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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMy dioramas (picture heavy)
I have made two so far. Making them was very messy, but Id never had so much fun before. Ive always been a tidyish person, but I think that underneath, there was a mess-lover itching to get out.
The first one I made was a fairy diorama. My daughter gave me the fairy house (a friend of hers made it), so all I did was bake (to sterilize it) some dirt for the ground cover and add some figurines, dried moss, twigs and fake plants.
My daughters friend made the crooked house too, but this diorama took a long time for me to make just the same. The dirt is a mixture of real dirt and dried coffee grounds. The cliff backdrop is plaster of Paris. I got disgusted with my first try and demolished it with a hammer. I really liked the looks of the debris, so I used it instead and painted the finished cliff with acrylic washes. The tree trunks are wooden dowels (textured with wood filler & drybrushed with acrylic paint) and the tree foliage is furnace filter material sprinkled with craft turf and dried moss. Some of the grass is real dead grass that I picked from the meadow behind my house and painted with acrylic, and some is craft turf. I made the spikey shrubs behind the bunny out of bits of tumbleweed rolled in glue and dried parsley flakes. The waterfall is made out of clear bathroom caulk, which I streaked with white paint. The pond is caulk and a craft product called Realistic Water. I made some of the stones surrounding the pond out of plaster of Paris, and some of the stones are real. I made the wolfs granny nightcap and bed cape out of an old doily, bits of ribbon, and some embroidered flowers Id long ago cut from something or another.
I am trying to finish a stone castle I started quite a while ago, but mr. froggy keeps asking me to move my creative endeavor somewhere else so he can eat at the table.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Precious and beautiful!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)NV Whino
(20,886 posts)Hot glue from a hot glue gun makes an interesting liquid look alike. I used it once to simulate oily gunk coming out of the ground. It paints up nicely, but I can't remember if I used oils or acrylic. Oils, I think, because it has a translucent quality to it.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)took forever to dry. Each 1/8 inch layer of Realistic Water took about 48 hours to set, so I was glad I'd used caulk for the first layers of pond water, since each layer of caulk took only 12 hours or so.
I'm new at this sort of thing, so I've never used hot glue before, but I'll be trying it for sure.
a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)while making them, so I think that if I ever make one again, it'll go faster.
One thing I learned is that I have more patience than I thought I did - and that mr froggy has less.
MsPithy
(809 posts)you better be careful. Working with miniatures is highly addictive!
for sure! I love them!
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)thanks for sharing how you made them and for posting the pictures. I meant to reply about it in the dining room thread. So glad you decided to do your own OP.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)try my hand at making dioramas. I can't draw or paint, but I didn't need to be an artist to do this.
Soon after I took the pictures, I added a turtle and two frogs to the pond area. I couldn't find small enough turtle and frog figurines, so I used a small turtle earring, a leaping frog earring and a resting frog earring. All three were silver, so I painted them. (I am so clever. lol)
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)charming. to keep finding those little treasures is so much fun for everyone
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)was so delighted when he saw the turtle and frogs half-hidden by the pond, that I knew right then that the huge mess I'd made had been worth it.
And my grown granddaughter was tickled to be given a pair of mismatched frog earrings. :-D
loudsue
(14,087 posts)Thank you for sharing that!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)I think determination and patience had more to do with it than talent, but thank you!
Throd
(7,208 posts)I really love the result.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)some clear plastic wrap (I used Glad, but I'm sure any brand would do) to the table, making sure the plastic sheet would be larger than the planned waterfall.
Using DAP crystal clear (not plain clear, because it dries cloudy) bathroom caulk, I made close-together thin vertical strips on the plastic wrap until I had enough of them to match the desired width of the waterfall.
I let the caulk strips set for a few minutes. Then I used a toothpick (or was it a hair roller pick?) and "scribbled" them together to connect them. Then I made some vertical strokes to give the illusion of moving water.
EDIT: I forgot to add here that after letting the waterfall dry for about a day, I pulled it free of the plastic wrap.
I used a smooth liter-size clear plastic bottle to make the backing for the waterfall to stabilize it, and to also allow for a bowed effect at the top of the waterfall where it begins to rush over the cliff. Without the backing, the waterfall would be flimsy, and without a bowed effect it would drop straight down from the cliff top instead of giving the appearance of surging over it.
I cut a piece from the plastic bottle the same size as the waterfall. I held the piece of plastic and the waterfall together with my hand and then held them up against the cliff top to see how much of a bowed effect would look best. I then put the waterfall aside and used a hair dryer to soften the plastic and bow it. After it cooled, I attached the waterfall to it. Any clear-drying glue would have worked, I think, but I stuck them together with a thin layer of caulk.
I didn't attach the waterfall to the cliff top until after I'd made the pond. Then I attached it with some caulk and cut off the bottom right at the pond water line. I used another dab of caulk to stick the bottom of the waterfall to the pond water. I made some splash effects with caulk, and then dabbed some white paint on them and made some white streaks on the waterfall.
It was fun, once I figured out how to use a caulk gun.
nolabear
(41,991 posts)I know someone who does great Day of the Dead dioramas but I like your detail and I love a story. VERY cool!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)gave me the dragon on the crystal ball I used in the fairy diorama for my birthday one year, and I found all the other figures, for both dioramas, on Ebay and Etsy. The problem I had was finding figures the right scale. Most of the ones I saw and liked a lot were too large.
Speaking of stories, here's what I wrote to send to my kids along with pictures of the Red Riding Hood diorama when I finally finished it:
⊱✿⊰ In my version of the Little Red Riding Hood story, the Big Bad Wolf isnt bad, nor is she very big. Her name is Ida, and shes a dear friend of Reds and Grannys. For fun, when Ida visits Granny she often dresses up in Grannys clothes. This tickles Grannys funny bone and makes her laugh, but whenever Red goes to visit Granny and sees Ida clowning around in a Grannyesque getup, for a moment Red is taken aback. ⊱✿⊰ I almost forgot to mention that the owls name is Edwyna and the bunnys name is Frank. ⊱✿⊰ Oh, one more thing: Granny is a devoted homebody, but Red, Ida, Edwyna and Frank enjoy sharing adventures together, so I didnt glue them down.
My kids think I'm a tad strange, but I don't care.
nolabear
(41,991 posts)I've never been to Etsy (well, maybe once). I clearly need to go see what's there.
Nice work, really. Stories, too.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)whenever I'm looking for original, one-of-a-kind gifts for my family members. I've always had good luck finding just the right thing there.
Thanks again!
Triana
(22,666 posts)Fabulous detail. Wow!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)You do great work, frogmarch!!
Love!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)very much. I appreciate it!
rrneck
(17,671 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)you may have guessed why I didn't lose mine - it was already long gone.
hibbing
(10,109 posts)Hi,
Thanks for posting both the pictures and the explanation of the various items you made. I really like the waterfall, turned out really good and the splashing it makes when hitting the pond is pretty awesome.
Peace
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)by telling how I made some of the features, people would know how much messy fun they too could have making dioramas!
I'm glad you like the waterfall. It was the most fun of all to make.
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)onestepforward
(3,691 posts)Lovely work!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)I've always loved dioramas, and making one was on my bucket list. I gave them both my all and had a wonderful time of it.
Thanks again!
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)hermetic
(8,310 posts)I could just sit and stare into them with pure delight. Thanks for sharing.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)stare at them a lot, and I often find myself making up stories about them. I guess I'm in my second childhood, but oh, well, that's okay.
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)I would love to have talent like that.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)so sure talent had much to do with it. I think that imagination, determination, patience, and the ability to see messes as just part of the process were what I mainly had going for me.
The Magistrate
(95,252 posts)Excellent work.
The foliage is just fantastic.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I love all the intricate details. You did a great job!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)denbot
(9,901 posts)You missed your calling as a model maker.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)Squinch
(50,993 posts)Be sure to show us the castle.
I once had a patient who made these intricate, detailed little worlds inside large bird eggs (he used ostrich eggs.) I think it is some Ukranian traditional art form that was handed down from father to son. These remind me of those.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)the ostrich egg creations! I doubt Id ever be able to make anything so intricate, but Id sure enjoy looking.
If my stone castle isnt a total flop when its finished, Ill post some pictures of it. (Im using real stones, so it already weighs a ton. Now I know why many model castle builders make artificial stones, using lightweight Hydrocal!)
Worried senior
(1,328 posts)You did a wonderful job, even I would like one of those and the story you wrote for your grandkids is great. No more making the wolf the bad guy.
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)different Red Riding Hood story to go with the diorama was a must for me. I couldn't have made a RRH diorama based on any of the old versions of the story. Many of the old fairy tales are full of violence, and even as a child I was put off by them - especially ones depicting cruelty to animals.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)Cass
(2,600 posts)You are so very talented. I love the little worlds you have created here!
frogmarch
(12,158 posts)I've always been fascinated by the little worlds other people have made, and I'm tickled that now I have two of my own.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)After looking and enjoying your Worlds, I'm thinking "Double cool and beautiful"
I love your work.