Off The Cuff: Jodi Peters

Jan. 17, 2020

Our CCRI faculty and staff are a diverse group with many fascinating hobbies and interests that keep them busy during their free time off campus. Welcome to Off the Cuff. Every other week, we'll profile a member of our CCRI family to find out what makes them tick. Hopefully, their stories inspire others and help us develop new connections and friendships with our CCRI colleagues.

When she’s not busy scheduling lab times for nursing faculty and students at the Newport County Campus, CCRI alumna and Nursing Lab Technician Jodi Peters uses her spare time to perfect a unique craft.

The youngest of six siblings, the Newport native builds custom dollhouses and dollhouse accessories, the latter which includes everything from furnishings and decorations to kitchen cabinets and nightstands. This is a labor of love for Peters, who became fascinated with the craft on a whim and has since built 10 custom homes of her own, all of which include hardwood floors and personalized décor. The kitchen cabinets are actually filled with miniature pots and pans with earring studs used as door knobs and pieces of tile fashioned into countertops. She even makes candles small enough to fit in the palm of her hand – tiny, glass jars stuffed with clay instead of wax with a real wick coming out of the top.

When it comes to her custom dollhouses, Peters spares no expense and leaves no stone unturned. This week, we sat down with the 12-year CCRI employee to find out how she got started and how she could one day make money from her unique skill set.

How did you become a Nursing Lab Technician and what are your responsibilities?

I was actually working in the bookstore for the past 11 years and recently got hired in this new role. My main job is to schedule labs for professors and students. I also take care of ordering and I am helping with CPR now as well. It’s all pretty new to me, so my job is a little bit of everything – anything to help students and staff.

When did you develop this passion for building dollhouses?

This all started when I was doing volunteer work following the historic flood in Warwick 10 years ago. I would go in and help people clean out their basements. I didn’t want to get paid for it. There was a family that had a dollhouse in their basement that they were throwing away. There was no damage to it. I asked them if I could have it. There were ladders and scaffolding that came with it. The gentleman that lived in the house would go out to construction sites and show contractors how to set up ladders and scaffolding correctly by using this model. It was just a shell of a house, but I fell in love with it. I had to have it.

Once you brought this unfinished model home, what was your next step?

I took down all the scaffolding and everything and set it up as a dollhouse. I put wood on the inside so the walls were thick and I built my own window frames. It all started with that house and then it took off from there. I built my next house from a kit, which was so easy to build, but I don’t do anything the easy way. I have to make it personal and I am very detail-oriented. All of my houses that I’ve ever made have real oak flooring in them, so I go to Home Depot and buy a stair tread and I cut it right there on a table saw. You should see some of the faces when I go in and buy six or different paint samples at a time. They ask, ‘What are you painting?’ and I tell them, ‘A house! I have to paint the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom.’ They’re extremely detailed.

How long does it take to build a typical dollhouse from scratch?

I just built one in a little over two months. I got the kit in November and finished it a week before Christmas, but that’s just the shell, not with any furnishings or paint or anything else. It relaxes me, but it also stresses me out. When you’re making a cabinet and on the last step the door splits in half when you try to put on a handle it, now you have to remake the entire door. It happens. Overall, I’d say it’s better than sitting in front of a television.

Why did you start crafting your own custom furnishings such as the cabinets, candles and accessories?

Things inside the house are really expensive. If I wanted to buy a typical kitchen setup, it would cost $45 on Etsy. Instead, I bought a miniature sink online, I bought table, cut the edges, put everything together and made it for $8. It’s less expensive for me and I get to make it how I like it. The beds, I get to dress them in the colors I want so I can match the rooms. Building it yourself gives it your own custom feel.

Is there any opportunity to turn this hobby into something more lucrative?

I recently sold the second dollhouse I ever built. At the time, I was living in a two-bedroom apartment and this house was huge. I had it in the middle of my living room on a coffee table. I put it on eBay and sold it for $750, but I had put more than 2,000 hours and $2,000 into it. It’s hard to make money off the actual house. I wanted to do something more artistic and Etsy was the place for that. It’s easier for me to sell the smaller items that furnish the house because a lot of people won’t take the time to craft them and make them themselves.  

We would love to hear your story, too! Email us at [email protected] if you’d like to be featured in a future edition of “Off the Cuff” or want to nominate a co-worker.

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