Foxgloves....Assembling the top.

Well, as expected for a weekend I didn’t get much done except boring house things.

I did manage to finish up the buds on one plant. I am going to do one at a time to make it quicker to get photos on here.

Now, please bear with me through this. If I am a little slow it is because I don’t know what I am doing....I am learning as much as you are. This isn’t so much tutorial with Talloley as it is letting the world, or at least some fellow miniaturists, follow my progress as I try and figure out how to make something I’ve never made before.

If you wanted to watch me make a Bird of Paradise plant that would be a different story…I can make those in my sleep.

Stopping to take photos at each stage slows things down as well. I do hope someone gets use of this and has a go and I’m not doing this for nothing.

Still, here is the little I accomplished over the weekend.

Because I find it such a pain to insert numerous photos into a post I’ve made them into one. If you click on them you’ll be able to see a larger image.

Once you have glued all the leaves onto the bud, as shown in the previous post, take some pastels in the color of your plant and very lightly dust the bud. You need the tiniest amount of chalk.

Now you need to make the tiny leaves that surround the bud.

1. Take a strip of your green paper. This is about ¼ inch wide. You won't need it this big but it is much easier to fold later.

Using a light green, very sharp pencil, draw a line down the center. This will give it the color you want and score the paper.

To be honest the final leaf is so thin you can barely see the line but it is there in real life so we’ll do it.

2. Fold the paper in half. The pencil line should have created a score line to make it easier.

3. Now using very sharp, small scissors, cut your leaf shape. Make sure the one end is very pointed and vanishes to almost nothing. The width of this leaf now is about 1/16th inch.

4. Take one of your buds and cut the wire, leaving about 1/8th inch of wire on there. This serves 2 purposes. One, in real life, the buds have tiny stems, they aren’t just stuck onto the main stem and two, it gives you something a little more substantial to attach to the main stem and allow you to bend it out later.

Glue the wire onto your leaf and leave to dry.

You will see the leaves are a lot longer than you need; this is simply for ease of handling.


Once they are dry, hold the wire part with tweezers and bend the wire so the bud bends out slightly. Now you can start attaching them to the main stem.

I had already dipped the end of the main stem in glue and paint and covered it with leaves, just as I did the buds. This creates the very top bud.

Take your buds and glue them to the main stem as shown. Place the glue onto the very bottom of the wire of the bud and a little bit underneath on the leaf.

Once it has dried you can cut off the excess leaf at the bottom.

Always allow one to dry before attempting another. And make sure there is no glue showing. It claims to dry clear but you can always still see it so make sure to wipe any off.

In this extreme close up, where the paper joins the stem looks really messy. It looks fine in real life.. honest…this is just the photo. And once the next steps are glued on you won’t see it anyhow.

I hope that is clear enough .... if not just ask. It is much easier to do it than try and explain it in words.