Rose Hips, Rosebuds, Leaves and a Rosebush Skeleton

Before I began making flowers etc., I thought I'd better make a skeleton for the rose bush for the corner garden vignette. This is just a beginning, smaller side branches have to be added, But it was necessary to get an idea of how many (too many!) flowers and leaves, etc., would be needed.

The lovely wooden barrel the bush is growing out of is an old English Leather after-shave bottle top, that my father saved for me and which has been around for probably around 20 years or so! I think if some hoops are added, it will look more like a barrel.

Kind of a bird's eye view, but what you see here is a beginning on the leaves for the rosebush, along with the start of rosebuds and rose hips - these are the green ones, the bodies of the orange ones, made of layers of glue on wire, are still drying. It is a lot of work, but I hope it will look like the original vision I had of this little project.

Now I have to research where I can order a tiny heart punch to make the leaves for the roses....

 

The Long Hard Journey to a Rosebush....

 

It certainly doesn't look like much as yet, but those little pieces of wire sticking out of the foam will become  Dog Rose (Rosa canis) buds and rose hips; they're made of glue on wire, and the thick, tacky glue takes time to dry, especially as we are experiencing a recurrence of April weather here; endless rain or dripping mist, grey skies, no sun, and despite it being near the end of June, the down duvet is back on our bed, I wore my winter coat again this weekend, and we actually had the heat pump give us heat instead of air cooling!

We enjoyed our company, and with various festivals happening around here, even if the weather is pretty bad, we are out quite a bit. The rose bush is going to take lots of time, especially if I have to order a small heart punch for the petals; I have mislaid my heart punches, or perhaps I wore them out....

The rose bush is from an old issue of 1 zu 12, sent to me many years ago by the late Dutch miniaturist, Elly de Kraker. We had corresponded via email on a miniaturist website which I can no longer access, and met up at a Dutch miniature fair one year. I have a lot of very good tutorials that she sent to me. Unfortunately I don't have the date of that tutorial, otherwise I would share it with you.

By my estimate, to create a good-sized climbing rose bush for my garden corner vignette, I'll need hundreds of buds, blooms, rose hips in various stages of ripeness, and many more sets of leaves. The paper for the leaves is being painted, layers of leaf green with a sprinkle of rusty brown to represent the inevitable spots I get on rose leaves....

Hopefully you'll come back to check on my progress!

The Stage is Set....

The Garden Corner is now constructed, and the next step will be to "dress" the stage; I have a bit of theatre experience, and if you've been following this blog for a while, you will already know that I operate on the belief that, if it looks like what it is supposed to be, I've succeeded.

The basic L-shape is made of off-cuts of inexpensive foam core board, mostly from the $ stores, a double layer for the base and a single layer for the back wall. The pavement and brickwork is made of egg carton bits and pieces, painted and with a little green "algal growth" around the edges. The fence is made of coffee stir sticks, and there is a bit of a story.

Dear Readers, there is a world-wide shortage of skinny coffee stir sticks. I had 5 1/2 left over from the Covid era, and went shopping for more. Three $ stores and a large supermarket later, I'd been informed that they just couldn't get them any more, supply issues, most likely. Hmmmm, the world supply of  non-hardwood trees is that scarce? The stir stick factory closed? I suppose it is possible. I did find a very small package for a very large price, and Sunday one of my knitting group friends let me know that they are once again available at that supermarket (unlike last week), at 100 sticks for $4.50 - they used to be sold in $ stores for 100 sticks for $1.25; that's more than three times the previous price.  

 Fortunately, my knitting group friend is one of two ladies who do a lot of volunteer work for my church, and they said they thought there were some skinny stir sticks left over in the basement kitchen. I found just 21 of them, and combined with the 5 I had, was able to construct the fence. Now I wonder if I should go and buy the much more expensive ones, before they too disappear. Be warned, Dear Readers....

Once again, I used my $ store white paint, and got a wonderful distressed, shabby chic finish on the wall and the fence. The faucet is a white metal miniature, painted to look like tarnished brass and with a worn green handle; the pipe is a painted tooth pick section, and the brackets holding the pipe in place on the wooden pillar are painted card, with pin heads for nails. To mimic metal, I painted the surfaces with dark gray paint, then dry brushed them with terra cotta, with another dry brushing of pewter for the iron and gold for the brass.

A bird house has been cut, and many flowers have to be made, along with assorted shabby chic garden accessories; I'd like to see if I can make an aged bistro chair, and if I can't, I still have several unfinished  bench kits from years ago. The colour scheme will be distressed white, pink, blue and assorted colours in the purple range, with apple green accents. And the potting bench I made during Covid, from stir sticks, toothpicks and scrap wood, will be a permanent part of the vignette.

My youngest daughter and her husband arrive for a week this Wednesday, so I may not have too much time to devote to minis for the next week. However, I'll be back!

 

Working Away....

 The garden corner has a floor and a back wall, as well as a dedicated potting bench. The topiary and flat of primroses are there to give a touch of colour....

Next up is the right side fence wall, which I intend to build out of skinny coffee stir sticks; I have quite a few of those, and they are the right size for the fence design I have in mind. Remember, the design which inspired me, used foam core strips for the fence; however, I'm changing some things out to suit my personal design vision.

So far, three pieces of foam core (the base is double) and several egg carton tops have been worked into the corner vignette, now comes a bit of wood. I'm trying once again to use odds and ends around the house for this scene; I used the Trash to Treasure vignette to show people at the recent miniature show that you don't need to spend loads of cash to make an appealing miniature; you do use quite a bit of paint, however! And glue. And time. But it's worth it, so far! And very affordable for doing minis with children, too.

While painting the back wall, I squeezed one of my paint bottles a little too vigorously; out plopped a clot of dried paint (it was chalk paint, it really doesn't store well, I've found), followed by a biggish blob of actual liquid paint. Let's just say it was quite a mess....

Garden Items Seem to Appeal to Me

While whiling away a coffee break recently, I came across a small scene that really appealed to me. As I have a number of garden-y items sitting around that would work well in such a scene, I gave myself permission to start on it. 

The idea came from a photo labelled "Garten Ecke", and in checking it out further, I discovered there was a tutorial for it, in German, which I can follow with the odd reference to a dictionary. The designer has a blog, https://www.lilliput-homes.de if you would like to check this out. However, as this has not become a blue address, you will have to input it -sigh!

I began on the base over the weekend, which mimics a cobblestone courtyard corner. There will be a distressed/painted back wall, and a fence on the right side. The footprint of this project is 20 x 15 cm for the base (8 x 6"), so it quite small. The cobbles were made with egg carton bits, 5/16" square, roughly (about 8 mm square), with a double cobble border and a concentric but offset centre. This is pretty much what the original designer has done. I will also copy the back wall, but intend to modify the fence, as I want to use skinny wooden coffee stir sticks to make that. The original is all foam core.

Two possible candidates for this garden corner are the potting bench and the trellis planter I made during the early months of Covid. My hope is that the colour scheme will be gray and white, with pink, blue and mauve accents in the flowers and accessories. I am very eager to try another German tutorial, for Sweet William (Dianthus) flowers, which would work in terms of the colour scheme. Over the back wall, I'd like to drape a flowering vine of some sort; it's a toss-up right now with clematis somewhat ahead of climbing roses. And of course, my favourite apple green will make appearances, in moss between some of the cobbles, and in at least one or two accessories.

As I like to put mammalian life in my scenes, this one might get a lazy cat....

By the way, the Mestreechter dialect I spoke as a child in The Netherlands called cobblestones "kinder kopjes", which translates to "children's heads". I hope that refers to the size of the cobbles....

And, get ready, I will try to sell the finished product rather than keep it for myself, as I am trying (and failing, sadly!) to down-size. Now I really have to hope that there will be another miniature show!

Well, At Least the Desert Garden is Done

 I'm very happy with the way this little dry garden turned out; all the plants in it are the kind that require only minimal water, so they are ideal for dry conditions. The colours work well together, and if I have the energy I may add a little morning glory to one of the fence posts once the show is over.

The display I tried to make for the wooden furnishings fell to pieces, because I was using cheap dollar store foam core; I'm not sure of the best way to display the almost weightless pieces, but perhaps a glass base will be the best one. And the niches in my wonderful printer's tray are too narrow for most of the plants I'd hoped to display and exhibit. I've literally run out of time. You can perhaps tell  that I'm not too happy with myself right now.

Pricing and packaging will take me much of tomorrow afternoon; in the morning I'm expected at two back-to-back work meetings. I will have a little time Friday morning, but I have to pick up my passenger in time for the two of us to get to the show location by 3 p.m. - the drive is about 2 hours. Friday afternoon and evening will be occupied with setting up for the show. I'm hoping to borrow some boxes from work to carry the display pieces we're supposed to bring.

We'll see. 

The Little Desert Garden in Progress

It's not quite 7:30 a.m. on a very gloomy and windy day, Hello First of May!  I woke up early and decided I might as well use the extra hours, as I've got my knitting group this morning to attend. I hope to finish a lavender, purple and black hat I started with odds and ends of left-over donated yarns.

The space on my work tables is getting to be less and less, with all kinds of projects to be done for this weekend; the Moncton Miniature and Doll Show on May 6. The photo above is of the desert garden being "auditioned" with  placement of the plants. Two of the four fence posts are in place, there is a piece of wire ready to become the rusty fence wire, and desert-y rocks are being pushed around to see where they would best fit. I will probably have to make some more flowers to fill this small space (3 1/2 x 3 3/4" or 9 x 10 cm). Three of the edges will have wood trim, while the fourth will be an open edge. The foundation for the creeping phlox is already in place.

Although it may not be complete for the show, it will be very close to it; I'd like to run a piece of bougainvillea vine along the fence wire, and perhaps some deep purple-blue morning glories along one of the posts. However, they will likely have to be done once the show is over. 

Now, if only I could find a tiny scale lizard or perhaps a longhorn skull; maybe at the show? And can I turn styrofoam bubbles into a convincing cactus? Stay tuned!