Terrariums and Bottled Dreams

Having made my first terrarium willy nilly and realising I should have checked the moss before using it; I thought I better do it properly next time.    The next few days instead of haphazardly putting together another one I decided to spend a bit of time learning more about them, thanks to Google and You Tube!  I purchased a few things I need  (as I learned about them) which were readily available from garden centres apart from the Sphagnum  moss.  It took a week before our local garden centre had them in stock.  Once I knew I had enough materials to make a few mini-ecosystem; I harvested (scooped) some of the moss we have in the garden.  I waited more than two weeks after getting hold of the Sphagnum moss before I started making terrariums again.  I thought that would give time to see if there are nasties (e.g. mould, bugs etc) lurking in the moss.  I kept them sealed in a recycled (disposable) plastic cookie container which kept them moist all the time.  I sprayed them regularly, they grew more green and dense.

Next I went looking for little ornaments for my bottles; they too are readily available but most were too big and are not proportional for what or where I intend to use them.  I read one terrarium artist on etsy that she uses polymer clay for her figurine.  Spotlight has Sculpey and Officeworks has Fimo;  between the two shops I managed to purchase enough to start making my own.  I was glad to find out how much easier to use them compared to the air dry clay I used in my first bottle.

My husband was horrified when he saw the first female figure I made.  He could not stop laughing, well...we could not stop laughing in fact!  He tried his hands on it but his I think was even worse.  I knew I can only get better with practice, I just need to try harder which I did.  Besides it's never my intention to create fine looking figurines or carbon-copies of my originals because to me they are only caricatures; there only to represent the real thing.  My main reason for doing this is to have fun, to enjoy, to relive memories and to celebrate life!  Life's too short to fuss too much about details.  That's my alibi anyway, it makes me feel better.

It's early days and I will continue to research in order to improve my creations.  At the time being, because of where I am geographically located I have no easy or cheap ways of acquiring plants,  containers but moss most especially.  So I make do with whatever materials I have or available around here.  Two months later, the moss are now established inside my closed terrariums and they look happy!

Here are a few photos I took of my latest bottles (close and open terrariums)  I made once I felt there's no nasties in my moss.  I apologize for the quality of  the pictures, my DSLR decided to retire a few weeks ago.



Moss and fern forest



Weekend Adventure: Rock climbing

 

Weekend Adventure: Kayaking