Spring Fling 2012 Reveal

Presenting the Asahi Tea House.  Asahi means morning sun and I felt it was fitting given so much of it was made during early morning hours.

Lets’s start with the outside.  

I used the main kit, farm stand, and skylight roof additions.

Anything you see that is stone, minus the river rocks, was carved from pink builders foam or paperclay then dry brushed with several layers of acrylic paint.  The Foot Bridge was made using leftovers from the beacon hill and tiny turnings I bought at Dragonfly International.  The large round window is basswood strips, mat board, and rice paper

The Water is Wodland scenics Water effects and Realistic water. To add realism as the pond was poured in layers, bits of landcaping flock was added each time. The 3 carp were layered in at different points. The Pond retaining wall was made from  a package of chopsticks.

Deck Railings are “Christina”: by Heritage Laserworks and the floor is made from skinny sticks.

The Water basin was made using tongue depressors, a tea light, and the inner seal of a prescription bottle. I posted the Hostas earlier this year.

Crane sculpted by Barbara Meyer of Chicago

The Giant Red Maple Bonsai was made with copper wire and Durham’s wood putty. A BIG thanks to Brae for the tip on using Durham’s, I had intended to fill with clay, this saved me days of work.  The green tree is by Model builders supply. I lost count of how many leaves were punched, let’s just say hundreds.

Gong is a kit available at Phoenix models

Now for the interior

Heritage Laserworks “energy” trims were used for the table and bench.

I made the tatami mats from decorator fabric (hooray remnant bin at Joanne’s), silk ribbon, and cardstock paper.

I used Trumpet Flower beads to make the rain chain

The teapot, blue bowl, pitcher, and tea caddy are all from Suramics pottery by Sue Dix. The tea cups and green bowl are quilling paper.  The bamboo ladle was made with a plastic coffee mug, I simply clipped off the curved mug handle and drilled a hole for the long bamboo one.

Vase I’ve had in my stash for a long time (no longer available at Miniatures.com), repainted and crackled.   Japanese Peony kit by Pascale Garnier.

After a summer with so few mini updates, I hope you’ll think it was worth the wait.  I found a lot of inspiration photos in this book: Orthos Creating japanese Gardens.

You may recognize the foot bridge

Finally a BIG Thanks to those who gave me the encouragement I needed to get my motivation going, especially when I was about to abandon it (Kathryn).

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