This was an unplanned endeavor that I felt like sharing with you all! Join me on my journey to construct a magical fantasy diorama (using pieces & parts from previous projects) to give a mysterious pewter Wizard figurine* that I found in an antiques shop a proper home.

*If anyone knows his name or origin story, I’d love to hear it!

CONSTRUCTION

As I’ve been known to do (on more than one occasion), this build was a pieces-parts Franken-project. I mean, we makers keep all manner of bits and bobs, trash and treasure for later use. 

When I first started doing miniatures in 2020, I had a lot to learn! I’m still learning every day. One of the techniques I tried was cutting stonework acetate stencils on my Cricut machine and using them with joint compound. I ended up making a floor and walls which later I painted, grouted (with watered-down joint compound), and dark-washed. They sat in a plastic tub waiting for me to choose them from the pile someday.

Well last week, that day came and I decided to make a small corner diorama with them.

I added real stones and gravel from outside as well as some synthetic foliage which was discarded from a previous project (*cough Madison Seminary Diorama cough). Oh! And a good piece of a stick that had gorgeous color.

I fashioned a small stone fire pit in which to hold the cauldron. It also raised it off the ground so I could hide a flickering LED in the bottom to simulate a crackling fire.

I glued the walls to the floor and painted the edges and back of the diorama black. I cut a small notch running from the fire pit to the edge to easily hide the electronics.