Undersized Urbanite miniature garden

Hihhey! I did finish the miniature Japanise zen garden for the Undersized Urbanite dollhouse contest! I can't believe it, only two days ago I had about nothing done, except that I had spray painted the base. Wohoo!

But... the garden is nothing like I planned. First of all originally it wasn't supposed to be this small. Also when I found the base from the thrift store I did not realize that hardly anything can actually fit on it. I did plan to make a tree using polymer clay and wire, but I never got around to it. For some reason making a tree discouraged me, it felt so complicated and I was afraid it would not work out. Also I have been bit distracted by other crafts. After I had postponed making of the tree for so long that I knew that I could never finish one before the deadline, I desided to keep things simple and actually bought a real live mini tree or plant. 

I made a water tight base from polymer clay which has two sections, one for the tree and one for the gravel or sand. The base is what I'm least happy about, I was aiming to make something that looks like stone, but to me it looks like a pile of blue tack. 

The small lanterns and the rake I got from my ex co-workers who knew about my Teahouse project and bought me a mini zen garden as a present. So in the end I did not have to make much anything, just the base and the pilars for the lanterns. In a way I feel like I did not put enough effort on this whole garden. I could have done so much more, but just didn't. 

So I'm not even sure this was dollhouse project, this could be called more bonsai project because of the live plant. I still do think this garden of mine is pretty cool, but I will let the voters of the Undersized Urbanite dollhouse contest deside if this garden qualifies for the contest. Since the deadline for the contest is today and I have posted now on Sunday I won't post anything tomorrow, on Monday, like I normally do.

Zen garden plans in miniature

First an observation:  Men build miniature scenes and women build miniature houses

When I made the Teahouse and googled about how to make a house and furniture and stuff in miniature I did not bump into a single instruction made by a man. But now when I googled how to make trees and bushes and grass I have not bumped into a single instruction made by a woman. I assume there most likely is some instruction made by a man about miniature houses and there must be an instruction made by a woman about trees, but they certainly are in the minority. I find this quite funny, both enjoy working in miniature scale, doing things that require meticulous work, but yet stick to their own areas so strictly.

So as said I've been googling about how to make miniature trees and bushes, also I visited a crafts store and sneaked in the railway hobbyist aisle to get some materials. The grass, leaf and turf material looks like some type of green sponge that someone has cut into tiny tiny pieces. I'm quite amazed I actually decided to buy them. Almost 5 euro a packet, to get... well... trash. I did think of cutting up some green yarn, but it would be a big job, so I bought the stuff.

I have spent quite amount of time thinking of the size of the zen garden I will make. I was thinking of getting some sort of tray where to create the scene. I want to keep the miniature garden next to the Teahouse I built which means that the garden would be placed on the table. In theory that would be good but how on earth can I dust a miniature zen garden, because I know dust will land on it and then it will look just horrible. I thought of building a sort of aquarium on top of the garden. But on one of my trips to a thrift store I found a clock (similar to this but way cheaper) that I knew I could use as a base for the zen garden.

I disassembled the clock and painted the base white. It is way smaller than what I had planned originally and I hope I can fit all the things I want to it. Anyway now I finally(!) have good plan for the Undersized Urbanite Dollhouse contest. And I just realized I have about two weeks to finish this, oh ou...

Also linking to Op-shop show off

Undersized Urbanite

It's here again! The dollhouse contest! This time over at Little Victorian. Wohoo! The challenge last year was by Emily Henderson and she started it here (and never finished... but let's not mind about that). I enjoyed the last year's challenge a lot and made a Teahouse, which I still love.

This year too we can freely deside what we will make. House, shop, circus tent, what ever... and I will make... a zen garden in miniature. I have written about it before too. When the last challenge was extended I tought about making the garden allready then. But never got to it. So after thinking about making the zen garden for almost a year, I think I'm ready. Besides I like my Teahouse so much that I want to extend that idea and not do something totally different which will take attention off the Teahouse. So eventhough a garden is clearly not a dollhouse, it qualifies. It's miniature anyhow. 

The contest ends at May 8th 2013, so I should have plenty of time to get familiar how to make trees and bushes in miniature. Fun! Let's get started!