Miniatures and Dioramas

(miniature travel trailer kit - click the pic for the link)

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I've always loved miniatures. I think this love of tiny things germinated back when I was very young and we visited a museum in Denver, Colorado where there were lots of intricate dioramas depicting the life of Indians. I loved this museum. At that time, if I remember correctly, it was housed in a very old home that had lots of dark wood. I have vague recollections of a staircase with massive carved end posts. This may be a dream, but I don't think so. Anyway, at some point, that museum was closed and the Colorado History Museum was opened. Some and maybe all of the dioramas were moved there. It's been awhile since I visited, but it seemed to me that there were fewer of them. However, this may be because I was a child when first I saw them and many things seem bigger than they really are when you are little.

Here are a couple of pictures I found on Google images showing sections of a couple of the dioramas. They were very detailed and great works of art.

I've created a couple of dioramas, but nothing that comes even close to something like these. However, it is fun, somewhat time consuming, but when completed is a thing to be enjoyed. I gave several as gifts and have only this one left.

I made the little fireplace out of balsa wood that I cut with an Exacto knife, sanded it and added some depth using watered down acrylic paints. I made the fire out of card stock. I hand painted the bricks and the flowers. The picture over the mantel is a picture from a magazine over which I glued a frame made of foam board covered with gold painted trim from the fabric store. The rest of the things are obviously miniatures I purchased. I covered the backing piece with fabric.

Lastly, I found this great website: NATASHA. What she does is apparently so good it's in museums. I'm not surprised, her diorama original artwork is FANTASTIC!