MAKING A FAIRY TREEHOUSE

Some time ago I received some miniature gourds so I decided to make a fairy abode. I started it, but then put it away as I had other projects to finish. Having completed Sweeney Todd, I came back to this little project and decided to try to finish it up. I didn't think to do a progress blog until a couple of days ago so the starting elements are not photographed. I will talk a little bit here about what I had done.

The base was a piece of bark I had laying around the house. I used my Dremel to cut the front opening and inserted a piece of veneer for the floor. Painted the walls a light green and finished the opening with the covering from some electrical wire. This makes a great edging and since you can get so many sizes and colors of wire it is very useful. I will add something later on to hide the corner joins.

I started the trunk with a section of wire cable that had many wires. It was twisted and the base was separated out to form roots.

I added a branch from a tree and integrated it all with a coating of epoxy clay making a bark like texture. When that was hardened I painted it with various browns and greens and I drilled into the base and slipped some of the wires through and anchored them with knots, twists and super glue. I should mention here that my favorite glue for this purpose is called Future Glue Gel and is made by the original Super Glue company. I buy it whenever I find it as it is not readily available here in Hilo.

I had some little branched bits that I decided to use for the foliage. I started by drilling into the branches on the "trunk" and using Future Glue I  put sections of the branched bits into the holes that I had drilled.

Meanwhile when I was working in my yard on a dry day I collected some various mosses and let them dry.  Today I began adding bits of moss to the little branches, again using the Future Glue. I tease out little sections and glue them to the branches bit by bit. It is time consuming but I think I like the effect so far. If I change my mind later I could pull it all apart and try something else. If the moss loses color it is easy to add it back with thinned acrylic paints but I do like the variety of natural colors that give it a more realistic look.