Miniature Scenery in a Box

A world within a box, Bringing a significant moment, a precious memory to life. A handmade miniature replica of an instance shared between two souls.

Story of their life: The beginning of a lifetime journey together. Both the girl and the boy in love; hardcore trekkers. Monsoon night. A Fallen tree and the premiere confession of their love.

Supplies

• An idea
• Any jewelry box that will suit your purpose (possibly antique, the older the cooler)
• Acrylic Paint
• Thai Clay
• Soft pliable Wires/ Stone Clay
• Miniature Human Figurines
• Tissue paper
• Decorational elements/Metal charms: key
• Lawn powder: light green, dark green, yellow
• Epoxy Resin
• Fevicol/Glue
• a pair of scissors
• Sand, sawdust
• Little pieces of stone
• OHP sheet
• Toothpick/Needle
• Reference images
• Cutter

Step 1: Preparing the Box

At the beginning when I first thought of creating a miniature scenery; a world within itself, it was overwhelming but I quickly composed myself and looked at it element by element, bringing it to life exactly as envisioned.

We will begin with the task of finding a suitable Body, Any jewelry box that will suit your purpose (possibly antique, the older the cooler) but I couldn't find anything like that. I wanted the look of a mini wooden box, I found a plastic jewelry box. Which we will paint ahead in the journey.

Using a cutter I stripped off all the inner foam cushioning, we will need all the depth we can get to tell our story. Look for a box with good depth.

Next I created a levelled bed made out of tissue and glue water on the inner upper side of the box, which will form the upper sky portion.

For the ground I levelled a thin layer of clay and shaped a road onto the clay according to the couple's reference images of their memorable trip.

Align whichever will be the tallest element in your scenery to check if the box closes. Here, the depth was not much so when I pressed the clay uneven to form the ground, I made sure to adjust according to the human pieces.

Step 2: The Scenery

• On the upper side I created mountains of stone clay. let them dry for 24 Hrs then Painted them using brown, yellow, burnt umber shades of acrylic color.
• On the lower side, on the road pattern I created, I then painted the road ochre, coated it with glue and saw dust to get the dusty look. covered the remaining ground with glue to coat it loosely with sand. Let dry then repaint using thinned brown paint. Using epoxy resin I filled some of the uneven ground depressions to form puddles as it's a rainy day.
• Next on the upper side I painted the sky in layers using cobalt blue, sky blue, mixes of white and grey. Upto 5 layers of paint to create a 3D look and depth.
• Mix two part clear epoxy resin in equal quantities and pour on top of the sky paint. Let dry then paint a layer of clouds in random portions. Coat with resin again. Paint some more dark faded clouds with silver linning. we have now created a 3D monsoon atmosphere.
• For completing our scenery coat the mountains and portions of the ground with glue and cover with mix colors of lawn powder as you want. Around the road and on top of the mountains.
• Using epoxy resin pour around the road which leads back to the top of the mountains to create the look of freshly rained land.

Step 3: The Mini Tree and Peeps

• Tree: Twisting 6-8 strands of soft wire together then branching them from both ends to form the roots and the branches, then dividing into groups and pairs to form the twisted branches. Dip the tree in glue and dip the glue coated tree in mix colors of lawn powder or green sponge powder. Let dry and harden. Paint the trunk brown. It is so tiny and beautiful. Fits on a nail of my finger.
• Humans: For this first time project I used Miniature human figurines. Added extra details like the jacket, knee pads using Thai clay and painted all the details accordingly. Now I handmake the human figurines using soft wires and clay.

Step 4: Mini Bike

• Bike: I made the wire reinforcement cage of the bike model by twisting soft pliable wires according to the required shape. covered it with bits of clay. To simplify just decode the bike structure into simpler 3D objects like cubes, cones and spheres. I painted the bike using toothpick and needle, it is an exact replica with the handles and stand that move, a painted number plate, fiber guard, speedometer, tires and spokes, seat, all of the works. it's a KTM Duke, I'm sure the orange tires gave it away.
• I also created two helmets of the couple using clay and OHP sheet piece, painted them accordingly.
• It's smaller than two parts of my finger and so detail oriented.

Step 5: The Fallen Tree

• The fallen tree: Created using wire and clay. Give scratch marks to make bark using sculpting tools. Then painted to exact replicate a fallen tree with broken branches. For extra details cover portions in lawn powder and resin to create grown moss and dew drops.

Step 6: The Assembly and the Heart Lock

Situate all the pieces in their location and stick them in place.

• I painted the plastic box to give a wooden feel and also created a heart lock covered in vines to express age old love and its strength against time (clay). Stuck a metal key charm and painted these gorgeous details. using clay I also carved their initials "KS"

Step 7: The Photoshoot

In a lightbox I did the photoshoot to highlight all the absolute details.

Voila!!!!! Enjoy :-)

Step 8: Miniature Scenery in a Box