Making the grass grow

So, when last we saw my trees, I had just finished drybrushing them. The next step in this endless tree project is to add the details. I’m going to make some details out of paperclay, and then I’m going to make grass out of raffia and apply silk leaves.

This particular tree has a long, shallow space on the front of the base, so I decided to add some shelf fungus to add interest without taking up any room. I sculpted them in paperclay and added them with white glue. I think this project has at least four kinds of glue on it.

(That’s not a spider in the picture. I’m not sure what it is, but I think I would remember a spider.)

After the paperclay dried, I painted it up and then I added a mushroom, also sculpted from paperclay.

(See? No spider.)

The mushroom is also attached with white glue. I thought I might have to drill some room to add a pin inside the mushrooms, to hold them on better, but actually they’re so small that white glue has done the job perfectly.

Now, for the really good part. I figured this technique out a long time ago. I take raffia (which, ironically, is made from a kind of grass, I think) and cut it up into the right lengths for grass. It looks like this:

No, those are not dried up old green beans.

Then, after cutting, I peel narrow little strips off until I have grass-like shapes.

I make a pile of those, and then I put a lot of white glue on the base.

Then I add the blades of grass, one at a time. I know, it seems like you should be able to do a bunch at a time, but it never looks right when I do it that way. I pat the grass into the glue with a tool; this time I’m using a piece of bamboo skewer. Technically, a toothpick probably would have worked better, but I’m just too lazy to go look for one when there’s a bamboo skewer right here.

Rinse and repeat until you get all the way across the base.

After the grass is rooted, I mix a little green and yellow paint and quickly paint the grass so that it isn’t the same color all over.

Hmmm…. apparently I failed to take any pictures of the grass when it was all done. Here’s a photo of another niche with painted grass and a couple of paperclay rocks.

That’s all for now — next time I’ll show you how I apply the leaves.