Still in gardening mode...

At the moment I am experimenting with paperclay in order to add plants and foilage to the witch house, one of my current projects.  This is what became of the frames I made a couple of days ago. I am quite pleased with the results although I am not sure if I will use all of them. I have learnt that the thinner the 'branch' the more fragile it becomes and I have had to make running repairs.

The next batch I make I will strengthen the frames with wire under pinning and a paper mache before adding the paper clay. I think I read a tutorial using this method once. Anyway I will give it a go. It might also be time to approach the dreaded fimo again in order to make fruits and flowers for embellishments of a witchy sort.

These pots are for my florist/garden centre and have mostly come from the Bonnie Lavish kits supplied by Templewood Miniatures. I thnk the irises have come out really nicely despite being a little fiddly. The good thing about miniature gardening I find is that you seem to be able to achieve quite a lot in one work session which is certainly not true of real world gardening!

This is my lovely chimney from Little Homes of England that I purchased at Miniatura. I have given it a wash in a slurry green to age the clay and then glued on some greenery for the birds. I am really pleased with the birds made by Nicky's Dolls & Critters, they are absolutely superb and really give that witchy feeling to the chimney pot. It is so nice when you put a little scene together and it looks exactly like what you were hoping for, even a simple tableau like this one. I have more of Nicky's birds and can't wait to find the right homes for them.