Castle Diorama
Monday, December 13, 2010 at 06:44PM The 2010 Integrity Toys Convention was held in Pittsburgh the end of October over Halloween weekend. The convention theme was Dark Romance and the diorama competition's theme was " the Hidden Secrets of Castle Von Weiss. (Baroness Agnes Von Weiss is one of the Integrity Toys/Fashion Royalty doll characters.) There was no size restriction on dioramas this year. With gentle prodding from a friend, I decided to enter on the last day to register for the competition. Thus began a few weeks of obsession building my castle. I started by researching castles in Austria where the Agnes Von Weiss character doll is from, and fashioned mine after the Castle Von Heidenreichtstein. I worked on it daily and often into the wee hours of the night. I would even dream up ideas in my sleep. I wanted my castle to be a tribute to the Integrity Toys Family who I have such great respect and fondness for. It had to be something very elegant and yet fun especially with the haunted aspects. I was already making a very elegant canopy bed for my ooak (one of a kind) creation, a "Grandmother Baroness Edna Von Weiss" doll, so I decided it would be perfect to incorporate them both into the diorama.
I wanted my castle to have several features. First I wanted it to be large enough to be representative of a real castle. I wanted it to have the main room and then a turret that could be the bedroom to feature the beautiful bed I was making. I wanted to have a hidden passage way and the classic family portrait that has the eyes that are cut out to spy on people in the room. I usually like to use real marble tiles for the floors in my dioramas, but due to the fact this had to be transported and weight would be an issue, I found some vinyl tiles that looked like marble in a beautiful golden honey beige color. I already knew that they made a foam core board in a coordinating color that I could use for the walls, and I had just recently purchased two Bespaq Chairs from King William Miniatures*, whose color was perfect too. I was going to be teaching a class on fireplaces and mantles, with Alain Trembley at the convention, so I wanted to create a beautiful mantle befitting a castle too. I used sink rail and tile from Home Depot in the same color theme as the tile for the mantle. I had already found some giant candlesticks that were perfect to become pillars in a castle. I researched on google on how to paint them to look like marble, and some gargoyles placed on top would complete the look. It was fun to shop for fabrics and Halloween items that I could use in it, and since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I had tons of decorations that I collected items from. A Halloween hologram photo that changed from a wedding couple into mummies and snakes would be perfect if I cut it to scale. I just had to find frames that would be suitable for a castle.
In the main room I used the foam core for the walls and added decorative wood trim at the the top after painting it. A challenge was to build it so that it could be transported in parts and reassembled at the convention. To make the secret passage it required that I use a turn table so the entire floor had to be raised to the level of the turntable. I had to cut out the back wall and floor to hold the turn table. I duplicated the mirrors and book shelves on the wall for the secret passage. I needed three sets of shelves, two with identical items on them, and the third set was to balance it out in the room. I had the mirrors cut for me, and painted old Mattel parts for the shelves, as their curved shape made them ideal for the turntable. I used an Agnes doll on one side and then dressed a vampire doll in the exact same outfit and jewelry to place on the other side. It was perfect. In fact some people didn't notice the "change" into the vampire at first look. The wedding photo framed between the shelves held the hologram photo. On the right hand wall I built the fireplace. The mantle was made from the sink rail and I lined the inside of the fireplace with brick paper that I printed out from the Menick Materials website. I am a stickler for having working lights and found battery operated torches for the mantle, and I modified the floor lamp with a real light. I found a perfect frame and "painting" for over the mantle and cut the eyes out of it. I dug out some glass eyes from a doll and placed them in a cover from a Wet Ones container and lined it up behind the painting on the mantle. A bit of velcro allowed the person to raise and lower the eyes to "look" through the painting, and of course a black cat stares down from the mantle too. The Bespaq chairs were placed next to the fireplace. The ooak Grandmother doll I made sat in one chair with an Integrity Toys, "Phantom of the Opera" Pierre doll behind her. Grandmother held a cigarette handmade by me that takes seven steps, but if you look closely at it you can see the ashes and fire inside! Some fabric made an antique Persian rug, and I made some tables out of odds and ends. I found a suit of armour in 1/6 scale on ebay and swords and sheilds from a Narnia toy to adorn the walls. Bathroom vanity items became plant holders adorned with lion heads. The left hand wall held an ornate sideboard that was an item from a flea market. I added the boars head on top and a medallion from a bottle of champagne to replace a clock it originally held. I found chairs in my diorama "supplies" appropriate for a castle, and made a little seating area in front of the side board where they could hold a seance. I made minature tarot cards, a crystal ball, and I am very proud of the working ouija board! The castle door (not pictured) was made from a mirror frame, and I added a front step, lanterns, potted plants, and a lion statue at the entrance.
One of the bigger challenges was the turret. At first thought I could cut up a giant garbage pail to use, but they were very expensive and I didn't want to use one of my used ones. Yuck. I was very lucky to be told about a new product called wacky board that would be perfect. Altho expensive too, I decided to splurge and it allowed me to make the turret two stories high too! I painted the board a beautiful "rock gray" color using a roller, and I used a ruler and magic marker to draw the mortor between the stone blocks. The turret exterior was perfect. My friend cut the two 36 inch circles out of plywood for me, and loaned me the dremel tool to cut out the scallops in the turret. I glued the cut pieces on top of the scallops to add demension to the top of the turret. The bottom level of the turret was to be the master bedroom, so I painted the interior walls in the bottom floor of the turret a pale yellow. I covered the bottom floor circle with a dusty blue fabric for carpet, that would go with the silk fabric I found for the bedspread etc. Now I had to decide how to use the second floor. Of course a dungeon. I again went online to Menick Materials and downloaded photos of casle stone for the interior dungeon walls. I used Kinkos to print out big sheets of stone. (I originally wanted to use the stone paper on the exterior too, but discovered the cost would have been exorbitant.) I lined the interior walls of the dungeon with the paper and covered the floor with another stone colored vinyl tile. Next I molded the wood around the coverd plywood circles, placing the floors at the appropriate heights, and nailed them in. Because the main room's floor had to be raised on little legs so that I could use the turn table, it required the height of the first floor of the turret be adjusted too. I raised the first floor of the turret so that it was up several steps from the main floor which made an even more elegant entrance into the master bedroom. Foam board, paint, and vinly tile were used to make the rounded stairs leading from the main room to the turret, and little wooden candle sticks that I painted and attached gold cording to created the banisters. The idea for some fabulous cherubs to be placed on top of the banisters and stairs were taken from photos of real castles.
The canopy bed was the main feature of the master bedroom. It is all handmade by me. I had to make the pattern for the valance on the canopy bed, and found beautiful silk fabric for the canopy, dust ruffle and bedspread. I quilted the bedspread and made a coordinating sheet set, even though it wasn't seen. Scraps of fabric from the Bespaq chairs were made into pillows, and I added whiskers and gems for eyes to emphasize the lion pattern I saw in the fabric. Next to the bed are Bespaq end tables, and a highboy dresser. I painted a plastic dresser a pale yellow for another wall, and added a beautiful swivel mirror on top. Mini "Jay Strongwater" frames held pictures of my son and me. I found suitable pictures from magazines and framed them for the walls. I painted stools for the foot of the bed and added my own fabric to a chair purchased from John Pruitt that was perfect. I took a Christmas ornament and added working lights to it for the master bedroom chandelier. Appropriate knick knacks were placed in the room, and I added a hound dog as a final touch for the master bedroom in an Austrian castle.
The attic or top floor of the turret became the dungeon. The walls were covered with the handmade printed stone wallpaper. I cut up an old Mattel castle to salvage the window frames, and cut the appropriate size hole in the turret wall for the windows. I painted the pink window frames a nice iron gray and put a rice paper between the plastic pieces for the "glass." By placing a thunder and lightening strobe light mechanism behind the window it created the stormy night atmosphere. I placed chains and handcuffs on the walls and an old trunk, empty picture frames, a birdcage, rats, and even Grandma's old wheelchair were placed about the dungeon. I even added dust and cobwebs. Animated Halloween figures, skeletons, gargoles, and even a little Chuckie figure wielding a knife lurked about. I painted and then added little whiskers with a needle and thread to some tiny rubber mice and rats and placed them throughout the entire castle.The top of the turret was made from GAF roofing and hidden up in the rafters was a sound activated ghost that descended down into view when conventioneers clapped or pushed the thunder button. I found a crow to place on the turret, and added bats flying on invisible fishing line. The final touches were little skeletons hanging from the turret and an Austrian flag flying atop the turret roof!
The castle grounds were equally important. Green grass paper was placed underneath the castle and then I went about building a moat complete with an alligator and a drawbridge. Old cups of coffee made the moats water extra murky! The stone pillars holding the drawbridge had skull heads that lit up atop them and working lanterns. Scary trees, one complete with lights, were growing all around the castle grounds. I found several headstones for the ancestoral graveyard, and a friend generously loaned me a fabulous 1/6 scale casket that was about to be buried. I used "stone" tiles for the walkway to the castle and and the parking/patio area. I searched the internet for a photo in an appropriate scale to make the Percy Newsum doll who ran around the grounds when you pressed his arm. A tiny tack and fishing line kept him running around in circles singing "I'm gonna getch ya." I purchased a castle stamp and used gold ink to stamp it on color coordinated card stock and then printed instructions and a brief description right over the stamp. I placed the card on a tiny gold easal in front of the castle diorama. I am so thrilled to have won the First Place Peoples Choice Award and the First Place Judges Choice Award for my Haunted Castle Hiedenreichstein!
PS. I would like to Thank CJ's dad Bernie and Irene for turning on and off castle lights and gadgets in the competion room for me and for giving up their space! Thanks to my friends who helped with advice, tools, and packing, for the loan of the casket, and to all of you who voted for me and sent photos of it to me. All the competition entries were amazing and I am honored to be in such good company. Sincerely, Jakki Peters
