The Making of The Diorama Pictures and Information

I had a lot of fun making this diorama. It is very mysterious and a bit other worldly. It is because it is taken from a scene from my upcoming novel. Anyhoo, here is some information and pictures about how I made this diorama. And, if you are interested in making dioramas you should check out my website section on the subject. I have just about everything you could possibly imagine when it comes to them! How to make Dioramas

I carved the base out of foam.

Then painted it basic colors for grass, soil and rock.

I formed the tree out of copper wires and then coated most of it with clay (DaVinci Plastilina)

I attached the tree to the base and applied some basic terrain materials.

Painted the tree

I painted the tree and the basic appearance of the diorama is completed. Now I go into some detail work and a lot of this will change over time. For now I added snow but that will clear up and other things will appear/disappear.

I painted the top side of the branches with a bright white and I added woodland scenics snow textures to the base. And then I sculpted a small beehive out of balsa wood and added that to the diorama.

Here is a closeup of the beehive.

Transformation to Spring

Spring is spreading here in New England. It has been a long and cold winter with a lot of snow. But Spring is finally starting to break. So the tree has made a transformation. The snow is gone, the grass is a shade of green and buds are starting to appear on the tree.

And I have had this vision in my head for a long time of the tree sprouting glass apples. Well, apples don't show up on trees in spring but I had some stories to tell so I made a couple of apples out of acrylic. I first carved a small apple out of balsa wood then I made a rubber mold and cast a clear acrylic into it. I wanted the apples to come out nice and clear (glass-like) but they came out frosty. Oh well, it clouds things a bit but maybe that's better.

Transformation to Summer

This is the summer tree. The leaves are in full bloom, there are flowers blossoming on the tree and around the tree and the bird in the nest is no longer an egg.