More Mistress of the Manor....

Yesterday I did some more photos of the Mistress of the Manor in her actual diorama I had built a couple of months ago for her and my spooky dolls. The inspiration came from Barbie Collector's diorama they had built for Haunted Beauty Ghost. Click above for Behind the scenes with Haunted Beauty Ghost video. I did not succeed in fully doing the dimensions I figured from looking at it, nor the roof, which was ingenious in its design to allow for the curtains to be extra long over the windows and allow for them to be softly wafting in the breeze. (I still need to make the curtains for the windows in my diorama walls.) Sometimes I wish Mattel would offer a week to build with the artist who builds their dioramas- I would love this!

I am just in love with this doll...she is so beautiful!

The doll really makes the overdramatic effect of the room.I am hoping to find time to put the drapes on the windows, because it will really add to the effect. The portrait of the little boy in black is from the Williamsburg visitor center bookstore and is exactly what I was looking for- primitive Early American colonial artists do have a style that works with this scene. 
How I did it- The Barbie Collector artist did pretty large dimensions and also a few backdrops such as steps to create the illusion of depth in their scene, I estimate they used about four feet to make that diorama. Mine is a little smaller and compact- the base is a piece of birch plywood 20 x 20 stained golden oak and I 'scored' the planks of wood flooring in it with an exacto knife, and then went over it with a black acrylic paint wash to get the paint into the cracks and crevices so you could see the 'joints' in the wood flooring. The wallpaper is scrapbook paper from Michael's and so is the wood trim. The bottom half of the walls is spray painted a dark grey and the windows are very thin stripwood cut to size and painted white and glued into the window openings. The roof is 1/2 inch thick foamcore that has also been spray painted grey with a smattering of brown to give it age. The back wall is styrofoam carved with my dremel to look like stone and spray painted grey. The table is a damaged Bespaq piece I repaired and weathered.
Enjoy!