Tiny Worlds Retro Televisions-A Peek-a-Boo Project

 

We found a new show to binge early this year on Apple TV. Tiny Worlds is a nature Documentary narrated by Paul Rudd that focus on the smallest members of the animal kingdom. Each episode features a different habitats like the a pond, a meadow, woodland, and even a backyard garden. This show brings  new meaning to the phase “good things come in small packages”. The cinematography is stunning and the narration is enchanting. These are the inspirations for this artwork.

Supplies: GSLC Retro TV 1 , GSLC Retro TV 2, Miniature Still-life Images, Micro Pins, Neon Green and Orange Paint, Yellow and Green Acrylic Paint, Paintbrush, Pencil, UHU GlueStick, Ranger Glossy Accent Medium,Liquid Sculpt, Polymer Clay Oven, 

1. Gather Supplies.
   
2. Paint GSLC Retro TV 1 , GSLC Retro TV 2, with Neon Green and Orange Paint.
   
3. Add Highlights and Patina with Other Yellow and Green Acrylic Paints.
4. Print Tiny Miniature Still-Life Images. 
5. Use a Pencil to Trace Proper Placement of printed Images.
   
6. Use a UHU GlueStick to Glue Images into Proper Location.
   
7. Coat With Range Glossy Accents Medium.
   
8. Stack and Seal GSLC Retro TVs Using a UHU GlueStick to Secure into Place.
   
9. Use Liquid Sculpt and a Bit or Polymer Clay to Secure Chosen Pins as a 3-D Element to Retro TVs.
   
10. Heat and Cure in Polymer Clay Oven.
11. When Fully Cooled Add some Patina to Pins to Make Them Look More Vintage.

Final Thoughts:

I grew up without a television and spent many hours exploring the backroads and woods around our country homestead. We had chipmunks, flying squirrels, and baby brown bats living in or around our woodshed. As I child I was delighted with their company. Sometimes on the Sunday Nights we would go to Aunt Blanche and Uncle Lester’s home. While the grownup played cards us kids were allowed to watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and Grizzly Adams. I was transported to worlds beyond my imaginations.

I had forgotten that wonderment and magic as the day to day of a working man takes over diminishing our joys. So when we discovered Apple TV’s Tiny Worlds my childlike wonder woke once again. I have always loved nature shows and have been amazed by the dedication of the photographers and film crews. It is doubtful that I will ever travel to some of the more exotic locations highlighted in episodes like rainforest, savannah, dessert , outback or jungle, but, The woodland, garden, pond and meadow transported me to my childhood home in the foothills of Pennsylvania. 

In Woodland a chipmunk hustles to make it through a year in the forest, while a host of other incredible tiny animals since every opportunity.

In Garden, it is  different land and yard from my childhood but I could totally related to the creatures featured in this episode.

From Duckling to dragonflies, all sorts of tiny wonders live in a freshwater, but for small animals in a big pot, life is full of danger. We go collecting pollywogs or tadpoles each spring from a tiny swampy area up over the “new ground”. My grandparents also had pond we’d go exploring whenever we went a Sunday visiting.

The meadow of their show is different than mine. Theirs had an adorable harvest mouse, queen bumblebees, and other critters that race to make the most if summer before their home is harvested for hay. My Meadow was know to us as the “New Ground” It was adjacent to our homestead  just past the “Old Road’ that edged both properties. It had a tiny spring fed frog pond, now I know as a vernal pond. The mosses that grew there were collected as children and and we would make moss gardens or terrariums.There were own little fairy gardens. The wildflowers would change throughout the seasons and it was place to find gray squirrels, baby brown rabbits, pheasants, even bob whites and an occasional bobcat, whose haunting cry sounded like a whaling woman. Later the Black bears returned and we see them there with their cubs. Many Whitetail deer lived  here with their sweet spotted fawns. Crayfish and Hellgrammites were discovered as we dammed up the local creek with the best swimming holes. It was a magical but sometimes lonely childhood for me.