Artist Handcrafts Tiny Floating Islands With Enchanting Little Houses Embedded in Them

Amsterdam-based artist Rosa de Jong creates fantastical miniature landscapes that appear to float in mid-air. Her series, titled Micro Matter, sees found wood repurposed as rugged terrain, where trees and moss grow around jumbles of houses that are precariously placed on steep hillsides.

Although de Jong’s sculptures look otherworldly, they still hold a certain earthly familiarity. She finds her natural materials all over the world. In one piece, De Jong uses a piece of wood from the Hoh Rainforest in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, and in another, she uses old tree bark found in Florida. She then adds her handmade miniature houses crafted from paper and cardboard, as well as faux foliage—or as she calls it, “green stuff.” Finally, de Jong uses thread to delicately attach each piece to a wooden frame, handcrafted by her father.

De Jong’s Micro Matter series sparks the imagination and makes you wonder who or what lives within these tiny landscapes. Each piece looks like a little ecosystem floating in space, suspended within frames or housed within giant glass tubes that ready to be studied. You can almost imagine minuscule forms of life peeping out from the trees or climbing up to the miniature hillside towns.

Check out de Jong’s Micro Matter series below and find more miniature landscapes on her website.