graypaw.com - diorama fantastica - Works

Title: Supplication
Date created: July, 2015
Description:
A priest or monk regards a symbol of his religion in a quiet garden dedicated to reverence and tranquility. The garden has an arch-type entrance with a cross centered above the portal. It is framed by low bushes and on one side is a clear pool. A large boulder marks the opposite corner from the entrance.

The main feature of this garden, of course, is the golden crucifix set on a concrete slab. The slab appears to have moss grown cracks indicating age. There is a bench to sit on but the priest stands, gazing at the crucifix in wonder? supplication? reflection? prayer?

There are some mushrooms or something like that growing in the grasses near the bench. There are three stepping stones between the crucifix and the reflecting pool that run alongside the pool. There is a small tree on the other side of the pool.

This garden is a safe-haven from the dangers and evils of the world. Here, one may reflect on the nature of God in reverent prayer and meditation.

Notes:
Created using a baked clay floor (Sculpey). The crucifix was obtained from a local hobby store and the priest is an HO Preiser figure. Everything else was handmade with Sculpey.

This diorama was made as a gift for my step father who lives in another state. As such, I thought I might have to mail it to him. With that in mind, I took special care to ensure every piece was completely solid (as far as being glued down) including the base to the display case. This one can be turned upside down with no ill-effects.

Scale is HO. Base is 9.6 cm x 9.6 cm. This piece was designed for the softball sized display cube (9.6 cm x 9.6 cm x 9.6 cm).

Here is a backview:

Here are some pics taken during the creation process. This first one is the preparation to bake some stepping stones, boulders, the bench and some various small rocks.

Here is one of the many layouts I tried while playing around with the design. As you can see, this is a far cry from the original design but there are some elements even in this initial layout that survived. Also, the overall theme of a garden for reverent contemplation was the original impetus.

This next image shows the ultimate garden scene I came up with. Notice that the portal has not been created yet (or even thought of yet) and the object across from the entrance is a small bench-like rock.

These next three images help illustrate the creative process as the item in the far corner gets swapped out until the final choice is made for the gray-ish conglomerate type boulder that ends up in the final piece.

The bench-like rock opposite the entrance to the garden has been replaced with an oblisk of some kind.

The oblisk is replaced with a boulder.

The boulder that ends up in the final scene is finally placed.

This picture shows some more staging going on as I have placed some bushes around and placed a temporary holder for the tree next to the pool.

The base landscape has not yet been baked in this picture.

Also note that the water has not been poured. In fact, the empty pool is lined with moist layers of blue clay which will be baked with the land to become the final base.

The priest quietly talks with a nun in a waiting area while he awaits the completion of the garden.

In this next pic you can see that I had pushed the portal down into the clay to create the indents for later placement. Also note that the gray items in this picture are pieces that had already been baked.

I decided to bake them again thinking that no harm could be done. It turns out I was right in this case, but I have since discovered that baking the sculpey twice can yield undetermined results and therefore is not recommended.

Those pieces that were already baked were placed on the moist clay using Sculpey glue so that the final piece is solid and they don't fall off.

I glued down the portal, poured the water and started landscaping. Something this picture shows well became apparent immediately: too much green. But I do have to say I was really happy at how the water came out.

I added some dirt to the garden entrance (the end of a dirt path that leads from somewhere). The grass is "worn down" on the other side of the stepping stones too. The grass is less worn down around the stepping stones (because people often use the stones to walk on instead of the grass).

I also added the colorful mushrooms (or whatever they are) to help balance the overall color of the diorama. I think the sharpness of the red and blue combined with the brown dirt did well to counterbalance the tremendous amount of green.

This image shows the scale and the final placement in the display case.