Dreams and Visions

Here is a photo of one of my dioramas that I made for a show that I had at the Brookline Arts Center in the Boston area. This is one of my very favorites although all of them are really my favorites for different reasons. This is about a dream that I have of owning a beautiful cottage somewhere in Provence. I am planning on buying it soon.

I made the box itself by sandwiching fusible interfacing between 2 pieces of fabric. This makes it stiff but flexible enough to sew. Then I sewed the curtains by sandwiching cotton batting between 2 pieces of fabric turning it inside out, then top stitching. I made the hills in the background the same way. I painted curtains , mountains and the inside of the box with these luscious oil paint sticks, the metallic ones and let those dry for a couple of days. In the meantime I made the rest of the details. I do a lot of felting so the lavender was perfect for that I needle felted the lavender and the sunflowers and was really happy with the result. The tree tops are felted too and then beaded a little for texture .The cottage was made the same way as the curtains. The clothesline is tiny pieces of cloth that I cut out and painted and the clothesline itself is floral wire. Then I glued the whole thing together. I love that part because all the elements look so great together and it is so interesting for me to see if the final product is what I want it to be. In this case it was exactly as I wanted it. This diorama measures about 12 inches tall and 9 inches wide. There is a string at the back for hanging.