I Should probably update more often…

Greetings, my two regular viewers! Any other visitors, welcome to you, as well. The part of Little Weird business that is hard to convey to a blog is the real work: the classroom lecture. The construction of the Nutshells is wonderful and I enjoy every minute spent crafting the little pieces that go into each […]

Picture Day

Sorry for the delay getting pictures up. I had an issue with my phone. I’m not terribly technical, it seems. I think, perhaps, if I could see the screen a little better I might be. But my eyes are old. Working in miniature is a great idea for someone with old eyes. I have magnifying […]

Unattended Death

I hope this post finds you well and enduring the continued difficulties of pandemic with good health, grace, and hope for the future. Installation #2 in the Northern Michigan University collection of Nutshells was completed during this trying time, entitled Unattended Death. It made its debut in a senior level Advanced Criminal Investigations class and […]

Work Continues

The workshop is a-buzz with activity lately. Saw dust. Sanding. A fair bit of swearing. Just the regular stuff. If you look closely at the construction of this new Nutshell, you may notice that there are some differences from the first one. As the construction continues, more changes to technique will be apparent. We live, […]

Professional Development

http://www.miningjournal.net/news/front-page-news/2018/11/murder-in-a-nutshell/ Check out the article appearing in the Sunday, November 18th edition of the Mining Journal, written by Cecilia Brown. This fall has seen some good use of the MacDonald nutshell in the classroom. The first full class use was on November 6th with a class of Criminal Justice undergrads for a Criminal Investigation class. […]

A Taste of Academia

I haven’t posted in a little while because I’ve been awfully busy. First, there were several meetings to discuss theory and construct an abstract. Then there was the time required to research the learned literature. Then came writing the paper. Lastly, crafting the presentation to a scholarly audience. If you’re an academic, you will have […]

Approaching the Finishing Line

This project began just as the weather started to cool last summer. It’s almost time for the cooling to start again and I’m closing in on the completion of the construction. The list of new skills I’ve added to the tool box is pretty big. Many were already there, but needed to be adapted to […]

Miniature Murder Scene a Teaching Tool

This article, written by Kristi Evans, appeared on the Northern Michigan University website on July 13, 2018. The first female police captain in the United States, Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962), was perhaps best known for her “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.” These exquisitely detailed, miniature reproductions of real-life crime scenes revolutionized the emerging field of […]

Press Day

Patient reader, I understand your yearning for information and images. Here’s a little something to tide you over. The Nutshell had it’s first trip out of the workshop last week for a little studio time at NMU. Updates with MANY more pictures coming soon; just waiting for the University to to their publicity first.

Ten Thousand Details

As the pieces come together, the count goes up and up. So many tiny little bits go into making the whole project. It’s beginning to look like a house, with little jobs here and there that nag at my sense of completion. I’d love to be able to work 18 hours a day on it […]