In a Witch's Garden

In a Witch's garden you may expect to find such things as Hemlock or Wolfsbane growing.  This particular garden is right near the front door of a witch supply shop and if you were on your way into the shop to buy a witch herb and saw some growing through the fence on your way would you still go into the shop and buy some or would you reach through the fence, grab a handful and run?  Gilda, the owner of the shop thought the latter might happen too often if she used this space for her "working" garden, so the herbs and witchy plants sold in her shop are grown in a hidden garden out the back and the front garden is purely ornamental for enjoyment.

Gilda bartered with Artie at Castle Starcaster for some Wacky Wisteria seeds and zapped them with a little magic to speed up their growth and she now has Wisteria vines growing in profusion in her garden and another vine at the far side of the shop growing over the external stairs.

The wisteria was made (um, grown) in the same way as that adorning Castle Starcaster with a leaf shape paper cutter and flowersoft blooms on green wire.  Another method borrowed from Starcaster is the topiary, but for this garden it was given a twist.  I took a cheap fairy ornament, painted her green and then painted her with glue.  Before the glue set she was sprinkled with model railway "turf" and became a beautiful, intricate topiary scuplture.  There is no chance I could have carved anything out of oasis foam (as Starcasters topiaries were) with this degree of detail and she is a great feature in the garden. 

On the side wall is mounted a lion head fountain.  The fountain is another feature plucked from the Old Castle, but until now never had any water in it.  I poked some thin wire into the lion's mouth and positioned it so that it curved gently into the bowl at the bottom.  Scenic Water was used to fill the bowl.  When the Scenic Water was partly cooled / set I used a syringe to apply it to the piece of wire to create the effect of water pouring out of the lion's mouth.

Although most of the attention for the week was on the outside of the shop, it insides weren't totally ignored.  The goblets I began making weeks ago were finally finished.  The cup part of them are made from polymer clay while the bases are little plastic chess men about 1cm high.  The two parts were glued together, painted in a pewter tone and given a bit of flash with some small stick on rhinestones.

Tisha, the fairy started last week finally received her wings and is flapping about the Reading Room.  Her wings are gold tone wire and fantasy film.

Remember Gilda traded with Artie for those Wacky Wisteria seeds?  Well, in return for those seeds, Gilda gave some of Artie's seeds a zap of growing magic to speed up the growth of some wisteria on the castle walls and the result is a new patch of wisteria growing over the bay window.

 The other thing Artie got in return for his seeds was a new resident for the castle; or rather for outside the castle.  In the photo about you can see him riding past the left side of the castle and below he's giving Ana a ride.  The castle's residents all feel much safer with this fellow on guard.

A little while ago I set the target of Launceston Show Day to have the Witch Shop finished.  It seemed a long way away at the time, but it's only next Thursday; a week and two days away!  Yikes!  I don't think I'm quite going to make it but it should be close.  The biggest task left to do is to address the space under the external steps.   I used the door that's supposed to go in this space in the back wall of the garden, so I need to make a gate, then think of what's going to go inside.  Um . . . . A garden potting shed . . . . A repository of cracked cauldrons . . . . A sleeping dragon . . . . What should it be?  What should it be?