The Maple Sugaring Scene Is In Its New Home

 This morning, the diorama was delivered to its new home, Kings Landing Historical Settlement in New Brunswick, Canada. It is currently ensconced in a display case in the Visitor Reception Centre at the site, ready for Maple Sugaring Weekends 2024, on March 9-10 and 16-17. This year marks the Settlement's 50th Anniversary.

Here is the overall view of the finished diorama, with the lights on. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and I think the staff at the Landing are too. I've been a volunteer there now for 18 years, and my family has always enjoyed visiting. This was Marilyn's and my commemoration of the museum's anniversary.

The centre left holds the sap vat, with its canvas cover, weighted at the four corners by stones sewn to the fabric. The sap workers have just emptied the sap cans, and are preparing to add the sap to the evaporating pans. The sled is pulled by humans, as this is a family sugar bush operation, not a commercial one, which would use a horse-drawn sled.

Beyond the centre, at the edge of the scene, you see a tree with two sap buckets. Behind it on the snow lies an empty  barrel, used to haul water to wash the equipment with, and to make tea for the workers. The large copper cauldron, which is also used to boil down the sap, has been cleaned and is draining against some felled tree trunk sections. Beyond that is the woodpile, and the chopping block with its axe and wedges.

On the other side, the sap boilers are finishing their tea break, using the chest they employ to haul the necessary tools and equipment into the woods as their table. On the stump is a hydrometer in its case, while the sieve, skimmer and scraper are on top of the rock. The small shovel for the ashes leans against the rock. The fireplace was built of commercial miniature bricks, while the pans, smoke hood and damper are made of faux-finished cardboard.

As mentioned before, Marilyn and I used a series of how-to articles published in Nutshell News in April, June and July of 1992. The author of the articles was Ruth Armstrong,  a wonderful metalworker. As we were not metalworkers, we used cardboard and cellulose clay to create the copper and metal sheet items. I enjoy working with faux finishes, and this scene allowed me to indulge that fascination. The only item(s) not made by us were the tea pot (plastic), the two wooden buckets at the back of the scene, and the wooden barrel lying on its side.

Now I have to tidy my work space, and Marilyn is going to work on inventory for the NB  Miniature and Doll Show 2024, to be held in early May. When sugaring off starts, we know Spring won't be that far away....

Syrup Tank

 I had intended to make this using some half scale flooring that had been lying around for ages, but couldn't find how to bend really thin wood without damaging it. That meant finding another way to make the syrup tank.

It is made from two layers of cardboard, the kind on the back of writing tablets, and an outer layer of an old (and carefully used!) brown file folder. The inner cardboard was scored to represent barrel staves, as was the outer file folder card.  Paint followed on the inside - black under the rim that holds the "sap" - and the sides and cardboard hoops on the outer edge. The liquid is a circle of clear plastic from a report cover, and just sits on the inner rim.

I still want to make a "canvas" cover for the tank; in a few older illustrations, the tanks have cloth covers that are pulled back when the sap is either being poured in or out. I intend to make a weight for the corners of the canvas cover, as they had to have had something to hold the cover down as they traveled through the woods emptying the sap buckets.

I'm pleased with tank, although it should have had slightly sloping sides...

Some More Landscaping

 This is the first time I've ever cropped a photo, but you didn't need the window frames or the white plastic table covering! This is more or less how things will be set up, once all the landscaping is in. We "planted" some dead grass, dead bushes and the like, spread some twigs and branches around, and now the next step, hopefully tomorrow, is the slushy path.

Atmosphere Being Added (Before Our Snow Melts!)

 It was well above freezing today, which meant I had to take advantage of the snow still on the ground to help me paint the snow in the diorama.  

This is the centre of the diorama, with chips, bark and sawdust added to the chopping block. The snow in the foreground has been painted a bit, but the area of the sleigh road is still unpainted, as that is my co-creator's task. We hope to get together a couple of days in the new week, to get the landscaping finished and then the lighting can be installed, as well as the last finishing details of the exterior of the diorama.

As you can see, there is still an unpainted area; this will be partly the path, and partly the mess of melted snow and ash, footprints and meltwater, around the fireplace. This is the right side.

And this is the left side. A little dead grass has been placed here and there, as well as bits of moss near the woodpile, and a few dead maple leaves have been placed near the trunks. Next up, I get to make the messy fireplace area.

Landscaping in Place, Now We Paint and Decorate

 The diorama is currently in my work room, for the painting job to begin. Today I worked alone, as Marilyn has a stomach flu, but we hope to get together on Friday, if the flu is gone. The trees are in place, and they have bits of snow in the angles of the branches. The woodpile is also in place, as are two of the sap buckets, with more to come on the other large trees. 

The painting process in a static diorama starts with marrying up the background and the foreground. At this point, the back edges have their first coat of paint, with some faint dry brush accents in the pale mauve found in the background photo. The next step will be to add grey-beige shadows, and try to dry-brush the edge of the foreground to blend into the background. It is far too white right now!

Marilyn built up the ground with foam chunks which she then covered in crumpled paper, using a glue-type product that brushes on. On the right of the photo is a path, which she gets to mess up with "footprints" and sledge tracks. There will be an ashy, melted, sludgy area around the fireplace, and then we get to dirty that with snow, ice and ashes.

Once the background is painted, we can begin to place the larger items, gradually working towards the front of the diorama. I knitted a tiny toque today, which may hang on one of the branches of the small tree on the right side. Now I have to go hide the diorama in our guest room overnight, because if I don't, our cat will move right into our tiny forest clearing....

We Are Working Away

 Due to health problems and bad weather, we haven't been able to get together much to work on the maple sugaring diorama the last ten days or so; however, we are hoping to get back to work on the final diorama Tuesday and Wednesday, to make up for all the lost time.

Winter, old age, back problems - well, what can I say!