Additional Stuff: Ikebana Using Various Plants

May 29th - June 13th 2015

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging.  Of course it is quite old and has traditional compositions and content but for simplicity’s sake, I will create a free style or Jiyūka design.  I figured I’d use some of the “flowers” I had bought at the beginning of this project and just dye them pinkish since I wanted to try and make sakura branches.  The flowers already had a slight purple hue so bringing them to pink was no big deal.  I then laid them out to dry so I could work with them.

Dying and drying the petals.

I wanted to have two kinds of cherry blossoms in the ikebana vase.  One from Georgie Steeds Miniature Garden Centre kit and one using the tutorial by Marianne Cook from the March 2015 issue of The Dolls’ House Magazine (the one with my ryokan feature).  I thought the tutorial was really very nice and wanted to give it a try.  The first part was easy dipping the florist’s wire into some red paint but the next part was a bit more exasperating.  You have to cut some small threads and glue them to each stamen.  But there was no way I was going to be able to be super precise and get the bottom part of the threads to match up with the underside of the red painted bulb.  So I just glued them on as best I could, let them dry and then cleaned them up a bit.  Once dried, I trimmed them down, then dabbed more red paint on each pink thread as well as the stem and let them dry.  Next was to punch a hole in the center of each flower and thread them onto the stem.  Sometimes I punched the hole (with a needle) too close to an edge and the petal blossom split while I slid it up the stem.  So I’m glad I made a bunch of flowers.  Once that was done, more drying time.

Dipping the tips in red acrylic.

Cutting the stamens

Gluing the stamens

Finished stamens before trimming.

After adding the flower and trimming the stamens.

Next was making the sepal (underside petal) for each flower.  Since I didn’t have a puncher, I had to take the flowers I had and just trim them into star shapes.  I then painted them deep red.  I did check and this part of the flower on a pink cherry blossom is quite red.  So I did the same.  After letting them dry I shaped them pressing a toothpick in the center and then piercing them to make the hole so I could insert them onto the stem.  A dab of glue and the sepals were in place.  I liked the final effect.

Trimming the stars to size.

Finished blossome with the sepals

Next up was fashioning some branches.  It was a bit difficult as my hands are not very steady but I managed two branches by wrapping different gauge wires around a thicker one.  I added some dots of glue at the joints and let them dry.  Next was just to paint them brown and let that dry too.  Then I added the blossoms around the branches.  I had only made 16 blossoms so I decided to use this branch as the full pink blossom and then make another with just white ones.  I then added some green leaves leftover from the plastic plants I used in the back of the house.  I painted them a little red and varnished them with a little shine since that’s the kind of leaf I found pictured on the net (at least with pinkish blossoms).  I can’t really complain about the final result.

Final result pink cherry blossoms on a branch.

Next up was the cherry blossom kit I got from Miniature Garden Centre.  These blossoms were really quite small but still, given the small scale of the house, they would give a perfect overall look.  First I painted the “branches”.  I painted two black as I had seen a really nice arrangement with pink petals on a black painted branch.  So I wanted to try that.  Then I just formed each petal (using a mousepad and pressing a toothpick into the center) and glued each one onto a branch.  After drying, I put a dot of glue on the inside of each blossom and sprinkled them with the yellow “pollen” dust.  They’re perfect!

Gluing the blossoms on the branch.

You can see the finished cherry blossoms on the right and beginning the centers for the white flowers.

While those were drying etc., I started work on the last set of blossoms.  These ones are white so I painted some petals white and let them dry.  I then dipped the tips of some #30 gauge wire into glue a few times to form a round top, then into yellow acrylic, and finally into a more liquid glue solution and the yellow pollen.  These will be the centers of my flowers.  Once dry, I pressed the petals into shape (two per blossom) and slid them up the stem gluing them into place.  Next up was to make the sepal.  From what I could see, they are green for white blossoms.  I managed to locate a star punch (!) even if it was too big for mini flowers it proved useful.  All I had to do was to trim each of the stars more or less to size.  I realized tho that the flowers looked less and less like cherry blossoms.  But really that was ok with me.  They still looked convincing as far as flowers go.
Once the sepals were glued in, I attached the flowers to its branch.  Then I made some twisted bamboo pieces and placed all the elements into the tall vases on the top floor hallway (plus a few cherry blossom branches in the squat vase on the first floor).  I made a few long leaves using the green sushi grass and the ikebana vases were done.  I think it adds to the final effect in the hallways and fills out those oversized vases pretty well.

Cutting out and trimming the star shapes.

Gluing the flowers onto their branch.

Finishing the branch.

Ikebana vases. 

Two larger vases with the blossoms in place.

And another element is finished.

Left side Ikebana arrangement.

Finished right side vase.

Additional Stuff : Water Lily

May 15th - May 22nd 2015

I purchased recently from The Miniature Garden Centre a few kits that I wanted to use for the Japanese Inn and my next project.  The kits are super easy and quite nice.  I wanted to add a small tub with water lilies in it out in the back so I had been searching for the right kind of container for a while.  I ended up finding it while cleaning out some old perfume bottles and such.  It’s some kind of stone carved pot which contained a solid perfume.  The top and bottom never really fit well and sure enough, looking at the top, I thought it would make a nice container.  So I took it apart, cleaned it up and made the transformation. 

Before cooking the liquid Fimo

After cooking the Fimo

I added some stones in the bottom and then made my “water” by using liquid Fimo.  I added some moss and grass round the edges (this is going out in the back where no one really stays on top of the gardening or caring for the lilies) where I figured the garden would be trying to reclaim the tub.  I then got cracking on the lilies.

The kit pieces

The pieces are pre-cut and quite small.  But with a little patience and perseverance I managed the three flowers.  Next were the leaves.  I did some net surfing to find some interesting leaves and sure enough there were a ton of photos.  I was undecided whether I should make them a bit yellow or not, considering the neglect.  But I really liked the overall look of the healthy leaves so I decided to leave them green with a little brown on the edges.  I used the bottom of a paint brush to round the edges of the leaves up a bit.  I then put a little clear gloss on them and positioned everything in the tub leaving the last largest leaf a bit above the surface of the water.  I added more gloss varnish again over the bottom leaves and the surface of the water and let that dry.  Then, I just added the little flowers on top.

Making the flower.

Finished leaves vs. the orignal kit piece.

Leaves placed in the tub.

Finished tub with lilies

Showing the overgrowth on the back of the tub.

The final step was installing the tub out back.  I really like it!

Lilies grow best in mud....

Chapter 78 - Roof and Sliding Windows to the Right Side Porch, Bamboo Plant for Second Floor Landing

 March 9th - 1st April 2014

This chapter is still finishing up the porch section with the sliding windows (two out of four) and the ceiling roof.  So, first up was to paint all the pieces the usual burnt umber color.  I am actually finishing my last tube of this color which is surprising since two bottles were used to paint all of the brown trim of the house.  Not bad trying to be frugal with acrylic paint! 

I glued and painted the roof piece and fitted it in as well as the trim inside the porch.  The nice thing about this kit is the detail.  There are small wooden sticks that are installed in each angle of the rooms and the porches to hide the juncture points.  Even so, it still doesn’t hide the gap in the porch area.  I seriously considered taking it apart but having glued it in so well, it wasn’t budging, so it stays that way.  Next were the outside wooden additions and the ceiling/roof.  And finally, the trim to the top of the roof.

Adding the internal finishing.

Adding the external finishing

Internal detail of the ceiling/roof section

Finished roof with trim.

I had two of the four sliding windows to make here too, which I did and put aside.

Windows to be installed later.

Next up was the small garden / bamboo plant for the landing.  This thing was supposed to house the tōrō lantern too but since it will not, I opted for filling it in with some grass and moss material. 
First thing was to find some pics of decent bamboo.  I found one that I liked that showed the bamboo stalks yellowish rather than green. 

Bamboo inspiration.

Some would be a bit bent but not as many or as severe as the instructions shown in the kit so, I bent a few pieces of the sticks after cutting them into different lengths.  That meant soaking them and then bending them overnite. 
Once they were dried, I mixed some green and yellow acrylic and painted the bamboo. I then added some details where the bamboo stalks separate - following the inspirational pic.  The kit came with some green wire to be used for the branches of the stalks but it was much too thick.  I had already purchased some paper covered wire from Georgia Steeds over at her Miniature Garden Centre (and some kits but those will be used later...) so I figured this would be the perfect time to use some of the wire. 

Bending the sticks.

Slight bend to some of the bamboo.

Obvious difference in thickness of the kit's wires.

I added branches by twisting then separating the wire.  The pic had most of the foliage toward the top of the stalks so I was going to try and go with that.  The shorter stalks would have lower branches anyway.  I then gave a quick touch up with yellow to the wires have the branches be a little less dark green.

Decorated bamboo stalks.

Added branches using the fine wire.

Next I covered the base with some more of the synthetic moss and the static grass.  Then I trimmed the bottom edges of the bamboo stalks and inserted them into the base.  The next step was cutting out all of the leaves.

The base before being shaped and covered with moss.

 

 

 

After the grass and moss treatment.

Inserting the bamboo into the baase.

Bamboo leaf template

Cutting out the leaves.

This took longer than I thought for two reasons.  I wasn’t really liking the color and ended up shading the backside with some green to give it some movement and then my sister arrived for a two week visit.  So, adding anything to the bamboo tree was delayed.  I did get back to it by the 30th March and finished cutting and gluing the leaves on.  In the end, I covered the tree branches overall without really overloading the top.  I gave the leaves a slight brushing of varnish to bring out the color.

Painting in a little color.

Finished bamboo tree.

During the tree decorating, I decided to add a small “vase” in the corner where the tōrō was supposed to go.  I had a coral bead (white sponge coral painted coral color - not real red coral :-) so I varnished that a bit too and used that as a vase.  I had already opened Georgia’s kits so I decided to use one of the orchid kits (the cattleya) to make a small arrangement. 

Miniature Garden Centre kit.

The pieces in the kit are SUPER small and my hands are lousy in managing such small paper cut outs.  I had to use tweezers and a toothpick for managing the pieces.  I also used a piece of acetate to glue the starting dots where the other petals would be mounted.  I knew I’d be able to unattach the flowers from there once completed.  

Teeny tiny pieces from the kit.

Flower mounted on an acetate sheet for easy removal.

Orchid painted and ready for mounting on the wire stems.

Finished orchid plant mounted next to the bamboo.

They are a little open for orchids but I actually like the final effect.

Eventual position for the bamboo tree and plant.