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Having more leisure time than usual this last year, I searched through craft and hobby magazines and racked my poor brain for something different and a bit more elaborate. At last I decided upon a miniature garden made almost entirely of paper. I gave five of these gardens as gifts and in each case the thank you notes became "rave notes." "So dainty and colorful," "so delightfully different," "amazingly clever," "friends and relatives fascinated," were some of the comments.

I constructed one for my own home and visiting friends and people living in my building saw, told others and soon I was swamped with orders for them.

It proved so exciting and was so much fun that at first I gave them to relatives and friends and charged only material cost to strangers. With the increased demand I soon realized I had created something with a commercial value.

I don't, however, bemoan the gift gardens because in creating them, the trial and error methods brought out the glamour, beauty and grace, that make the present gardens so saleable, not to mention the publicity I received.

USING FOUR of my very best productions as samples, I approached a local exchange. The manager greeted my bits of whimsy with enthusiasm and immediately placed a Chinese red garden to one side for his own home. At the next Board meeting my approval came through. That took place the early part of March, 1951, and within three months I'd sold forty gardens at $3 each, or more, depending upon design, material and labor.

Soon after launching the gardens came the idea, why not matching plaques? No sooner thought of than done.

The construction of the plaques is very similar to the gardens and they have proved an even better seller, no doubt due to their lower selling price. The plaques sell for $1 and $1.25, according to size and the amount of labor involved. To date the plaque sales have reached ninety-six.

IN CONSTRUCTING the gardens, I make a receptacle of moisture resistant paper or cardboard in any shape desired—round, oval, square, oblong, heart-shaped or scroll-like. Here salvaged scrap comes into play as cigarette cartons, bakery carriers, facial tissue and soapflake containers are suitable; all have good body, are pliable but not too heavily waxed or treated.

Of course, commercial planters may be used but the fact of the whole project being handmade intrigues me, and the cost to produce is much less, if like me, one has the spare time.

This receptacle I cover with a paper clay made by shredding or cutting some soft porous paper, such as newsprint, crepe paper and the like, into very fine pieces. I pack a small vessel, such as a pound coffee tin, firmly with this shredded paper, cover with hot water and allow to soak overnight. Most of the water will be absorbed by the paper but in case too much moisture remains some may be drained off.

The next step is to transfer the paper to a larger basin and work through the fingers until the soaked paper becomes a pulp-like mass.

Now add small amounts of household flour until the mixture becomes a sticky dough-like ball. After a few mixings one soon learns to recognize the desired consistency. Caution: never use the paper until it is thoroughly soaked and never make up too large a batch because unused masses sour quickly and both material and labor will be wasted. The amount described will cover several containers.

Now use the finger tips to press onto the container, inside and out, a thin layer or covering of the clay and place receptacle on a flat surface to dry. While this drying process is going on, I work on the rest of my garden. First I concentrate on a colorful tree, made of wire and short lengths of bright, double crepe paper fringe. For the fringe I cut a strip across the grain of the crepe paper fold, about two inches in width. This I divide into equal lengths about six inches. Fold these short lengths down the middle, the long way of the strip and cut the double edge with sharp scissors, into a fine fringe. Each fringed strip is now gathered together and two wraps of spool wire are placed below the fringe or near the uncut edge of the fringed strip. Allow about four or five inches of spool wire to remain as a stem. This forms a small flower-like pompon. The bottom of the pompon and the short length of spool wire, or stem are now wrapped, with a narrow strip of stretched brown or dark green crepe paper. Library paste is used to anchor the stem wrappings.

Several of these stemmed pompons are now bunched together, say ten or twelve and fastened to a heavier length of wire, by the ever useful spool wire. For the heavy wire I use the less expensive uncovered type. The flexible kind sold in hardware stores is quite suitable.

Now a branch of your tree has been formed. This goes on until about one hundred stemmed pompons have been consumed and gathered branch by branch into a graceful tree, ranging in height from eight to twelve inches, depending upon the size of your planter.

For graduating the size of your branches and to insure sturdiness, extra lengths of heavy wire may be used. For the larger limbs and the trunk, paper napkins make excellent padding. Of course, all branches and the trunk must receive a wrapping of the stretched brown or dark green crepe paper.

NEXT, I cement a tiny, vivid plastic bird to the top-most branch of the tree (these are available at some dime stores and cost 15 cents for eight).

To make it even more realistic I fashion a small nest out of brown crepe paper, place three or four wee bright colored eggs (heads of stamens, tiny beads or the like) within and cement it to a suitable forked branch. This completes my tree.

I have used many colors for these fringed trees, all shades of red, all shades of green, white, pale pink, salmon pink, old rose, rust, American beauty red, baby blue, Alice blue, aqua, lime, bright yellow, mandarin orange and lilac but the preference of my customers for the Chinese red and Kelly green is marked.

Now I assemble what appears to be tiny blooming plants. I bunch a few brightly hued stamens and surround them with green fringed crepe to simulate leaves. In order to assure their shape these bunches are wrapped with spool wire very close to the base. The stamens can be purchased at craft stores at small cost. A tiny butterfly is cut from vivid yellow crepe paper, edged and dotted with black or brown crayon, and when cemented to a fine green wire and placed in the garden gives the impression of flitting among the flowers.

I GATHER small pebbles at the beach, and purchase small figurines at the dime store appropriate for the type of garden I choose to build. These figurines are of a cheap china, cast in varied designs, colonial, Dutch, oriental and the like. They cost from 5 to 10 cents each but even though so inexpensive, can be very effective when properly placed.

The delicate oriental clay figurines, sold at craft stores delight me no end when constructing a Chinese garden. These are more expensive but worth it to my way of thinking for the added beauty.

In this type of garden I try to effect a running stream. To make the scene more realistic I construct a miniature bridge of cardboard, which I cover with a paste made of shredded soaked bright crepe paper and flour.

If a colonial garden is preferred a somewhat squat branched tree is constructed of wire and paper, but for foliage tiny commercial rose leaves are used and delicate pink blossoms with fringed yellow centers are cut from crepe paper. The replica of an apple tree no less.

Here colonial figures and stepping stones are used. Also tiny garden seats, miniature wishing wells and the like are fashioned from cardboard and covered with the bright colored paste mixture. This scene is most charming and brings back the era of knee breeches, powdered wigs and hoop skirts.

For a Dutch garden a bright green fringe type tree is used. Dutch figurines, a miniature windmill made of cardboard and covered with the bright paste mixture, a few well-placed stepping stones and beds of gay varicolored tulips fashioned from crepe, and Holland is only as far removed as your garden.

NOW THAT our receptacles are dry we will proceed to assemble our gardens. Have at hand all the material to be used in each garden. For example, we will assemble the oriental or Chinese garden. Place on a table the tree, the figurines, the miniature plants, numerous pebbles of uniform size, the bridge or other bits of bright cardboard whimsy—perhaps a small gay plastic bottle cap that might serve as an urn, or tiny plastic animals that one may have on hand. Always bear in mind when one starts to work with the plaster of Paris mixture used for the foundation that speed is very necessary if a well-formed garden is to result. Pour the now dry container, a bit more than half full of a stiff plaster of Paris mix, allow this to set a very short time, then place the tree, under it the figurine. Just before the plaster sets, scoop out with a small plastic spoon, a gracefully winding stream, line the banks with the uniform pebbles. Place the urn, the miniature plants, the small animals, the tiny bridge, etc., in their respective places. Again set away to dry. Allow a couple of days for this, turning on the side occasionally lest mildew forms on the bottom during humid weather.

When the garden is thoroughly dry, make a paste mixture of shredded soaked green crepe paper and flour. Use enough flour to make a stiff sticky paste and coat the plaster of Paris surface, all save the stream bed, with a thin layer of this. Use a small pointed instrument such as a plastic knitting needle to work it in around the tiny plants and stepping stones. When dry it has a rough texture that takes on the appearance of grass.

Dampen the stream bed and run in the faintest tinge of water color paint, in some contrasting shade for added daintiness and beauty.

Allow the garden to dry again thoroughly, give all but the fringed sections of the tree one or two coats of thin colorless shellac, dry for a short interval and your garden is complete.

IN PLAQUE construction, for foundations I use water resistant picnic plates or pie dishes, covered on both sides with the paper clay. These also must dry on a flat surface to prevent curling. When they are thoroughly dry I make a paste mixture of shredded, soaked light blue crepe paper and flour, similar to the green grass mixture and cover about two-thirds of the inner circle of the plate to simulate blue sky. The other third I cover with the green mixture to simulate grass.

While this paste mixture is still wet, I place all the objects that give the appearance of a garden. For the plaques, an effective arch-like tree is constructed. For the larger size about fifty stemmed pompons are needed and for the smaller, thirty-five or so.

I place the trunk of this arched tree to one side of the plaque, making sure that the trunk extends well into the green or grass portion of the plate.

A figurine is set under the tree, a bit to the opposite side for balance. Here also miniature plants are used, the flitting butterfly and the plastic bird in the tree. I then place a row of small pebbles around the inner circle that forms the grass portion at the bottom of the plaque.

When the plaques are made in pairs which I usually do, one male and one female figurine are used and the trees are placed on opposite sides.

Use a much heavier coating of the green paste mixture at the bottom, just above the pebbles to hold tree trunk, figurine, plants, etc., in place. Set on a flat surface and allow plenty of drying time. Shellac as with the gardens.

When large orders are received, I use the production line method, performing the same operation on many and mixing much larger quantities, thus saving considerable time. This, however, is not to be recommended until one has become quite expert.

NO GREAT outlay is needed to finance this project. Much of the material used is salvaged scrap and the cost of no one element is great. I think this hobby is particularly adaptable to the city dweller to whom the natural resources are more or less inaccessible.

Most of the tools or instruments needed for this work already form a part of the average household equipment. They include ruler or tape, pencils, thimble, thread, needles and small plastic instruments. The only two that might be strangers to this list are a large pair of sharp scissors and a lightweight combination type of wire snip and pliers.

I would say that time consumption rather than material is the costly item in this project.

Fortunately for me the local exchange demands a very small per cent for handling my products. This exchange is known as a Veterans' Craft Exchange, an incorporated project sponsored by the state American Legion Auxiliary. One must meet eligibility requirements and also approval by the board in order to sell through this medium as a high standard of merchandise is required at all times.

Selling charge plus material cost amounts to around 80 cents, leaving me about $2.20 clear per garden, labor excluded. The profit on the plaques, figures out on a comparative basis. I find marketing somewhat of a problem. In my case the exchange has proven by far my best market place.

Displays at church and club affairs can be quite successful, if when making the arrangements one bears in mind that charity begins at home.

Shops, large or small, rarely bring me satisfactory results. They deal almost exclusively on a consignment basis and demand a high percentage for selling. If the product moves slowly it becomes window or shelf worn and in many cases proves a total loss.

The grapevine method, by way of friend or relative brings good rewards because only material and labor costs need be figured. However, it is well not to depend to any great extent upon this system, because the sales are limited.

I NATURALLY realize this venture will never grow into an overnight, million dollar project, but for those interested it can serve four purposes.