GETTING STARTED

My miniatures club is planning an exhibit representing a town square and members chose the type of project each person wanted to work on. Although I am not very enamored of making flowers I happened to see photographs of the exhibit that Dale Chihuly did for Phipps Conservatory and one of the buildings piqued my interest. It consists of plants with platforms displaying the glass "flowers" designed by Chihuly. A representation of this exhibit is what I am trying to accomplish.

The first thing was to build a structure which will be added to as I work for ease in "planting" it. I used a piece of 1/2" plywood with low edges which will be covered with faux brick. I started to lay out a brick walkway, and used brown foam meat trays to start my plantings.



When I first started I was just using dried material to start the plants but I soon discovered that the foam worked much better so I switched gears.







Whenever I had a bit of time I worked on making leaves. There are a lot of different plants to make so I experimented with materials. I first started out using Makins Clay which I like because it can be made paper thin and doesn't need to be baked. But I also experimented with my trusty egg cartons and found that they too could make very nice leaves. These are some of the experiments I have been working on.

 This first batch were all done with Makins Clay 

These later thin leaf grassy plants were done with blue egg carton which will be slightly colored for a grey-green color. I also experimented a bit using egg carton foam for some of the broad leafed plants as well.

I also started work on the platforms which consist of strip wood and mat board. The "glass flowers" are made using acetate that has been baked for a short while and shaped before they cool. They are then painted with acrylic paint. You can see the first additions.

     

It is going to be slow work but a lot of fun seeing it unfold. I am visiting family in MA and having a  bit of time to work on making more leaves so by the time I get home I should have a good supply.

MUCH HAS BEEN ADDED

When I had a bit of time while visiting my daughter I made leaves. I made the mistake of packing the work in a box I was having sent and with snow storms causing delays I didn't get it until a couple of weeks ago. I was able to do some other work on other areas of the scene and this is how things have worked out

At the very back is a planter box type area and the plant material I used was a moss I found at a Dollar store. It was perfect! I planned to punch some heavy card to make the area in front of that but a brown foam meat tray with a design embossed in it was so much easier and worked well. I also used brown foam for the "soil" and white foam for the drainage area. This "free" material has so many possibilities and uses in miniature. 

I made more platforms for the flowers and had a lot of fun creating more of them from acetate containers. This is how I have done them:

Any clear plastic package material seems to work and it doesn't even have to be flat. I cut freehand circles in different sizes and heated my toaster oven to 400ºF. I happened to find a stainless steel Tbsp. measure which was perfect for shaping but before I found that I used foil shaped into a cup. Now comes the fun part. As you can see the cut out can be quite irregular. I put it in the oven and in just a few SECONDS it had curled, shrunk, and then flattened out. You MUST watch it closely as it is less than 10 seconds. Grab it with tweezers or hemostats and quickly put it into your shaper (my Tbsp.) and push it to the bottom. It is not so hot that you can't touch it with your fingers so you can easily flute the form but this must be done quickly before it cools to much.

At the same time I cut off the bottom of a plastic water bottle and trimmed it to a flower shape. I used some Sharpie Pens to color it and after I baked the flat piece I baked this one.

Here are the results of two clear disks and the bottle flower I showed above.

I made the discovery that if I painted the color I wanted to show on the inside first on the outside, then I could paint the outer color when the first was dry. That way the flowers are shiny. I am currently debating about re-painting the ones I had already done. All of the new ones were painted with at least one coat of paint so tomorrow I might be able to finish them.

While the oven was hot I thought I would do some experiments with other materials. I took one of the foam tray cups and put it in the oven on a piece of foil. I thought I might end up with a gooey mess, but it actually all melted down to a textured flat that I could cut and paint. I think it looks like pavers or a nice textured siding that I could use on the outside when I put together the building.

These are pictures of the egg cup that I baked in the oven and the end result. It has been trimmed slightly and I have painted it. I think I will try the brown foam which should look more like stone.