If you can do that, most apreciated.
You can do a SBS on how you make this gorgeus plants.
Marc
Hello Marc, you will have to forgive me but I'm slow and don't know computers very well, what is "SBS"?
The other thing is now I can see the photos, the first photo is a plant called Lepto, sometimes called baby lepto in the flower shops. I get this for certian plants like oleander or euchalyptus trees, it makes a very good representative for that long lance-shaped leaf. The other picture is probably asparagus fern as Meehan34 posted, again florist shops carry it as a filler from time to time.
The hard part of this is after you finally find the foliage you want, if you just dry it the pieces will eventually fall apart. They become brittle and even just bumping or moving the base of the dio will cause leaves to break or fall off the stems. You can either try to buy preserved foliage types and just airbrush them the colors you need (which is the method I use most frequently) or you can preserve them yourself. I have read any mixture from 2 to 1 all the way down to 10 to 1 mix of glycerin to water, I usually use a mix around 2 or 3 to 1. This process takes time, up to 4 or 5 weeks but the end results are foliage pieces that will stay firm for many, many years, this is the other method I use if I can't buy already preserved filiage. Finally you can buy different silk flowers from places like Micheal's or any other craft store and cut them to the shapes you need or in certian cases they come as you need them so they just have to be attached to your trunks and branches.
I hope this helps, maybe I will start a thread on sculpting the next tree I decide I want in my collection. I am finishing up 3 different plants, an umbrella tree and some sea grapes for a friends model railroad scene, and a large rainforest giant fig that will tower above the diorama so I have to think about a new project soon and I could easily keep a photo diary of the sculpting. We'll see how it works out once I decide what to make next.
