I started playing Minecraft in 2012, when I was 12 years old. At the time, the game was nowhere near as intricate as now. There were only a handful of different blocks and items available, the villagers had little to no function, and the only animals in the game were chickens, pigs, cows, and sheep.
The game fascinated me, it truly took hold of my life. I had never played a game like Minecraft before, I had free range of a whole world to do whatever I wanted, to create anything I could imagine. It felt like I was a god in my own little universe. That year, Minecraft took over my life by giving me a new creative outlet. In the summer of 2012, I spent every waking moment in front of my MacBook building my own kingdom in a Superflat world, all in creative mode, of course.
As time went on, I continued playing every new update as well as watching creators on YouTube play the game, sometimes playing and watching gameplay at the same time. One of my favorite content creators at the time was iHasCupquake. Lots of her videos were of her Minecraft gameplay in modded worlds, all with fun themes. She also made videos creating items and baked goods from different video games in real life. I remember finding a video she made showing how she created a Minecraft fish in real life out of small wooden cubes. This inspired me to start creating Minecraft items in real life for myself. I bought 100 1-inch by 1-inch wooden cubes and created my own Diamond sword to hang on my wall in my bedroom when I was 14 years old. From there, I kept crafting in real life.
Now, there are a lot of creators online who make all kinds of Minecraft creations in the real world. TikTok creator Omasammiches created videos painting single 1-inch cubes to look like different blocks from the game. A few other creators cut up cardboard boxes to create items and flowers from the game. This struck a chord deep in me, and I knew I had to make these creations for myself.
TikTok creator Celynhaf created many Minecraft items in real life, but the one that grabbed my attention the most was an interchangeable item frame. In the game, an item frame is a blank frame that can be placed to hold any item from the game, The player can then take the item out of the frame and replace it with a new one. Celynhaf created a real-life replica of this item frame by using adhesive velcro on both the frame and the item, allowing the item to be swapped out.
