Garden wall: This week I sent instructions to Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine for passion flowers using punches. I sent them the old looking garden wall that I planted them on to photograph. I don't know when they will print the instructions and pictures but I hope fairly soon. I have been having so much fun with this garden wall that I have been doing.

I have about 15 of them made for the Lakeland show. I cut pieces of wood on my scroll saw 5 1/2 inches tall and wide and chipped a corner out. Then I cut pieces of the plaster casting to fit both sides and chipped off one corner. Then applied a lot of glue to the edges and covered the edges with old fashioned cat litter (not the new scoopable kind). The cat litter was an idea another artisan gave me. I wouldn't have thought of that one! But it is an inexpensive tiny gravel that works great! I have the wall sitting on a small wood base. Then I sprayed the wall with white primer and then painted it with gesso (base coat). Primer and base coat are things I have in the past skipped but on plaster which is so porous, it is a must. The class in Lakeland is going to then apply aging powder (from Micro Mark) with a tooth brush in various areas of the wall.Then they will apply color washes in earth tones frequently during the day. While their color washes are drying, we will be making flowers to plant around the wall. I have been using Marblex self hardening clay around the base to plant flowers and a few weeds around the edges. This clay doesn't stick by itself so I apply a lot of tacky glue to the base, push the clay into place then cover the clay with tacky glue and pour on model railroad dirt. Plant the flowers before the clay hardens. http://www.MaryKinloch.com

Mary from Clearwater, Florida

Uses for scrub pads: I'm not sure exactly what kind she has, but I pull sections of loofah-like scrub pads to use in cleaning or sanding larger porcelain greenware pieces. I've always thought the stuff would make good foliage for little bushes, painted in variegated greens.

Paulette in IN

Uses for scrub pads: I've seen the green ones used as the base for shrubbery, chopped up and glued to gnarly grape vine stems as a substitute for moss to make bonsai, and have wrapped the other colors in felt or ticking as quickie mattresses if I didn't have fiberfill handy.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Recycled  crushed glass: The recycled glass has been around in the UK for quite a few years. We can buy it ready bagged at the garden centre. It was quite expensive the  last time I looked.

The loveliest, and safe use, I have seen was at a hospital in Harrogate, Yorkshire. They had made a lake using it. Different shades of blue were used to give a feeling of depth and movement. A couple of cranes at the side finished of the master piece. This scene would look lovely in miniature too.

Perhaps someone with a rumbler for polishing gemstones could make you some in miniature. The same effect that the sea creates. We have a selection of wine bottles in blue here and you could even break an inexpensive glass item. Several shops now sell inexpensive recycled glass items in some lovely colours. I did notice that these were mainly made in Spain.

Tiny glass or plastic beads might work and be safer though. I have some beads that are uneven in texture and shape like the polished glass stones. You can often see them made up into bracelets on elastic.

Pauline, UK

Fortunately for me, Sue in N.C. led me here: http://crystalrivergems.com/products/glass/beachseaglass/frames/FrameSet.htm

Here you do not have to buy fifty-pound bags of one color, and the price, compared to bulk, is manageable.  (i.e. do you want 50 pounds of sea green at $70, or 2 pounds at $12?)  They are in Pittsburgh, for you lucky locals.  Meanwhile several people have suggested I could find a rock-tumbling enterprise to do some work for me, OR, in keeping with general tool and machine mania, I could get a rock tumbler myself, like kids have.  I'm going to check both these possibilities out.

Melissa

Flower film: I am not familiar with the product being discussed for a film over wire for flower-making. But I just watched the Mindstorm video Patricia's Garden and what she's doing sounds very much like what these folks are looking for. She uses gold wire to form petals and leaves and just paints them with Sobo glue. Then she mixes a little acrylic paint with more Sobo and paints the clear, dried film formed by the glue.

Linda in Leroy

Chain Link Fence: For a chain link fence I have used Activ-Wire Mesh, which is an 'art & Craft sculptural support'. The size I used was Item #167, 1/4" x 1/8" mesh (opening size) but there are other scales. It's great stuff, non-rusting aluminum that you can cut with scissors -- and surprisingly inexpensive. They have a web site: http://www.activa-products.com Hope this helps -- it worked well for me!

Diana in Canada

Chain-link fencing--I have saved some of the plastic netting from bagged potatoes and onions from the grocery. If stretched and mounted onto posts and frames made from thin dowels and sprayed with a few coats of aluminum paint it makes a chain-link fence.

SUSAN AT THE WHITE RABBIT'S HOUSE

Chain link fence: I made my chainlink fence from the discarded air filter from our car. It's a 12" cylindrical gadget with a fine mesh that encases the outer diameter. The mesh is approximately 4" high and 16" in length. I would think you could find it at any automotive shop or garage.

You will need the remove the outer band and pull the mesh away. It's easy to do. The mesh itself will cut with heavy duty scissors. I used aluminum tubing for the posts securing the mesh to the tubing with 32 gauge wire and using 5 min epoxy glue. Allow to dry thoroughly.

You can finish off the fence post with small beads touched up with a silver paint marker.

Pearl

Barbed Wire Fences: are easily made by stringing wire (not too light weight) and then heat your glue gun and barely touch the wire and pull it away (when you pull it away you get a long string). Grab a hold of the strings (I do maybe 10 or 12 touches and then snip off the strings). After doing that the full length of the wire do the other side. I then paint to look rusty and you have a barbed wire fence.

Donna Brown

Drying Flowers with the Microwave: one way to use a microwave for miniatures is to speed up drying real mini-flowers. Bury them in sand or silicon in an old microwaveable container and "nuke" in very short bursts (10-15 seconds), checking for "doneness" after each zap until they are completely dried, then remove and spray with clear acrylic to preserve the color and strengthen. Once the clear preservative dries, you can even repaint if you like the flower but need another color.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Floral Tape: Here is a site that sells floratape with many colors available http://www.floratape.com/markets_products.htm#mkt_floral

Connie

Yard for a large house: have you thought about the possibility of doing your landscaping on removable shelves? You could attach 2 brackets to each of the legs (which would place 2 brackets on each side of the table), then measure, adding the length on 2 of the sides so that it would make a complete "square" around the house (if you do all four the same length, you'd wind up with "empty squares" at each corner).  This way you could lift the shelves off for transporting and, if you buy the kind of brackets that have 2 "keyhole" slots, you could easily remove them as well. 

Lyn

Yard for a large house: last year someone posted a recommendation that you landscape on plywood as you described, but make the house itself removable by placing it where you want it on the "property" before adding the plantings.  Trace around the outline of the foundation and remove the house.  Glue/nail wood blocks inside the traced outline plus the thickness of the walls.  Then you can rest the house over the blocks and they will hold it in place if somebody bumps the property.   Maybe you can figure out a way to combine this with using several pieces of ply that can be hinged into place -- Dr. Bob is good at this sort of planning so he might have some ideas.  But remember than once you've planted your garden, moving the property will require you to make allowance for the height of the plants so you don't smash the trees!  I find it easier to use my imagination and make the garden separate from the house, so I can store them on tv carts with the garden on the lower shelf in a glass- topped aquarium.  That way it doesn't get dusty.  Nothing sadder than a dusty garden that looks like it's part of the Dust Bowl.  My house is deco, but I don't want it to be quite that period authentic.

Loretta Sniarowski

Chariots: Fontanini has a Roman chariot in various sizes (they do religious scenes, but also scenery which is secular because except for the burning bush how religious can a bush be?) but I can't remember if the chariot has a person permanently in it.... The web site is   http://www.roman.com/fontanini/fonthome.htm

Religious stores and some gift shoppes which specialize in 'collectibles' carry Fontanini and it is fabulous, although I have to admit I've never thought of belly dancers.  Now of course I won't be able to look at even a palm tree from the collection WITHOUT thinking of belly dancers!   Thanks, Sandi Fellmer!!   LOL  :-)

Gail from Ballouville

Laser cut items: Let me share an experience with you. I bought two pieces of laser cut fencing...and it is not inexpensive.

I painted the first fence with a paint brush and it turned to spaghetti. It looked crooked, came apart and absolutely useless. I was so disappointed, however, the second piece I pinned to an old piece of scrap foamcore, took it outside, and spray painted it. Voila.....I have one perfect piece of fence.

Knowing me it will be used in a landscaping scene somehow, and even the other awful one will end up being used somewhere...perhaps a haunted house?

Dawn Weaver, Belleview, Florida

Flowers: I've made a lot of plant with plain florist wire, and leaves I've cut from silk life-sized plants. To stick the leaves to the wire, I make little puddles of PVA glue (Tacky) and super glue, dip a leaf point in the tacky glue, then the super glue, and stick. This works really well for me, and is not as expensive.

Lynn (No E)

Brass Flower kits: Karen's Miniatures International Ltd. of Scotland and El Paso, TX makes fabulous etched brass sheets of poppies and many other flowers in kit form. I used these myself to landscape my conservatory, and the results are spectacular. One sheet makes two or three poppy plants. You first spray the sheet on both sides with primer, then carefully paint the flower sections and leaves with acrylic paints, cut out and then glue and assemble. The downside: It's not very easy to cut out the leaves and flowers; and everywhere you snip needs to be touched up with paint again since these sections will be exposed brass. Pretty labor-intensive operation, but the results are worth it and since the flowers are made of brass, they are nearly indestructible.

Their U.S. phone number is 915-584-9889 and for any of our SS friends on the other side of the pond, their U.K. number is 1546-606-707. I'm not sure if they sell retail as opposed to only wholesale, but I'm sure if the latter they'd be happy to tell you where to find their kits. I know that Earth and Tree in New Hampshire carries some and would probably be willing to order the poppy sheets for you.

Bev Gallerani

Paperclay substitutes: When I checked Pearl, they had a number of other products that   look a lot like Paperclay - I've never seen any of them before. In the interests of science, I bought one package and tried it out. It's called Formo, and as far as I can tell, it looks, feels, and acts just like Paperclay, and it was a few dollars cheaper. Hurray!

There were other brands, I don't remember the names though; does anyone know if these work the same way as well? They also had something called Diamond  Paperclay, by Creative Paperclay; what's the difference between that and regular Paperclay? Paperclay is wonderful; I was lucky enough to take one of Rik Pierce's classes, and I'm a total convert.

Christine in NYC

Lycopodium: is available from: http://www.minikitz.com   

Gisèle Nadeau, BC. Canada