Pheasant Diorama
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:51 pm
Greetings Everyone,
Here is something a little different. My mother for years has loved pheasants, a pretty rare bird to see in PA. My mother who loves them was very fortunate to have a state game released pair visit her bird feeders this season. They were very neat to see up close.
My mom has always wanted a pheasant for the house but is against killing a real bird to get one. I tried to get her one from a local school that was parting with their taxidermery but to no such avail. I came up with this solution for Christmas for her.
The diorama is made from a picture frame, with a piece of foamboard glued into place. This creates a simple, inexpensive professional look. I actually used dark colored sand from the craft store sand art section to make the dirt. I like working with the sand because it is easy to spread across the board and works well with spray on glue. The nice thing about this is when it is all dry, you can just shake the excess off. So you don't have a mess, I spray the foamboard, then spread the sand, then lightly spray glue again over the top and finally use an acrylic sealer to secure the whole thing. This process works very well once you learn not to blow sand off using the spray glue.
The ground cover was woodland scenics train supplies, a couple of rocks and twigs outside. These were glued in place with tacky glue. Yes, there is some real bird seed glued into place too and a ladybug somewhere on the diorama as well (a craft store decoration item). The whole thing was sealed again to hold it together.
The pheasant is not a real pheasant. It is a plush bird made by the company Hansa, well known for their lifelike animals. Sadly, they only make the male. My mom loved it!
Totally different project! Thought it was worth a post! Here is the link for a picture.
http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 034tu6.jpg
Here is something a little different. My mother for years has loved pheasants, a pretty rare bird to see in PA. My mother who loves them was very fortunate to have a state game released pair visit her bird feeders this season. They were very neat to see up close.
My mom has always wanted a pheasant for the house but is against killing a real bird to get one. I tried to get her one from a local school that was parting with their taxidermery but to no such avail. I came up with this solution for Christmas for her.
The diorama is made from a picture frame, with a piece of foamboard glued into place. This creates a simple, inexpensive professional look. I actually used dark colored sand from the craft store sand art section to make the dirt. I like working with the sand because it is easy to spread across the board and works well with spray on glue. The nice thing about this is when it is all dry, you can just shake the excess off. So you don't have a mess, I spray the foamboard, then spread the sand, then lightly spray glue again over the top and finally use an acrylic sealer to secure the whole thing. This process works very well once you learn not to blow sand off using the spray glue.
The ground cover was woodland scenics train supplies, a couple of rocks and twigs outside. These were glued in place with tacky glue. Yes, there is some real bird seed glued into place too and a ladybug somewhere on the diorama as well (a craft store decoration item). The whole thing was sealed again to hold it together.
The pheasant is not a real pheasant. It is a plush bird made by the company Hansa, well known for their lifelike animals. Sadly, they only make the male. My mom loved it!
Totally different project! Thought it was worth a post! Here is the link for a picture.
http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 034tu6.jpg
