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Esmond Warren has spent countless hours creating models of iconic venues from around the world — using matchsticks.
“Our daughter, Caroline, she gave me the first model for Christmas as a kit,” Warren explained. “From there, it just grew.”
In his basement you’ll find replicas of the Taj Mahal in India, the Tower Bridge in London and the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
“I always like working with my hands, and I find it interesting — I just enjoy doing it and creating something,” Warren said.
Depending on the size, the kits can have upwards of 7,000 matchsticks and dozens of blueprints.
Warren noted the Tower Bridge model came with 100 pages and took 235 hours to build.
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“It’s challenging to do it, and I like a little bit of a challenge. It’s very relaxing to work on it,” he said.
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There are a few models in his collection that he made on his own without a kit; like his farm — where he and his wife lived for decades.
Now the 87-year-old is working on a replica of the Alberta Legislature, which he hopes to finish this winter.
Matchstick model of the Alberta Legislature.
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“Went down to the legislature, and I stepped off all the dimensions of it and drew a map for myself, and brought it and took a lot of pictures, and then came home and got to work,” he said.
“It’s harder, because I had to imagine things and then cut the wood, but I was working from photographs of the building, so it’s okay.”
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While Warren is proud of his work, he doesn’t want to keep them.
“The problem is, when I keep making them, what do I do with them?
“They just stay down in our basement and I would really like to display them somewhere [publically].”
Watch the video above to see more of the matchstick models.
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