My Dad Made A Scale-model Of The World Of Pirates He Made Up To Tell Us Bedtime Stories

Office guy by day, creative storyteller by night. That’s how my sister and I saw my dad when we were little girls. Most nights, right before bedtime, he would go to our room and tell us a tale so we would fall asleep faster. But instead of reading us traditional, well-known stories, he made up pirate adventures that included one very fun detail: all three of us as characters. So many nights, my sister and I we were transformed into pirates; warrior women that went to islands and far away lands to look for treasures. My dad was the Captain’s right hand. The saga was named “The Adventures of Moñoño the Pirate”.

30 years later, he found a pirate ship for sale… so he bought it and began working on the idea of the scale-model of that pirate’s world.
He’s never studied plastic arts, but he has the talent and patience for it. He started making the mountain of the island with plaster and some wire. Then he made the little rowboats out of nutshells and matches for the oars, the bay out of sand, blue paper, paint and cotton and added some scale-model trees. He even made the seagulls and the parrots out of clay and painted them.

The scale model is also packed with symbolisms of lessons he’s taught us; for instance, he hung the clay seagulls from the ceiling to make the illusion of them flying, but there’s one seagull that flies above them all, looking for more (J.L. Seagull). I was so excited about this project that I asked a photographer friend of mine to take some pictures, which I share with you here.