My original plan for the spring portion of the four seasons roombox was to make a flowerbed along the wall. Once the scenes were laid out there wasn’t a lot of space for that, plus I would have needed to carry over the flowerbed into the other months, which I didn’t want to do. Instead I decided to use a planter.
I looked high and low for a wine cask style planter in half scale and couldn’t find any — so I made one! I started out with a large 1″ scale planter from Miniatures.com. It was sold in a pair so even if one got messed up, I would have another one as a back-up.
These are made out of resin. I used a utility knife and a thin saw to slice off the bottom.
Then I sanded the bottom edge with the disc sander to make it flat. Now I had a planter that was the right height, but with a hole at the bottom.
I put it on a piece of strip wood and traced around the inside of the hole.
I cut the piece out roughly with the utility knife.
Then I sanded to the pencil line until it fit inside the planter. It’s not a perfect fit, but you’ll never see this.
Here’s the result. Much more to scale!
And here’s what I made to go inside. I used SDK Miniatures’ yellow/purple bulb garden kit, which includes tulips, two types of daffodil, and two types of hyacinth. My mom pointed out that the yellow tulips get lost among the daffodils so we made the tulips purple instead, and made the bigger hyacinths blue.
Here’s how it looks in the scene. The tulips on the stoop were a gift from my mini friend Debora (Dalesq on the Greenleaf forum).
Debora also made the bird’s nest on top of the window. I love this little nest! I’m on the hunt for a half scale robin to perch on the edge of it.
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
Wonderful! I’m so glad you are happy with the nest and tulips. Your bulb garden flowers turned out great, and I love the planter. I’ve been trying to find something just like it! Thanks for showing me how to do it! Go, go, go! :D
Love following along on your mini journey since I just recently found your blog! Great job on the planter and the flowers!
So nice to see a touch of spring on such a gloomy day! Love how your tulips look, your mom was totally right. Can’t wait to see what you find in the way of a bird. A spring robin would look so sweet up on the window!
The miniature garden looks delightful and makes me feel that Spring is just around the corner. Thank you for the tip on scaling down a larger sized mini planter for the scale that’s needed…looks perfect!
Your attention to every detail continues to amaze me! I love the nest with eggs!
Oh, Emily! Every detail of this is so perfect! I can’t believe you made the wine cask planter. Just looked at your summer page, too, and it is so amazing, down to the little dandelions. I am writing on this page, though, in case you didn’t know that Mini Gems does a half-scale robin: http://www.mini-gems.com/halfinchminiatures.html You have to mail in your order (unless you can catch her at a show), but she responds very quickly. Love her stuff.
Thanks for the tip! I think I came across that page when I was looking, but I ended up ordering a robin (and a few other animals) from Barbara Meyer. They just came in the mail today, I’ll post pics soon.
Sorry, I was confused when I answered this earlier — mini-gems.com is Barbara Meyer’s site! That’s where I ordered from. I came across another site that also had half scale robins but now I can’t find it again…
I know. I Googled Barbara Meyer, thinking, “Hey! Another source for half scale animals!” and ended up on the Mini-Gems site. :-) Love the birds you got. They are perfect in your spring setting. I like her animals. Too bad you can’t remember the other site for half-scale robins. Of course, it could be her stuff as well. Virtual Dollhouse and Miniature Cottage both sell her creations.