LARGER DISPLAYS

Most of the methods used in making the cigar box exhibits can be used in preparing larger displays, but the immediate problem presented is that of the setting, since there are no standard size boxes of the correct proportions into which to put your foreground material. This is easily solved. Use Elmer’s glue and carpet tacks to fasten a piece of pebble-board, matt board, or poster board to two 1″ × 1½″ wooden supports.

PEBBLE BOARD 1½″ 1″

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Nail on top and bottom wooden 1″ × 1½″ braces to give the curve to the background.

Poke, pull, and bend window screen to form main contours of base.

Drill pairs of holes around pebble-board background. Push hairpin shaped wire (stovepipe wire or finer) through screen, through holes, twist tightly in back with pliers.

Spread paper mache mix over window screen with palette knife or spatula. Dry tempera pigments may be mixed very sparingly with mache to give a basic ground color. Smooth joint between screen and background into a curve, not a sharp angle.

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“Plant” hemp “bushes” in wet mache if desired.

BACKGROUND shaded DARK top to LIGHT bottom

BASE shaded DARK front to LIGHT back

PEBBLEBOARD FRONT

Mix three sky blues from Towne’s Gold Bond Latex Blue and a latex white. Paint dark at the top, blend medium in the middle, light at bottom, blending almost to white at the horizon. Use a soft 1″ brush. Do not be afraid to blend. Cut and glue a piece of pebble-board to fit between the bottom of contoured foreground and base. Use Elmer’s glue.

Mix three browns for ground color. Use burnt umber casein tube color with latex white. Paint dark at front of foreground, blend through medium to very light at the background. When paint dries, proceed as with cigar box, spreading foreground surface with a thick coat of Elmer’s glue, sprinkling on dyed sawdust, sand, gravel, etc. Bushes and shrubs are made the same way, with lichen, weeds, and other materials.

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