DIY Miniature Project: Miller's Garden

After having had so much fun building Robotime's DIY miniature library named 'Sam's study' (you can take a look at my earlier blog about that) in April, I felt like doing another project this winter. Having discovered a great admiration for plants in the recent years, I decided 'Miller's Garden' to be my new project. And because it such an enjoyment again, I'd like to share some of the experience with you. 

Above you get an impression of the package. I wanted to create a housely feeling as soon as possible, so first I painted the frame and wallpapered the right wall. Then I put some pictures in frames for a start, and soon enough I was up for the first challenge: a noteboard with a 2x2mm small clip. Which meant cutting the tiniest piece of paper, and folding the smallest piece of wire to resemble a real life  paper clamp! 

On the second wall, I was to bend two tiny hooks, one for the first plant, the other for a looped rope (which, of course, I had to twine myself as well). 

Starts to look like a garden, doesn't it? Next up was installing the light and the big window, including curtains. Compared to the chandelier I had to make in the library, this lamp was relatively simple, but still it was very exciting to test if the electric installation works - those little wires are só fragile! 

I looooved the ornament in the side table, so I enjoyed playing with the light before the table went to stand on the, well, the side, where it is supposed to go ;).
​
Now that the electric wires could be put through the walls, I fixed both walls onto each other and onto the bottom frame. You might have recognized the drain pipe on the one wall. This is actually made of a drinking straw. So clever! 

Talking about straws, take a look at this lovely straw hat (there were flowers to be added, too, which you'll see in the later pictures): 

Then I stuffed two cute little cushions for the bench, cut out a canopy, created a washboard, a cart (dental sticks came into use for that one), miniscule hinges for the door, some garden tools, small furniture, wooden stepboards, a Van Gogh painting, glass jars, a terracotta pot, bags for seeds and bulbs, books, and a small brass kettle. 

It's amazing how much you can make with the simplest components. Most of the items are just out of paper, dental sticks, beads and metal wire. The candles for example are made of pressed paper sticks, of which I had to carefully remove just so many layers until a the size of a wick was left, and paint that black. The watering can is entirely out of paper. 

For some reason, I saved the flowers and greenery for last. Probably because I secretly dreaded cutting those hundreds of little leaves, hehe. But it proved to be not nearly as bad as I feared. And making the flowers was crazy. A tiny piece of thin paper (sized less than a square centimeter) became a tulip, you can actually folded pieces of paper sized 7,5cmx8mm in such a way they look like roses, I cut and folded paper into created hyacints, lavender, something that I think look like poppys but they might be gerberas.
 
Finally, I covered part of the wall and the grid with ivy. I wish I had counted the leaves I've cut, but I guarantee you that my fingers were numb when I was finished.  

And now it was time to put all the smaller pieces into place! I assemled the garden quite different than the booklet suggests, but I found that suggestion way too chaotic and stuffed. I am so happy with my result! 

You can find more designs on Robotime's homepage, but your local distributor might sell them as well.