Bookend Challenge 2.0

 Yes, I had to rethink my ideas; I began the project on the wrong side of the bookend! When I measured the height required for a porch scene with steps, the bookend had to be so high that it would tower over the books it was meant to hold in place. This one is just about done; the basic stage set is there, all that needs doing is to dress the set.

The scene is a door, in this case held together with tape, built on the narrow lip of the bookend. The bookend pair is intended in my case for a shelf on a stair landing. Our house is built into the side of a hill, which means that we have a full-height basement with large windows and glass doors out on to a patio. The shelf is actually the knee wall of the house, i.e. the concrete block foundation upon which the house is built. On the shelf, we keep a few lovely antique leather-covered books, and lately, the shelf has also been holding my growing collection of knitted gnomes.

Here, Tertius is demonstrating his height in relation to the door. At this point, the door and the wall in back are in place. Since this photo was taken, a canopy has been added above the door. Today I hope to shingle that canopy. Once that is done, I hope to add greenery, "moss", and the like to further bring the scene to life.

The wall and floor are made of twice recycled foam core, while the door is made of mat board, which I textured with a ball stylus to look like wood grain. The step is a piece of foam core wrapped in the edge of an egg carton, while the stones on the path are made of flat sections of egg carton. The bark texture was done by gluing torn sections of recycled gift wrap tissue, allowing them to wrinkle quite nicely. The paint job includes dry brushing with several colours of paint to look like tree bark. You have to imagine the door built into the base of a tree deep in the woods, in between the tree's roots.

I made four pairs of socks for Christmas gifts for family members, and I think that it would be fun to gift each of them a gnome made with left-over yarn from their socks. Sock pair 5 is almost made, and will have a gnome to match. Primus was made with yarn from my socks, while Secunda was made with left-over yarn from a doll's sweater project. I have another gnome (Quintus) on the needles, made of left-over yarn a friend gave me, but he is a much larger one and will not really fit into the bookend setting; he'll likely live on top of a piece of furniture in my living room. 

The edges of the bookend will be wrapped in one of my favourite mediums, file folder cardboard, to hide the edge of the foam core and the mat board. File folder cardboard holds up very nicely as edging, and was used in the desert garden project as well as the loft project. Now back to work....