Making miniscapes with Clea Cregan
In Miniscapes, Clea Cregan presents a beautifully designed step-by-step guide to creating your own terrariums!
This week our staff put Miniscapes to the test, and the author dropped by to judge the best one!
I like pot plants, but I also have a cat, which means terrariums are the only way I can introduce a bit of greenery into my home. I have a few that I’ve bought here or there, but they’re fiendishly expensive so I was excited by the challenge to make my own. I found my container at a charity shop, and bought the plants and potting materials at my local garden shop. I decided to make the self-contained closed terrarium because according to the book it creates its own mini ecosystem and doesn’t need much love and care. While I think I overestimated how big my jar was, it was really easy to build this terrarium and it’s been merrily keeping itself alive for weeks now.
– Lian Hingee
I’m lucky enough to live close to bushland, and whenever I go walking I find lots of interesting bits and pieces: grasses, rocks, feathers, but mostly lots and lots of bones. It’s nice to finally have an excuse handy when people ask me why I scout around for animal remains. ‘Y’know…for “terrariums”.’
– Holly Harper
I call this one, ‘Alice through the Terrarium Glass’.
– Cindy Morris
Runner-up
Making this terrarium was lots of fun and manageable in a single weekend afternoon. My best piece of advice for other first-time terrarium makers is that you’ll definitely have a Jaws moment – as in: ‘We’re going to need a bigger bowl.’ For my next project, I’d like to go a little more natural while still accessorising with non-plant characters.
– Jemima Bucknell
Runner-up
Get the biggest bowl you can possibly find. Lots of plants can be foraged too. It’s not as much work as you think it will be and I’m already planning the next one.
– Michael Wallace
Winner
Making a miniature garden in a glass vessel turned out to be amazingly straightforward. I had a stroke of luck in finding some cute little peg people, perfect for terrarium making as anything miniature seems cute. The figure I used in this design is a young woman watering her garden. I enjoyed looking around my garden for stones and gravel to use to keep the plants anchored in place and embellish the scenery. The hardest part was making sure it all fitted in.
– Chris Gordon
