The garden is a wonderful place not only for relaxation. Here you can realize your own creative potential. The landscape of the site is often developed by a specialist if the owner wants to get his idea in the quality performance of a professional. However, this does not exclude his own participation in the creative process. Garden figures for a summer residence can become exactly that detail that will transform the garden and give it personality.
Basic principles for choosing garden decorations
It is necessary to be guided by simple principles, relying on which it is easy to make your own choice infallible and logical.
- Figures should fit into the design of the garden, and not contradict it. Otherwise, their presence can ruin everything, no matter how cute they may be.
- If you have any doubts about choosing a place for garden decoration, you can cut out the outline of the figure from cardboard and try to place it in the most suitable places. This method helps to quickly make a choice.
- Do not overload the site with sculptures. This can scatter attention, create the impression of an overloaded picture and the complexity of the plot as a whole. The purpose of decorating the garden is to achieve harmony with nature.
- The figure does not have to become the center of the garden composition. A small world created by the artist’s desire, or a lonely figure harmoniously combined with the vegetation of the plot is what you need. Such decorations form the magic of the garden, become a pleasant surprise.
- A beautiful picture is not in vain placed in a frame. It is very important that the garden figurine is framed and complemented by other design elements. In the Chinese garden, this role is played by the "moon gate" or windows in the inner walls of the garden. But the background can be an arch braided by roses, a rustic wattle fence. A wonderful frame is created by just correctly trimmed trees.
Garden figures in a limited number, corresponding to the style orientation of the site, harmoniously inscribed in existing realities, revitalize the garden and pleasantly diversify it.
The young garden dryad received the news from a graceful elf mounted on a hog - a great story for a natural garden
Mowgli looks harmonious and natural, who is tired and falls asleep on the back of his faithful friend and teacher - Bagheera
"Moon Gate" - an element that is widely used in Chinese gardens, miraculously concentrates the eye and sets the desired angle
Style matching of finished decorative figures
When designing a garden, it is important that the decorations that complement it correspond to a single storyline, proportions and landscape as a whole.
A classic-style garden requires valuable decorations, so the sculptures that are chosen for such sites need professional craftsmanship and expensive materials. It can be bronze, natural wood or marble. Majestic and beautiful, they are similar to those that we see in the photographs of the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg.
Such a sculpture is unlikely to be made independently, but in a classical garden it looks exactly the most appropriate and attractive
Not too large figures are asked in the natural landscape, which fit perfectly into the surrounding greenery, practically merge with trees or flower beds and will become a pleasant addition that you will not immediately see. But having seen such decorative elements, one cannot help but admire them.
A tired nymph fell asleep in the garden on a hillock - such a picture opens suddenly, involuntarily I want to switch to a whisper so as not to frighten away the sleeping girl
Oriental gardens in Japanese and Chinese style are surprisingly different from each other, regardless of the fact that the ideas originating in China are the starting points for many elements of the Japanese garden. A sign of the Japanese garden is minimalism. Here you can see stones more often than sculptures. But Chinese gardens can shelter on their territory stylized dragons, lions, etc.
The Chinese dragon is a reliable guard who will never let into the garden those who conceived something unkind against his master
Country lovers can place funny German gnomes in their garden or even build a whole small European-style world populated by typical representatives of farms or fairy tales.
A cute country-style world inhabited by elves, gnomes or just garden spirits will undoubtedly add a special touch to any garden
The rustic style is the most omnivorous of all. Here, animals, and birds, and fairy-tale characters, and people are suitable. In creating such compositions, it is especially important to maintain a sense of proportion.
A small piece of ordinary village life, in which there is always a fun family, a nurse-cow and other rural animals
For any style solution, you can find the right figures. Made of wood, metal, gypsum, or polyresin, they are sold in many gift shops or gardeners. But it’s much more interesting to make garden figures with your own hands.
Material for making garden sculptures
Figures for the garden can be created from any improvised materials. It is important that there is a desire to make your garden special and unrealized creativity.
Wood - a natural material for garden sculptures
A tree is a part of living Nature, which man has always revered as a source of life. Figurines made of wood are always attractive for us, people of a purely urban nature: the living warmth of the wood is preserved in them. Perhaps that is why even evil forest spirits in the form of garden figures made of wood do not seem scary. On the contrary, it is believed that they protect this land from uninvited guests.
An old forest man in a cap of green moss carefully looks after the life of the garden, notes whether everything is in order
Partially merging with the surrounding landscape, the wooden inhabitants of the garden will become friends, in whose company even silence will be easy. It is pleasant to touch such sculptures: they do not blow cold. The figures can be very different: from the intricate embodiment of a pianist who found in the bushes not a piano, of course, but also a decent instrument, to an ordinary stump, which is clearly on his mind.
A simple stump can decorate your garden. About what it can be converted into, read the material: //diz-cafe.com/dekor/kak-ukrasit-pen-v-sadu-svoimi-rukami.html
The musician inspiredly plays an old instrument, not noticing anyone around, maybe he just got lost in time and space
Even in stone you can see life
To make garden figures with your own hands, sometimes you only need a stone of the appropriate size and the eyes of the artist, who sees in the usual boulder a cat who has fallen asleep, a dog that seeks the attention of the owner, funny turtles, a newborn deer or a whole family of ladybugs. Elements of nature that can be used as jewelry have always been and remain very popular.
We often bring such stones with us to commemorate the sea, the sun and the wonderful time of summer holidays.
Such stones are often brought from the seashore as a memory of happy summer days. They are magnificent and in their pristine condition. But a little paint, varnish or other materials allow them to "come to life", to show their inner essence, to make our house or garden especially attractive.
You can learn more about painting on stones from the material: //diz-cafe.com/dekor/rospis-na-kamnyax-svoimi-rukami.html
Unusual use of conventional foam
Minimum costs will be required to create durable, original and varied figures of polyurethane foam. Creative people are entrepreneurial: sometimes, to create a real masterpiece, they have practically nothing at their disposal. Not only creations of nature come to the rescue, but also modern materials and technologies that can also be used in an unusual way.
Application for creating garden figures of polyurethane foam makes them durable and waterproof. These qualities are necessary in order to successfully resist the weather and changing temperature conditions. Using mounting foam, snails, dolphins, gnomes, swans, storks, donkeys, and so on are most often made. The choice is quite large: something interesting can be created for any style solution.
It’s not so easy to make a donkey, for this you need to stock up not only with patience and foam, you need cement, tiles and ... good mood!
So, the master decided on the model, it remains to stock up with foam, put on something old and protect your hands with gloves: the foam is washed very poorly after hardening. This fact must be taken into account when preparing a workplace. Making a character begins with the formation of his skeleton. For this, sticks, plastic bottles, buckets or cups, wire and other items are used.
A ready-made donkey made of polyurethane foam looks great even under the Christmas tree, because he will only go to the garden in summer
Foam must be applied in stages. Each previous layer should dry well. The curing time of the foam is about a quarter of an hour. You need to correct the finished product either before it dries, or after, cutting off the excess with a clerical knife. The finished product remains painted and varnished so that it lasts as long as possible.
There is another option for shutting down. You can cover the figure with cement, while decorating its surface with colorful tiles. After drying, the product is hardened with a moisture-resistant grout for outdoor use. Now the figure is not afraid of either rain or cold.
And you can also create original figures for a cement garden, read about it: //diz-cafe.com/dekor/figury-iz-cementa.html
Plaster - a standard material for decorating the garden
The main requirement for gypsum garden figurines is that they must be strong and resistant to precipitation. Academic image accuracy is generally not needed. A small figure can be fashioned without a foundation, but for a large sculpture that has legs, arms or a tail, a reinforced frame is needed. To do this, cut into pieces reinforcement is connected into a frame that repeats the skeleton of the future product. Do not forget about the protruding elements at the foot, with which the figure will be mounted on the foundation.
This wonderful cat, made with a great sense of humor, is a clear demonstration of the fact that the figures from plaster do not have to be grandiose or, on the contrary, deliberately lurid
In diluted gypsum, add PVA glue at the rate of 1% of the total volume of the product. Gypsum should be applied in layers, allowing each previous layer to dry well. If desired, the figure can be painted.
Even garden gnomes do not have to be cloyingly sweet, they are just like us: funny, lazy, good-natured, funny ...
Figures make the garden more spectacular, brighter. In addition, gnomes, for example, are considered plant keepers. It may well be that, thanks to such decorations, the harvest will become richer.
