  All ground has texture, whether it is a pine-needle blanketed slope or an asphalt pavement. The surface beneath our feet looks nothing at all as does a painted surface. So it is, that one of the most important points to remember in creating an illusion of reality and depth in a diorama, whether it is of cigar box or department store window size, is to create an appropriate foreground texture. The balsa wood or styrofoam block you may have used in your foreground provides the main shape and bulk of that foreground. A good paper-mache mix can be made by mixing equal parts of Plaster-of-Paris, yellow dextrine, and powdered asbestos. The plaster and asbestos can be found in building supply stores, and the yellow dextrine at the chemical supply houses. Denver Fire Clay has the yellow dextrine in Denver. Put these three dry ingredients in a jar and shake them until they are well distributed. The mix can The mache can be used to make a smooth joint between the foreground block that slopes up at the back and the picture background. Try to make this joint a smooth curve, not a sharp angle. MACHE MIX Cliff faces and large rocks, or formations such as those in a “moonscape”, can be carved from styrofoam chunks. The blocks or chunks are fastened together by using wooden toothpicks Moonscape
Another type of cliff face, with a carved cave opening (for bears, prehistoric cave dwellers, etc.) is made in the same way. In mounting, the background picture is curved on just one side and the carved cliff face occupies the full depth of the cigar box on the side opposite the curve. (unlabelled) The same covering of mache, glue, and texture finishes this foreground. (unlabelled) If grass-like “weeds” or plants are to be shown in the foreground they can be made of hemp rope cut and pushed into the wet mache mix. Dye the hemp green with “Rit” or “Tintex” before using. The adhesive quality of the mix will hold the strands securely. When the mache mix has dried to a rock hardness, the ground is painted with a thick coat of Elmer’s glue and sprinkled with a generous layer of varying textures and colors. Very fine sawdust already dyed a bright green is available at model railroad shops as model railroad “grass”. If you prefer a less brilliant color, you may dye sawdust with the Rit or Tintex. (unlabelled) Take two one pound coffee cans. Punch holes in the bottom of one with a hammer and nail. Hold the coffee can against a scrap of 2 × 4 wood when you punch the holes. Set up the cans, the “sieve” on top. Fill the top can about half full of sawdust. Heat two or three cups of water to boiling point. Drop in dye tablet or powder and let it dissolve. Pour hot dye over sawdust. The dye can be poured through the sawdust as many times as is necessary to get the depth of color desired. Spread wet sawdust out on newspapers to dry. It is a good idea to dye several batches with different greens and browns, and to sift the dried sawdust through a piece of window screen, then a kitchen sieve, to get fine, medium and coarse grades. A different texture can be made by grinding up a ¼ wooden dowel (available at hardware stores or lumber companies) in a clean pencil sharpener. When you glue the sawdust—or fine sand—or any other texture to the base, vary the color and the texture. Use some light green and some dark, and add a little brown or tan of a finer texture than the green, to resemble dirt showing through the grass. Gravel ranging from BB shot to garden pea size can be used for larger rocks. It is also a good idea to use coarse textures near the front of the box, fine textures at the rear, to approximate a correct textural perspective. The most important thing to do in putting in this dirt and grass covering is to observe nature itself as closely as it is possible, seeing just how patches of vegetation grow—whether slopes are bare and what the “mosaic” of dirt and greenness is. The foreground will look natural only if it is based on observed knowledge of the actual relationships in nature. (unlabelled) Bushes and Shrubs ...can be made with the previously described hemp method and by using lichen from model railroad shops, dried weeds and Lichen can be torn into little clumps and fastened to the base with Elmer’s glue. Dried weeds and twigs can be dipped in Elmer’s glue, then sprinkled with or dipped into the dyed sawdust to get a different texture in a bush. If you have cut tiny scraps of colored paper, these can be spotted on the lichen or dried weed bushes to resemble flowers. A toothpick will help to put just one drop of glue on the bush—and the same glue-dipped toothpick will then pick up the fleck of color to put it in place. Unprinted newspaper (available in pads from art supply stores) can be used to make the spears at the base of a yucca tree. Cut a strip of unprinted newspaper. Slash it. (unlabelled) Roll up strip tightly and spread Elmer’s glue along bottom of strip as you roll. Bend outer layers down to make proper shape. (unlabelled) Prickly pear cactus can be made with pipe cleaners bent into correct outline, tied with thread, then the outlines filled in with the paper mache mix. (unlabelled) Ferns and palms ...Ferns and palms are made by gluing a wire (get a spool of 22 or 23 gauge wire from a hardware store) between two lengths of gummed paper tape. Let wire extend beyond paper tape for length of stem or trunk plus the usual ½ for pushing into the base. (unlabelled) Bend paper over, trim, then slash. Make several, then twist wire “stems” together. (unlabelled) Paint fronds with poster color, water color, or latex white with casein colors. (unlabelled) If “fiddlenecks” are required, they can be made from pipe cleaners and twisted in with the wire stems of the fronds. (unlabelled)
Wrap stems with ¼ or ½ strip of brown crepe paper cut across grain of package, and fastened with library paste or Elmer’s glue. Bend wire “fronds” into proper shape. Drill or punch hole in base. Smear base of tree and hole with Elmer’s glue, mount tree in place. Glue dirt or grass in place at base of tree. (unlabelled) WaterA quiet pond may be made with a mirror. Glue the mirror to the cigar box before installing anything else. Glue in the background picture next, then carve chunks of styrofoam for the remaining foreground. Slope “shores” down toward mirror “pond”. Let the edges of the styrofoam cover edges of mirror, making an irregular shape for the pond. Glue styrofoam in place with Elmer’s. For added realism, ripples may be added to the mirror surface, using clear varnish and oil paints. Mix a tiny bit of Prussian or “Thalo” blue with some clear varnish. Use just enough to tint the varnish. Flow varnish on surface of mirror, to a depth of about ¹/32. Before varnish is completely dry, use an empty “Flit” gun to pump air over the surface. This air will form ripples which, as the varnish dries, will remain on the surface. It may be necessary to repeat the air pumping a few times before the varnish surface hardens. (unlabelled) A stream can be made using broken glass and some Duco or Testor’s Airplane cement. The light blue glass from broken telephone line insulators, light blue Mexican glass or other glass of a light blue color may be used. Put the glass in a paper sack, then put that sack into two more sacks. Put the sacks on a solid surface and break the glass into small Make your foreground with styrofoam or balsa wood chunks, covering the material with the paper mache mix and working out (modelling) the stream bed with the mix. Let the mache harden before completing the stream. While the mix is still soft, push in weeds, cattails, any correct streamside plants, making them from hemp rope or from other previously described materials. (unlabelled)
When the stream bed is hard, paint the bottom with a blue paint; lighten this blue color as you paint from the bottom toward the sides. Along the banks of the stream, paint in a light brown color. Let the paint dry completely. Squirt a small amount of Duco or Testor’s along the stream bottom; sprinkle pieces of glass thickly in glue before the glue sets. Push the glass into the glue to be sure it is well anchored. Squirt more cement over top of glass until top surface looks the same as a stream surface. Again, follow nature as closely as it is possible. Base your stream direction, flow, eddies, and riffles on observed knowledge. Mix a little talcum powder in some of the glue and stir quickly and hard to get a froth. Use this white, frothy material along the part of the stream surface that would be frothy. If you want the “water” to be breaking over boulders in the stream bed, place pea-size gravel pebbles in the stream bed at the same Another method for a stream uses aluminum foil and light blue cellophane. Using ordinary household aluminum foil, tear off enough to cover the bottom of your stream area. Crumple the foil tightly, then smooth it out and glue to the base with Duco, Testor’s, or Pliobond. Cut a piece of blue-green cellophane to fit over the foil. Crumple the cellophane tightly, then smooth out. Glue the cellophane to the foil with Duco or Testor’s. Finish both of the above stream methods by painting Elmer’s glue along the banks and shore, covering the edge of the water area, then sprinkle with sand, sawdust, or other texture, and complete the vegetation as previously described. |
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