunch of trees off in the distance. He had got a better look at the man standing at the window. His face was covered in dirt and a long scraggly beard as if he had never bathed or even shaved. Seeing someone with a beard wasn't commonplace. Most men picked up shaving daily after the war. The man look as if he fought the entire war by himself, barehanded. His eyes were empty, and his face wore a look of sorrow that was so overwhelming you could forget where you stood.

As the drifter began to walk away the bearded man spoke softly, "She should be home soon." The drifter had stopped dead on his heel. He could never understand the people he saw. He turned back around and just looked at the man. Trying to figure out if he was real or not. The man had never even turned from the window. His vacant eyes transfixed on something the drifter couldn't see. "My wife. She likes to go for walks by the pond. She should be home soon to fix supper." The drifter craned his neck to take a second look out the window unwilling to move closer.

After what seemed to be hours of just standing there staring he slowly backed up toward his room. He drank his entire bottle of booze trying to wash the night from his memories. He woke abruptly from a dead sleep as if something called to him. He headed downstairs for some food. Peeking first to see if the man was at his window. But the bearded man wasn't at his post yet. On his way to get some a can he spotted some letters on a small table over by the window. The letters were addressed to a william and they were all unopened. He opened and read a few. They all seem to be from his daughter. In one of the letters there was a newspaper clipping about a large ship sinking. The drifter put the letters back, and without eating, headed for the yard.

After some searching He came across what may have been a pond, but was now all dried up. Trees pressed upon it, threatening to take away any evidence that it had once been there. He thought it strange that his vision would know about this pond even though he himself had never seen it. He sat down against a tree to think over everything that has happened since he got to town. He wasn't sitting there long before something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. A fluttering of white moved in and out of the trees. He got up to see what it was. He moved into the tree line and could make out a woman in a plain white dress.

"Miss," he called out. She didn't seem to hear him or even notice that he was there. He followed her for a little while staying a ways away. She seemed to be walking in circles. He decided to move closer. He got up behind her and reached out to touch her shoulder. Before he could touch her she turned around. She seemed startled. "ma'am, are you looking for something?" The drifter had asked her. She relaxed a little but seemed a worried. "I'm a little lost. I was out on a walk by the pond near my house. I saw a pretty little doe a little ways into the wood. So I came into to get a better look at it. I remember feeling very sleepy all of a sudden so I sat down. I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up I couldn't find my way back to the pond. It's so strange. I didn't think I had walked that far in. I need to get home soon and cook dinner for my husband. He must be getting worried by now." The drifter just stood there. He wondered if this was the woman William had spoke about. He doesn't know what to do or say. He could never understand his visions before yesterday and everything william said was true. But the drifter couldn't have known about the pond or the woman so what was going on. "I think I can show you back to your house miss. Follow me."

The drifter went up to the front door and opened it to see if William was standing at his window. He looked back at the woman who was standing in the yard. She just stared at the house with a pondering look on her face. "It looks like my house but something is different. It's not the same." The drifter took her by the hand and told her it will be okay and took her inside. The drifter stood by the door and watched as she walked over to William and touched him on the shoulder. He turned and saw his wife, and tears run down his face as he embraced her. They both cried, happy to be together once more as they slowly faded away.

The drifter couldn't explain what had happened. He thought maybe his visions weren't visions, but something more.The house no longer felt that since of sadness it had when he had first arrived there. Even though he felt like he could go on living there for a while longer he felt it was time to go. So he just left. Not because he was being chased away by scared parents, or because he was running away from visions. But, because he felt like he may be needed elsewhere.

The story and life of the matchstick house.

I have been working on this matchstick house for almost 2 years now. I do a little at a time and I have only got the front wall finished. I really want to see this thing get done. As I work on the house I kind of see a story unfold about how it was built, who built it, and who lived in it. The way the matches lay and lean, the way the singles are cut and laid. I try not to lay the matches meticulously, but more haphazardly in hopes that it tells its own story. Not one that I made up. I let the house have it's own story. It's own life.

The house was built by a young man for his wife as a wedding present. They lived in the house for a year before they had a daughter and expanded the house. They didn't have much money, which caused him to use what ever materials he could find. Sometimes the wood slats wouldn't fit right or the shingles were cut at the wrong angles. Despite all of that they couldn't be any happier.

The house is built near a small meadow and pond that is lined with some woods.The wife likes to take walks in the meadow and spend time near the pond. But, one day she didn't come home. Her body was found not to far into the woods from the pond. The scene of his wife laying there drives the man mad, and  he refuses to believe it. He got to where he wouldn't leave the house. He said he has to be there when his wife comes home. He begins to neglect the house and his daughter. She soon is taken to live with her aunt. The aunt takes her to see her father once a week and takes food for him even though he barely ever eat any of it. He never talks to her. He can only manage a weak smile. But soon the smile fades. He can no longer look at his daughter. She looks too much like her mother. Not long after that they stop showing up. It's too hard on the daughter, and he never eats any of the food they bring. 

By the time he passed no one visited him any more. The house was falling apart and didn't seem safe to go in. Rumors passed around town about the man and the house. His body had gone weeks before anyone noticed a smell. He was buried next to his wife.  

The daughter doesn't want anything to do with the house. It has too many painful memories and so it just sits there, rotting. The people around town say that on occasion you can see the man standing in front of a window overlooking the pond. Waiting for his wife to return from her walk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBO_1txP9eQ