Anchorage woman creates little villages filled with gnomes, fairies, hermits and trolls
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - There’s something special about the place where Panu Lucier and her husband Mark Ransom live. Their Rabbit Creek home is surrounded by woods and wildlife, but a winding trail through their backyard holds something else, a half dozen tiny gnome villages and fairy homes. Lucier has been working on miniature landscapes for about 16 years. She said it didn’t start as a collection but more of an idea when she saw an old piece of wood. “There was a perfect piece of wood there, the way it was shaped, and it looked like a gnome home,” she said. “I started finding things as we went places and bought more gnomes, and people gave me more gnome things, and it just grew from there.” Lucier’s creations have names like “Hermit Homestead”, “Gnome Home”, “Fairyville” and “Gnomeville”. The latter was the first village she created and Lucier said it’s special to her because it contains some items from her late mother. “They’re metal, little cast iron toys she had when she was little, so that’s very sentimental to me,” she said. Lucier makes some of the tiny furnishings herself, her husband Mark has carved some figures and people have gifted others. She said squirrels sometimes explore the little houses and one time a bear made off with a tiny doll they later found halfway down the trail. “I thought, ‘How did that get down there?’ And sure enough, Mark checked his trail cam, and it was a bear!” Lucier said some of the people who seem to love the little villages the most are children whose imaginations can enjoy the magic they inspire. “I think that’s why I like to do them, because they are magical,” she said. Pretty soon she’ll cover up her creations with tarps for the winter where they’ll rest in the cold months, under the snow. See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.