From learning about buildings and their history in real life, to constructing masterpieces of her own in Minecraft, micro influencer Claire Humes has a talent for sharing her love of building.

Historic preservation student Humes, also known as Claire1593, runs an Instagram account where she posts weekly about her newest creations. From submarines to cartoon houses, her range of building subjects can appeal to all ages.

Humes started her Instagram account in February of 2019. She created the account simply because she thought it was cool, and positive repercussions followed suit.

“I’ve met so many people across the whole world, which is really, really cool,” Humes said. “I’ve built with someone from Germany before. It’s a really cool experience; you learn about them. Having fans from all over is also really cool.”

Currently, Humes has almost 30,000 fans on Instagram. However, her reach in the community is not only digital.

Humes is also in the Game Club at Southeast, which meets on Wednesday nights at the Baptist Student Center. Last year, other members of the club took note of Humes’ skills with building in Minecraft.

“They challenged me to build the Baptist Student Center,” Humes said.

Once the build was completed, she posted it on her social media platforms.

The original recreation of the Baptist Student Center by Claire Humes in May of 2021. Humes was challenged to build this structure by her peers in Game Club.Photo submitted by Claire Humes

This semester, Humes is taking a local history class, where one of the projects is to research a local building and inspect its design, history and other characteristics. Humes said the Baptist Student Center was actually one of the options on the list.

“I’ve been researching this semester on the [Baptist Student Center] building and learning a lot about its history. So I was like, I built this last year, I’m pretty sure I could build it again,” Humes said.

Humes posted the finished build three weeks ago and said her most recent build was a definite improvement from the original.

A new version of the Baptist Student Center created by Humes three weeks ago. Humes said when building a structure, she does in-depth research about its history and design. Photo submitted by Claire Humes

Humes said much of her motivation comes from heartwarming messages from her followers. One follower, a mom of two, messaged Humes stating her children loved Claire’s Minecraft content.

“In the morning, her kids had been like, ‘What did Claire post today?’ And she’d show it to them, and they’d get really excited and really happy,” Humes said.

Even with her large number of fans, Humes says her goal isn’t to gain followers on her Instagram account.

“It’s just to teach people and hope that my experiences can help them in any way,” Humes said.

If you’d like to check out more of Claire’s work, visit her Linktree here.