{"id":3661,"date":"2014-07-15T11:34:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T15:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/?p=3661"},"modified":"2015-07-15T13:24:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T17:24:41","slug":"anatomy-of-a-set-the-cemetery-of-her-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/2014\/07\/15\/anatomy-of-a-set-the-cemetery-of-her-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy of a set: The Cemetery of Her Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a few inquiries on MWD about the cemetery set for the latest episode of Zombieville, so below I’ve collected some notes and photos that I created during its creation.<\/p>\n

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The ground started out as a moss table runner [from the floral section of a craft store] applied to a sheet of foam core. The trees started out as sticks harvested from my back yard, with nails added around the base to make crude stands.
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The backdrop started off as a piece of North American Wildlife 2011 Forest Green cotton print by Elizabeth’s Studio [no really!].<\/div>\n
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Isabel shows what the forest looked like on March 17th, 2013.<\/p>\n

Because I disliked the uniform greenness of the ground, I applied patches of brownish green moss to add color variation and slight differences in terrain. I also purchased a bag of brown "crinkle paper," also called "basket shred," which is sold for packaging purposes. I cut it into strips and glued it down to represent humus.<\/p>\n

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I also added some underbrush. I purchased two sprays of plastic greenery, one with elliptical leaves, one with round leaves. I then separated three or four stems’ worth from the main bunch and prepared a base for them out of polymer clay: a mound with tapered edges. I jammed the stems into the base, then pulled them out, thus making guide holes. After painting the base green, I cured the polymer clay, which both dried the paint and hardened the clay! [I hate waiting for paint to dry.] I used hot glue to secure the stems in the guide holes, then a combination of hot glue and white glue to make "tree skirts" out of moss to blend the bases in with the rest of the ground cover.<\/p>\n

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Isabel shows off the forest as of March 24th, 2013.<\/p>\n

A bit later, I added some clumps of small trees [slender twigs] and larger trees [small logs], also in bases of painted polymer clay.<\/p>\n

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Isabel stands in the forest as of March 29th, 2013.<\/p>\n

The forest still needed filler. I got some sprays of plastic leaves, small enough to pass for young 1:6 scale trees, at the craft store today. I mounted them in the usual moss-covered bases made of cured polymer clay painted brown.<\/p>\n

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Isabel reading in the forest as of March 30th, 2013.<\/p>\n

I tried adding some green crinkle paper for additional ground cover. It was too blue. Dammit!<\/p>\n

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Flower demonstrating the failure of ground cover in the forest as of May 3rd, 2013.<\/p>\n

I finally got some crinkle paper of a better color.<\/p>\n

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Flower and Epona showing the new bright green crinkle paper as of May 14th, 2013.<\/p>\n

Later the forest acquired ferns from the clearance section of the craft store. I mixed up Aves Apoxie Sculpt and flattened it out into a strip about 1.5cm thick. Then I pressed moss into the strip until most of the grey Apoxie Sculpt was covered. I removed the leaves from the fern stems and stuck them individually into the still sticky Apoxie Sculpt.<\/p>\n

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Isabel in the forest as of July 7th, 2013.<\/p>\n

Finally, when the end of the year rolled around, I picked up some 11" pine trees with poseable branches. I made my own bases for them of painted Aves Apoxie Sculpt.<\/p>\n

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As for the statuary, the gravestones started off as plastic table decorations for Halloween.<\/p>\n

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Since the fronts looked like no actual gravestones I have ever encountered, I decided to only show them from the back. I weathered them by dry-brushing them with white acrylic to show up the default texture, which was actually convincingly stone-like. I also used black and brown acrylic to add stains. Strategically placed gouges from my Dremel and craft knives looked like cracks.<\/p>\n

This is what they look like now:<\/p>\n

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The angel statue is not, as some of you think :p, a Weeping Angel. She’s the Angel of Grief, originally carved by William Wetmore Story for his wife’s tomb. When I got her from Design Toscano, she initially looked like this, i.e., a shitty paperweight:<\/p>\n

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First, I applied black chalk pastel, diluted with a little water, in the folds and hollows of the sculpture. I used paintbrushes, wet smudge sticks of paper towel and my fingertips for adding color. The deepest crevices, of course, received the most shading. I added a lot of color, then ended up wiping much of it off, going for a mottled, aged appearance. <\/p>\n

Second, I applied dark brown chalk pastel in areas where dirt might collect and also on various surfaces for general staining. I found that stippling with the tip of a small paintbrush produced convincing blotches of dirt.<\/p>\n

Third, I added small bits of dried moss that I had chopped up even more finely with a craft knife. I painted some Mod Podge in the area where I wished to stick moss — various creases of the statue, as well as the deepest hollows. I then picked up some moss on the sticky paintbrush and pushed it into place.<\/p>\n

The result:<\/p>\n

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This entry was originally posted at http:\/\/modernwizard.dreamwidth.org\/1655560.html<\/a>. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW<\/a> using OpenID.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a few inquiries on MWD about the cemetery set for the latest episode of Zombieville, so below I’ve collected some notes and photos that I created during its creation.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[746,658,704],"class_list":["post-3661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-16-scale-stuff-i-made","tag-cemeteries","tag-sets-16-mine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4102,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions\/4102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}