Georgianna and Barbara are doing an exhibit of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s house and studio. Here are some pictures of part of their scene as well as a few of their plants. Both are coming from out of town for the show (from New Mexico and Pittsburgh!) so we wish them and their exhibit safe travels.
Deb is recreating a scene from “The Lady of Shallot” inspired by several paintings by John William Waterhouse and a poem by Tennyson. Here is her description of the poem:
“The Lady of Shallott” is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It tells the story of a Lady who lives in a tower on the island of Shallott, not far from Camelot. She has been told a curse will be upon her if she leaves her tower or looks directly down to Camelot, and so she must watch the world go by in a mirror. She is content to spend her time weaving tapestries of what she sees, until the bold image of Sir Lancelot flashes into her mirror. She cannot help but turn and look down to Camelot to see him. The curse comes upon her, and although she manages to flee the tower and take a boat toward Camelot, she dies before the boat drifts up to the royal houses. The noble folk are alarmed at the sight, but Lancelot looks tenderly upon her still form and says “She has a lovely face. God in his mercy lend her grace, The Lady of Shallott.”
The paintings that have inspired her work are these:
Here scene is starting to come together, with the construction of the boat shown in this sequence:
Chris Donahower and Maryalice Cheney have this teaser photo for their sculpture garden which is taking shape. We LOVE it here is Philadelphia!
The Birds requires a lot of miniature birds and I thought about that when I proposed my project. But I thought it would be easy to find and buy the birds I wanted  but that was a big mistake. After searching every online miniature shop, our local miniature store, and several miniature shows, I was only able to get these birds:
I’ll be able to use the small ones but they, along with the crow and seagull I need in great quantities, were just too expensive. So it was time to learn a new skill. Last year it was laser cutting which I learned how to do at Nextfab Studio here in Philadelphia. So I took two 3D printing classes at Nextfab but didn’t want to use their machines because it would take me too much time to perfect my models and finally print them and that, too, is expensive. So I bought an inexpensive 3D printer to experiment with and while I did not get any successful bird prints from it, I did learn the not-so-easy art of 3D printing, at home.
On to a better 3D printer, rated by Make magazine as one of the best in its price range: the Makerbot Replicator 2.
It’s not too big and fairly easy to use. I have to tell you that preparing complex models like those for a realistic looking birds is not easy. I have used models made for at least five different 3D modeling programs and have spent hours cleaning them up. I did not want to model my own because I like the detail that I found in the ready-made (and ready for purchase) birds. Once you get a model and pose it the way you want, it has to be processed to be printer ready and exported as an STL file (I am trying to make this a simple explanation but this is not an easy process). Finally the model has to be sent to the software for the 3D printer where it can be rotated (to have it print flat on the bed), sized, and placed on the printing bed. Discouraged yet? Wait till you see what you can do with it once you learn all this!
So, The Birds is coming, and I still have more to print. This has been a long process but now I know how to do 3D printing. Stay young and learn a new skill every year!
P.S. I have no clue how to attach these guys. Can’t get wire into their legs…
I will do pretty much anything to get good publicity for the Miniature Setting at the Philadelphia Flower Show (including dressing in costume last year and probably this year) but I did not release savage birds that attacked the pope’s doves.
No, I haven’t lost my grammatical mind. That is how Alfred Hitchcock advertised the movie I am doing for my exhibit, The Birds. Here is a billboard from the time of the movie’s release:
Hitch posed with real and fake birds to promote the film.
When I started to design my exhibit, I knew I would need a lot of birds, just like the movie had. Here is the scene that i am trying to replicate:
But little did I know that finding one inch to one foot scaled birds is very difficult. Keep in mind that I need at least 200 of them. I did find a few at miniature shows but at $5 to $20 each, that was impossible and besides, they did not offer me the variety of poses I needed. How I solved that problem, and learned a new skill, is the subject of the next blog.
As we get closer to the Philadelphia Flower Show, it is time to start putting together the tools we need to have at the convention center for the nine days of the show. I have already purchased a communal tool bucket for the general repair things we might need, but each of us has to have individual tools to take care of the plants in our exhibit. Here are the things I consider essential. I would add duct tape and a step stool to the list.
Nancy Hannum sent in an update about the amazing quilt sky she and husband Paul are using in their exhibit.
She reports:Â ” am at the Valley Forge Homestead Quilters (my quilt guild) UFO workshop finishing the sky for our setting. It’s exciting seeing the project getting ready for display.”
Annie Hayworth’s house for my scene from The Birds has a classic white picket fence. It is just like the one around the house I grew up in. You can take the fence as a symbol of Annie’s desire for a stable relationship or as a sign of the traditional values of Bodega Bay. Or you can just see it as a fence protecting her house from whatever is outside it. No matter what approach you take, Annie’s house needs that fence.
I thought it would be easy to find that fence in miniature shops or online but, alas, the fences available are really inferior and not realistic at all. Any fence with wire wrapped around it would not do.
So I had to make my own. Here is how I did it
My first task was to find a real fence and measure it. I found this one at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Saint Michaels, Maryland (just happened to be there for a wedding). Nice weathering, good size slats and the correct style of the cut tops.
I found out later that there are many styles you can use to cut the tops and space the boards:
With these images and measurements in mind, I found some balsa wood the correct width (about ¼ inch). I used balsa because it was easy to cut but also because when I whitewashed it (with thinned white paint) the water would raise the grain and make it look like the weathered fence. I cut the tops using a tool called The Chopper (highly recommended although you can easily chop off finger bits if you are not careful). I set up the chopper so that the wood lined up at the correct angle. It comes with guides that do this but they didn’t work the way I needed so I taped some wood guides on.
Line up the tops along a straight edge with the crossbar underneath. Use scraps of wood the same width as the slats to space the slats correctly. Glue the slats to the crossbar and keep the spacer wood in place until the slats are dry.
Glue the lower crossbar in place after you trim the wood for the correct height. My first fence was too tall for my scene (even though the measurements in comparison to a real fence were accurate). Sometimes you have to adjust your miniatures so they look right even if they don’t exactly measure correctly.
Don’t forget, exhibitors. to view your display through the 12 by 22 inch viewing window (cut one out of cardboard or styrofoam). It makes such a difference to see what will actually show in your display. I just spent hours applying shingles to a roof that is so high up it will not show!
I have been wanting to start a series of blogs about the history of Miniature Settings at the Philadelphia Flower Show. I have met some of the previous year’s entrants and have received some photos of our past displays. I still plan to collect photos from every year but until this year’s show is done, I don’t have a lot of spare time to research the rest of our history. But I just received this wonderful article from Ron Smith. It is a look at the 1994 show with a detailed explanation for the exhibits and the history of the displays. Take note, Flower Show planners: we “stole the show” 20 years ago, just like we do today!!!
LINK to download the entire article as a PDF.: Â Â Â nutshell-news-jan-94
Does anybody know what this plant is? I have tons of it growing easily and it is the perfect size for miniature gardens. But I got it in Home Depot or Lowes with no tag on it.
By the way, Lowes has a nice database you can search to try to identify plants you bought there. It didn’t have mine but it had a lot of good information.
As I am choosing the plants for Annie Hayworth’s garden, I am trying to limit the palette to burgundy/red, lime green, brown/black, and gray-green. This is difficult because of the limited mini plants that I can grow. But I know the following colors will not be present: blue, yellow, and pink. I think Annie’s garden should be dramatic and, well, somewhat bloody because of the scene about to take place. So as many red plants as possible.
Here are some of the plants I have chosen.
Happy New Year, Flower Show Miniature Settings exhibitors. Your first task of the new year is to prepare your preliminary plant list by January 15th and send it in to Joyce Stemple (she is in charge of nomenclature, or correct plant names, for our group). A copy is also sent to Ron Hoess. Their emails are:
The names of your plants (their proper Latin names) are posted next to your exhibit and used by the judges to evaluate your exhibit.
Remember that you need 8 different plants  which means your list will have at least 8 names on it. You can put up to 150 different names on this list if you have a lot of plants you are considering but keep in mind that someone has to check all these names. Also, the document is set up to only receive 35 names so go figure! I didn’t say this was going to be logical! We’ll work out that problem, too.
The names you submit will be corrected with the proper current nomenclature. Even if you have used a plant in the past and think you know its name, it may have had a name revision in the past year so everything is checked. When you have the corrected names, you will use them to submit your final list on February 26th, right before the show.
Now, as those who have done this before know, this can be a daunting and intimidating task. So here are some helpful hints and step-by-step instruction on how to fill out the form and send it in. I highly recommend that you do this list on a computer and not print it out and write it by hand (the instructions say “print or type clearly” but that is misleading because you are entering this data on a computer). You will eventually have to submit a digital version so why waste time writing it out.
First, let’s look at the form that you have already received via email (if you have not received a copy, ask Ron Hoess to send it to you). This is a Microsoft Word document but should open in other programs. If it doesn’t, check below for my advice on making your own version of this list in a different program (in fact, if you have a long list of names, this Word  document can be difficult to work with and I would simply make your own document as described below).
Unfortunately, this document has the wrong date on it (don’t shoot the messenger: I didn’t do it) so change the year from 2013 to 2014 so the reviewers don’t get confused.
Put your name or names in where it says “Exhibitor.” If two or more people are involved in the exhibit, designate one person to send and receive the plant list and the corrected copy via email. That person’s name goes in where it says “Contact.” Put your phone and email in (although no one is likely to call you: all the communication will be by email). Put your address.
There are three columns on the form. The first column is the number of the entry. If you add more than 35 entries to this form, you have to add another row and then you have to fill in this number manually. It will not fill in automatically (but the alternate version below will).
The next column is where you write what you think is the proper Latin name for your plants. The format is GENUS SPECIES VARIETY/CULTIVAR and the entire name is written in CAPS with the variety or cultivar in single quotes. When you come across a plant name online or in a book, this is not the format that is used so you have to change it. For example, if I go online and find the plant commonly called Asparagus fern, it will show up in so many different formats: Asparagus densiflorus, Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’ Sprengeri, Asparagus densiflorus (Sprengeri group), and so on. Very confusing.
Where do you find the correct names for your plants? You can look at the labels that came with them, but these are often inaccurate. The PHS has a plant database (http://register.theflowershow.com/plant-search)Â that lets you check the names of the plants you have but you have to know at least part of the plant’s name to check it. And the images it links you to (google search) can be misleading. The solution I recommend for miniature plants is to first use the visual database I prepared of the nearly 300 common miniature plants that have been used in the past in the Flower Show. It is a great place for you to start your identifications (and chances are your plant is there).
If you get stumped on an identification, send me a picture which I can post here and we can all help you. When you find your plant, you can enter that name in the PHS database just to check it is accurate and spelled correctly. Copy the name that the PHS database gives you (it will be in the correct ALL CAPS format to paste into the form). Paste the name into the correct column.
Your corrected copy will look like this, with the changes highlighted in green. You need to use the corrected names in your final list. Notice that the numbers are gone and a column showing the source of the name confirmation is added.
You are supposed to put your plants in alphabetical order but if you add something later, or make a mistake, the Word document does not let you sort the list easily. So  for this reason you may want to make a simpler list that can be sorted and renumbered easily. Here is how you do it (if you know how to work a word processing program).
ALTERNATIVE DOCUMENT:Â Create a table in your word processing program that has two columns. Put the Latin name in the first column and the corresponding common name in the second column. Don’t worry about what order you put them in and don’t label the columns at the top. When you are done creating the content, select the entire table and sort the contents by the first column and your list will be alphabetized. Select the entire table again and format everything to be all CAPS, Arial font, at 14 points. Add a column to the left and insert a list function and the contents will be numbered. If you don’t know how to do the things in this paragraph, just stick with the official form and be careful to put your entries in alphabetically.
Let Ron or I know if you need help doing the plant list: we are happy to help.
http://www.meehansminiatures.com/index.html
http://www.onlineplantguide.com
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org
http://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/plant-list
http://www.provenwinners.com/plants
http://www.cactuspedia.info/index.htm
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/weeds/thumbnail.asp
http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/
http://www.perennials.com/index.html
http://www.highcountrygardens.com
http://www.sunnyborder.com/plants/online-catalog.html
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/
http://stokestropicals.plants.com/
Pam Goldman has made further progress on her Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Happy New Year!
While we await further images from the preparations of the miniature settings for the 2014 Philadelphia Flower Show, check out the room boxes of Dutch artist Peter Gabrielse at his site:Â http://www.petergabrielse.com
Anthropology of the World's Fairs 
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