World’s tiniest vinyl collection in a Tacoma basement? Take a look
Roughly 850 records line the shelves of a basement in a Tacoma home. Laurie Cinotto towers over the vast collection, pinches one album — smaller than the size of her palm — between her forefinger and thumb.
Cinotto isn’t a giant. She’s the mastermind behind the running art project, “Teeny Tiny Vinyl,” an effort that’s earned her a loyal social media following on Instagram and nods from some of the biggest names in music today.
Alt-rock titans Wilco gave Cinotto a shout in August, urging 286,000 Instagram followers to preorder the band’s latest album in teeny-tiny-vinyl form. Earlier this month, Sub Pop Records boosted Cinotto’s fun-size version of an album by singer-songwriter Weyes Blood.
Cinotto took The News Tribune on a tour of her infinitesimal collection one sunny afternoon in April, the week after her 56th birthday. The records — while miniature — made a massive impression.
The project is all about spreading joy: the specific type of happiness that comes from discovering new music.
“One of the things that I like about this,” Cinotto said, “is kind of the daily practice of putting something positive into the world.”
Cinotto said she launched Teeny Tiny Vinyl nearly five years ago. She first created mini-records for a music-loving friend’s birthday instead of making him a standard card or collage.
The birthday came and went, but Cinotto didn’t stop.
“As soon as I was done, I’m like, ‘That was really fun. I should make some for myself,’” Cinotto said. “And I’m like, ‘Wait, I should make my entire record collection in miniature,’ and so … it just started rolling from there.”
Cinotto’s mini-collection is eclectic, spanning the spectrum of genre and sonic era. Every album is a snowflake with varying parts: There are inserts and posters, gatefolds and standard jackets. The process is more or less the same for crafting each record, and Cinotto likes that repetition.
An onlooker could reasonably assume that for Cinotto, it’s a type of Zen — a moving meditation.
The tiny records, made from durable paper, typically take around 30 to 45 minutes to create depending on the design’s complexity, she said. Cinotto ensures that everything in a full-size jacket makes it into miniature form. She’ll snap photos of each part, shrink them down using Photoshop and hit print. Then it’s ready to assemble.
A diorama houses Cinotto’s collection, plus a teeny record player and tiny teal couch. Her cats, Minnow and Wylla, loom large in photos of the display. Some of Cinotto’s favorite vinyl have gotten the miniaturized treatment, including Television’s seminal debut album “Marquee Moon” and selections from The Feelies, Psychic TV, Ray Charles — and, of course, Girl Trouble.
“They’re just like so Tacoma, this kind of perseverance and grit,” Cinotto said of Girl Trouble while wearing one of the band’s shirts. “I think they represent us well.”
The admiration is mutual.
Girl Trouble’s Bon Von Wheelie told The News Tribune via email that the band is impressed by Cinotto’s project. The drummer praised her “amazing talent” and the teensy vinyl collection as “a little work of art.”
Cinotto has given Girl Trouble mini-versions of the EP “Stomp and Shout and Work it on Out” and the full-length “New American Shame,” Von Wheelie said. She presented the former to the band for its 40th anniversary last month.
Girl Trouble felt honored to be subjects of Cinotto’s inimitable art, the drummer added. The fact that she’s a Tacoma resident makes it even better.
“You only have to look at one example of these teeny records to be hooked!” Von Wheelie wrote. “With the renewed popularity of vinyl records, Laurie’s teeny versions couldn’t come at a better time.”
Cinotto said she earns a living as a “professional crafter,” making paper flowers and Christmas ornaments and the like. Her husband, Craig Miller, is “very supportive of this madness,” she added.
Music was always around Cinotto as a kid; she recalled buying 45 RPM records in her elementary-school days. Her musician father exposed her to Neil Young, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris and ‘70s country-rock, she said: “And then as I grew I kind of developed my own taste, but still have a fondness for what I was raised on.”
Cinotto regularly treks to Hi-Voltage Records on Fridays for new finds. She’s come to anticipate which artists her followers will dig: Echo & The Bunnymen, Talking Heads, The Cure.
Sometimes people tell Cinotto that her project got them into records. Although the minis she posts aren’t for sale, she loves making recommendations and the process of playing vinyl, which requires concentration and thought and an intermission to flip sides. The sound quality — that depth — “can’t be beat,” she said.
Sharing music with her followers is partly why Cinotto enjoys the project so much.
“I love that friendships are happening within that little world,” she said, “and I know them well enough that I can share something and they like it.”
John Edward Mermis, also known as “Long Gone John,” is an Olympia music guru who got in touch with Cinotto after learning about her project. Mermis runs an independent label, Sympathy for the Record Industry, whose roster has featured the likes of The White Stripes and Hole.
As soon as Mermis saw the tiny-record diorama, he wanted to do the same but with his own spin: “And that’s exactly what I did.”
Over time, he said, Cinotto crafted some 400 mini-duplicates from his catalog, including artists like Rocket from the Crypt, Roky Erickson and Veruca Salt.
“She put in just an enormous amount of work to do this for me,” Mermis told The News Tribune. “So I’m really, really graciously appreciative of what she did, and I get a big kick every time I look at it.”
Teeny Tiny Vinyl isn’t Cinotto’s first passion project. During the heyday of blogging, she ran The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee webpage for a decade, sharing stories and photos of foster cats.
Teeny Tiny Vinyl later came to fill that void, and Cinotto said she’s committed to keeping it up for 10 years.
Cinotto seems optimistic about the future of vinyl. More women are getting into the format because of artists like Taylor Swift, she said, and record stores are diversifying.
She hopes that people continue to embrace vinyl — regardless of the albums’ size.
“I hope that it’s not just a trend, that people do fall in love with it and keep it going,” Cinotto said. “Because it’s going in a good direction right now.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
