Intermediate Work : The Buddha Pedestal, the Side Garden

Cut block of wood before painting and varnishing.

April 5th - 13th 2014

One of my first purchases was a little green Buddha statue that was to decorate one of the rooms.  The second floor room in fact is the Buddha room (the first floor room is the Gohonzon room - from a different buddhist practice).  I decided not to make a Shinto room although I very much may add a small Shinto shrine or a kamidana and a Toro gate somewhere in the house. Thing is, I would need to find very small versions of the shrine as I do not think I can make one so small.  But you never know!
So, I created a pedestal for the Buddha statue.  It was so small on it’s little black table that it needed to be noticed in the room.  I just cut up a block of wood, painted and varnished it then positioned it in the Tokonoma. I added some little flowers that I had bought at the Milano show.  The Buddha looks presentable now.

The Buddha ready for installation.

Raised to a proper height.

In the meantime, I had ordered some things off the HBS miniatures site to build the side garden.  I really hadn’t planned on doing it yet but I was a bit down and wanted to try something different rather than continue with the porch build.  I found my previously purchased self-adhesive grass

Self adhesive grass and glueing a paving stone.

Waiting for the glued "growie" flower beds to dry.

and cut out a square to fit the garden area.  I made sure to cut a small circle where the lantern would sit.  I then glued some paving stones onto the grass.  I had to clamp them down otherwise they would just sit too far up on top of the grass fibers. Then I was able to install the grass onto the base.  I trimmed it up a bit and started working on the flower box and the “beds”.  I had also purchased lots of little “growies” which are just foam and colored moss material that gets spread down on top of the grass. Since I wanted clumped beds, I used my acetate to create some mounds of wild flowers.  Then I glued them into place.  I also found a flower box and some ivy which I cut in half and glued into the box.  I positioned it on the wall and used wax holder to attach the ivy to the house outside wall.  Ivy doesn’t need a trellis since it attaches itself readily to any surface.  So that’s what my ivy is doing. The Scale of the box and the flowers is a bit big but I think overall it's ok.

Positioning the grass onto the dollhouse pavement.

The fence was made from another Ikea placemat I found in the discount section.  Just cut to size and re-enforced across the original stitching.  I used a fence foto I found for inspiration.

Inspirational fencing (and fountain)

I cut additional slats and made little ties along the central slat just like the picture. I cut some end pieces to size and attached the little fence to the back end of the garden.

Working on the Ikea placemat to create the back fence.

One of the tied pieces disappears behind the house but that’s ok.  Then I just installed the flower beds and finally the lantern in place.  My little garden is just missing a small bamboo fountain.  But that will come later.

Side garden.

Detail of the lantern in place.

View from above.