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THE POTTING CART
Early 90s
I like using domes to create small settings. This is another example.

This is one of many potting and gardening scenes. It contains some of the first plants I made. I bought the table when the first Pic'nSave (now Big Lots) stores opened in El Paso. It had a backgammon game glued to the top. Since its dice were out of scale anyway, I removed the entire top, replaced it with a new cardboard one painted with brown iron oxide acrylic, and beat it up a bit to use as my potting table. The handles from a pair of gardening shears protrude from the left drawer. A spool of twine and some green plant ties are in the right drawer. The garden hose is telephone wire and an earring back. I used another one of those tables in my Easter-egg-dyeing dome scene.

The macrame hanger was made by my daughter, who made many such hangers in full-size in her teenage years. I have several others just waiting for the right environment. The wooden box was made by a friend years ago.

The succulents in the strawberry pot were made of paper coated thickly with a glue-paint mixture. The plant in the brass pot is one I created for a swap on the MiniProjects list and was once in the professor's conservatory where his Time Machine was located. Although it's not too clear in this photo, the clay dragonfly ornament is really nifty. It was made by Tina Rodriguez and is going to appear eventually in an outdoor setting. I made the gloves; perhaps it's just as well they look blurry!

The potting apron was a swap from Babette Overman. I wanted it to look as if it were just flung on the chair, so I first made hanging folds on a pinning board. I misted the apron with water, then used the handle of a paintbrush to form the folds, pinning on either side until I had the look I wanted; also pinned the ties. When the apron dried I laid it on the chair, again pinned it in place and sprayed it with matte acyrlic spray.

The cactus is from a repainted pod found in dried potpourri. I accidentally broke the pot and decided to work it into the scene. The spilled dirt is dried coffee grounds. The pink plant was purchased at a show.

The paper coleus in the simple wood planter were among the very first plants I ever made. I painted them and they've held their color pretty nicely. The iris were made in a round table workshop many years ago and have faded somewhat. I wish I had known then to spray with a matte sealer.

The ivy was made by folding a strip of painted green paper and cutting half hearts on the crease. Its shiny brass pot is the lid off a bottle of AnaisAnais cologne! The plant in the clay pot is dried, a desert plant, I think; with some air fern added. The vine is buttonhole twist coated here and there with glue and dragged through a mixture of different colors of model railroad foam.

The stained wooden planter is made from two woodsie circles and little pieces of strip wood. The clay pot was aged with a bit of stain. The yellow flowers are dried. I find it more realistic to paint the calyx and stems of most dried flowers with green. The stems of the dried greenery were painted brown. The flowers in the clay pot are made from Bunka. I think the leaves are floral tape.

More dried flowers and greenery in the china pot. The little Delft pitcher is another good way to use inexpensive out-of-scale items as planters. My first pansies in another woodsie planter.

The red basket is made of painted index card; just a strip glued in a circle, then the circle glued to another piece of card; excess cut away from bottom when dried; then touch-up painted as needed. The flooring is a piece of linoleum tile.

The duck planter is a button glued to another of the woodsie boxes; the pot on the right surrounded by the fence is wood; its pole is wood, as is the top. The black-eyed Susans are paper punches; the vine is railroad greenery pulled very fine. All the pots use dried coffee grounds as dirt. I have used everything from glue-soaked Kleenex painted brown to dried brown floral foam as a base under the dirt. Whatever's handy and works!

Here is the top of the planter. The beehive was painted yellow and then a stain wiped on and off, same as with the base pot. The gardening sign was cut from a mail order catalog, glued to a cardboard backing and sealed with an acrylic spray.

I grunged up the edging shovel to make it look used. Somebody gave me the rabbit planter; I think its flowers are Fimo. I cut the labels from gardening ads to use for the bags and cartons of soil and fertilizer, and bottles of weed killer, etc.. Even though I've discovered the wonders of printies on the internet, I still think this is a good way to get stuff easily and free. The cart was originally bright green in color; I worked with stains to tone it down and grunge it up. (A friend once said of me, "She never met a mini she didn't want to grunge.")I like the visual joke of the dog observing the dog and cat repellent bag. He's another of those el-cheapo Something?-Critters I found in the early Pic'n'Save days. Come to think of it, I should also have a cat inside that fertilizer cart, shouldn't I?

 

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