Ferns and palms ...
Ferns and palms are made by gluing a wire (get a spool of 22 or 23 gauge wire from a hardware store) between two lengths of gummed paper tape. Let wire extend beyond paper tape for length of stem or trunk plus the usual ½″ for pushing into the base.
Bend paper over, trim, then slash. Make several, then twist wire “stems” together.
Paint fronds with poster color, water color, or latex white with casein colors.
If “fiddlenecks” are required, they can be made from pipe cleaners and twisted in with the wire stems of the fronds.
CREPE PAPER TRUNK CAN BE PADDED WITH COTTON.
Wrap stems with ¼″ or ½″ strip of brown crepe paper cut across grain of package, and fastened with library paste or Elmer’s glue. Bend wire “fronds” into proper shape. Drill or punch hole in base. Smear base of tree and hole with Elmer’s glue, mount tree in place. Glue dirt or grass in place at base of tree.
Water
A quiet pond may be made with a mirror. Glue the mirror to the cigar box before installing anything else. Glue in the background picture next, then carve chunks of styrofoam for the remaining foreground. Slope “shores” down toward mirror “pond”. Let the edges of the styrofoam cover edges of mirror, making an irregular shape for the pond. Glue styrofoam in place with Elmer’s. For added realism, ripples may be added to the mirror surface, using clear varnish and oil paints. Mix a tiny bit of Prussian or “Thalo” blue with some clear varnish. Use just enough to tint the varnish. Flow varnish on surface of mirror, to a depth of about ¹/₃₂″. Before varnish is completely dry, use an empty “Flit” gun to pump air over the surface. This air will form ripples which, as the varnish dries, will remain on the surface. It may be necessary to repeat the air pumping a few times before the varnish surface hardens.
A stream can be made using broken glass and some Duco or Testor’s Airplane cement. The light blue glass from broken telephone line insulators, light blue Mexican glass or other glass of a light blue color may be used. Put the glass in a paper sack, then put that sack into two more sacks. Put the sacks on a solid surface and break the glass into small pieces by hitting the sack with a hammer.
Make your foreground with styrofoam or balsa wood chunks, covering the material with the paper mache mix and working out (modelling) the stream bed with the mix. Let the mache harden before completing the stream. While the mix is still soft, push in weeds, cattails, any correct streamside plants, making them from hemp rope or from other previously described materials.
ROPE STRANDS DIPPED IN GLUE OR PLASTER FOR CATTAILS.... ROCKS PLACED IN DRY STREAM BED.
When the stream bed is hard, paint the bottom with a blue paint; lighten this blue color as you paint from the bottom toward the sides. Along the banks of the stream, paint in a light brown color. Let the paint dry completely. Squirt a small amount of Duco or Testor’s along the stream bottom; sprinkle pieces of glass thickly in glue before the glue sets. Push the glass into the glue to be sure it is well anchored. Squirt more cement over top of glass until top surface looks the same as a stream surface. Again, follow nature as closely as it is possible. Base your stream direction, flow, eddies, and riffles on observed knowledge. Mix a little talcum powder in some of the glue and stir quickly and hard to get a froth. Use this white, frothy material along the part of the stream surface that would be frothy. If you want the “water” to be breaking over boulders in the stream bed, place pea-size gravel pebbles in the stream bed at the same time you place the glass fragments.
Another method for a stream uses aluminum foil and light blue cellophane. Using ordinary household aluminum foil, tear off enough to cover the bottom of your stream area. Crumple the foil tightly, then smooth it out and glue to the base with Duco, Testor’s, or Pliobond. Cut a piece of blue-green cellophane to fit over the foil. Crumple the cellophane tightly, then smooth out. Glue the cellophane to the foil with Duco or Testor’s.
Finish both of the above stream methods by painting Elmer’s glue along the banks and shore, covering the edge of the water area, then sprinkle with sand, sawdust, or other texture, and complete the vegetation as previously described.