Wow, you guys, I did it! I was able to salvage the pieces from the warped previous book nook and keep it going. For reference, here are the pieces I saved:
The first one took a lot of foam clay and a lot of time, so I'm very glad I was able to still use them. As for the outside, I went back to using hardboard since I was now aware of how foam clay could warp paper-based boards. It was pretty easy to glue in the pieces and cover the rest with more foam clay.
Next, I used sand and pebbles to give it texture, then sprayed everything with a base coat of slate-y blue. I used acrylics in navy blue and a really light sage green to give it some underwater and algae tones. To be honest, I definitely just guessed at what colors to use. Then I used a sponge to dab it on and mix it together. I was really relying on the limited lighting to work with the paint to give it a shadowy effect.
In the above picture, you can see the color contrast. Now, I'm not marine biologist, but I can imagine that not a lot of colorful sea plants and coral would grown in a dark underwater cave. But I needed visual interest! So we are going to suspend our disbelief and have lots of colorful vegetation in this grotto. Call it mermaid magic, if you will.
In reality, all this foliage was foraged from things I already had. I had a small bag of fake succulents I used for the green stuff. For the pinks and oranges, I used some leftover Christmas decorations I was going to throw away. Then I realized with a little paint they could pass as coral. I am very into upcycling and repurposing these days. No trash or recyclables are safe in my house.
Anywho, the mermaid tail peeking out at the bottom was actually an Ariel figurine I cut in half and painted (because this isn't her grotto, she doesn't even go here!). I wanted to suspend it from the top, but it was being rather unwieldy so I positioned it to look like she was digging behind the pillar for some of her treasures. Speaking of treasures, she needed to fill those shelves...
One day, I keep telling myself, I will learn how to sculpt with clay and make treasures myself. For now, heading to the miniature and dollhouse section of my local craft store provided me with the items needed for this mermaid treasure trove. Dinglehoppers were a must, as well as mirrors because I imagine a mermaid would be very perplexed by one. I looked for things that could easily fall off ships, like dishes and bowls. Everything got a dry brushing of greens for an algae look. It would be unrealistic for them to look shiny and new, mermaid magic or not.
I didn't try to overload the shelves with items...yet. The more I look at it, the more I'm thinking I might add things here and there over time until it turns into a proper hoard.
Coral, treasures, mermaid...what am I missing here?? Oh yeah, the light. Because if there is no hole in the top letting the sunshine in, what's the point of an underwater cave? Unless mermaids have night vision...nope, getting off topic. I needed lighting, and I'm still not confident enough to wire my own. So I bought some nifty, color changing lights that came with a remote. I cut a hole in the back corner, where I imagined the light would look the most natural coming in. Then I could still access it to change the batteries, too.
And after testing every color of the rainbow, I settled on...seafoam green. I actually liked it under white light, too, because you could see the colors of everything best. However, it looked more authentic with the green light. It also looked a lot cooler in the dark that way.
Now for the finishing touch, the front cover. Definitely always going to make some sort of front cover for my nooks from now on. It just looks so much more complete that way. The one down side is it won't "hide" as well in between books, but I'd rather it look nice and finished instead of camouflaged. Who looks good in camo, anyway?
I used XPS foam for the cover. I took a hot foam cutter and made it look rocky, as if you were peeking into the grotto from a hole in the cave. I painted it to match the inside as well. I tried to keep the dimensions as close to the original book nook as possible, because I didn't want as much overhang as I had with the Haunted Hallway nook's front cover. For my first time working with XPS foam, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm definitely happy with the results.
And that, my friends, is how I managed to not only salvage but also finish the mermaid grotto book nook. It turned out better than I thought it would, and I'm excited to add it in with the others!
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