bonsaiTALK 2006 Article Contest

More Contest Entries

A Hobbit Trayscape
by Treebeard - 1st Place
Click to see this article's votes!

Accessories.

The next stage was to fix all the minor construction features in place. These features were to be the detail in the design, and would hopefully given the finished trayscape some character. I spent two or three hours doing this detail work.

figure 25

figure 26
After the main components were in place I found I still had a gap between the door frame and the tree. Figure 25 shows the solution, some brickwork and moss in behind the warty lumps on the trunk to fill the gap. Figure 26 shows the fence fitted into place, it was simply pushed into the muck wall that I had built earlier and firmed into place. The step in the gateway is a small coloured and textured cement slab left over from another project.

figure 27

I had acquired four different types of moss for this planting (figure 27). The coarser, longer variety was used on the top to give the impression of long grass on the hillside. The medium-length moss was used around the base of the tree to give the impression of long grass that is occasionally cut and the shorter variety was used around the front to simulate a well-tended lawn. The fourth type, a fine textured variety that grows in the cracks on my patio would be used later on for detail work.

figure 28

figure 29

Figure 28 shows the brass doorknob being turned on my small metalworking lathe. After rough turning it was finished off with fine emery paper and then wire wool. A hole was drilled in the door, also on the lathe (figure 29), and the knob was fixed in place with a small screw from the back.

figure 30

The window required a bit of thought. I couldn't use glass or acrylic because there was no inside to see in to, and a transparent window material would just show the cement filler in behind. I decided to use a disk of black reflective plastic, being reflective, it looks like glass, and being black it gives the impression of a dark interior. The cross-pieces were cut from the same strips of wood as the fencing, fitted together with a half lap joint (Figure 30) and given a coat of the green Cuprinol that was used for the door. There should really be a wooden frame around the outside, but on this scale it would have crowded the window aperture and left very little actual window so I left it off.
Pages: |1| |2| |3| |4| |5| |6| |7|

Print Friendly Version Print Page