Just Can't Seem to Get the Best Bird Shelter

There have been two attempts at a suitable birdhouse for this little vignette, but both seem out of scale with the size of the setting. I'm still working on it, but other work is going on nevertheless. One birdhouse was made of wood scraps, the other, smaller one of cardboard, but they both still appear too big when placed in the setting.

The vine is ready for painting; it is made of a framework of brown, cloth-covered floral wire, which is then wrapped around with brown floral tape. The tape was also used to give the appearance of branches getting thinner near their ends. In the original, the vine is against the wall of the shed, but I prefer to have it framing the scene, while not extending outside of the eventual frame. Grass grows in the corners, moss is dotted on the roof shingles, along with some orange and yellow lichen blotches (dots of paint dry-brushed out for effect), and there is moss and weeds along the foundation.

 In the corner of the step is one of my treasured Bonnie Lavish dandelions; I bought a kit for these years ago, and am using them rather sparingly in various settings. Another one appears at the front of the Provencal scent shop, elsewhere on the blog, next to the blue fence.

The vine will likely hold grapes. The bottle cap basket has its first coat of paint, and will be aged and given a bail handle with a wooden grip, and will hold apples harvested outside the boundaries of this vignette. I think a chrysanthemum plant in a pot will look good, so that may appear soon. The gardening tools are very new-looking, and need dirtying and aging, to better match the somewhat dilapidated look of the shed.

I think the little grapevine wreath would look better on the shed door, with a sunflower and some autumn leaves tucked into it. Yes, the scene has decided it wants to be autumnal! Now I have to make grapes and apples, potatoes and orange, yellow and green vine leaves, and I can't forget the tendrils for the vine; these will be made by wrapping fuse wire over a darning needle....

Yes, miniaturists are crazy!