How to Make a Terrarium

When I think of video games New Year, I always want to do a project or bring "newness" to my surroundings. About three months ago, my husband and I put together a terrarium. It was quick but creative. This is something you could do with any age child or teen. Also, it makes a wonderful hand made gift. Friends and co-workers will love it!

I read that a true terrarium has a top but that top could cause more of a challenge for the plants to grow. We bought a clear glass container with a wide opening. You can usually find these at the pet department in stores such as K-Mart or at a Pet Store.

It's really easy and all of these products are easy to find. You will find them in the same place (as mentioned above).

Here is what you do:

(1) Fill bottom of glass with 1 inch of gravel.

(2) Sprinkle a thin layer of crushed aquarium charcoal on

gravel.

(3) Add moist potting soil about the same size as the depth

that your purchased plants were potted in.

(4) Remove plants from containers, loosening roots with

fingers.

(5) Arrange plants in your container, putting tallest in center

and others around it. Position plants close together.

(6) Cover with colored gravel.

(7) Wipe smudges from glass.

My terrarium is made of 3 beautiful orange cacti and I don't remember what the smaller plants were but here are some suggestions:

(1) Rex Begonias

(2) Ferns

(3) Petite Peace Lilies and

(4) Baby's Tears.

Place the terrarium in diffused sun because direct sun could burn the plant and cause it to bloom less.

Use distilled water for moistening your plants. Remember, there is 1957 58 Topps basketball cards for the water to escape, so water carefully with a kitchen baster or an empty spray bottle. Only water your plant when you notice it starts to dry out. Moisten until water appears in the bottom gravel layer.

You can Donkey Kong this simple (like the one I made). See photo below. However, if you really want to explore other possibilities, here are a few web sites that I found to be helpful:

YOU CAN DO THIS!

MY HOMEMADE TERRARIAN WITH CACTI

Skippy Peanut Butter: How to make a terrarium from a peanut butter jar.

Parent's Talk: How to make a terrarium for a 2 liter soda bottle (plastic).

The Magic Action Jackson Directions and advice.

Mizzou Online: History of Terrariums and a very detailed list of plants that can be used for this project.

Francine Larson Has an AA Degree From St Petersburg College. Taught Nursery School, Childrens Choir, Paraprofessional for First Grade

Co-Author of Character Keys to a Captain Midnight Future. Writes poetry, short stories and articles. Unlimited Minutes published by Taborri.Com

Personal: Married, four daughters

Her web site is: http://www.goodcharacterpress.com/ Her personal authors web site at: http://www.writing-write.info/

Good Character Press is continually updating and offering new things, although we are a fairly new web site.

We have a new " Adventures in Science" section that is really fun. Although the links are few, we feel that they are QUALITY sites that should be shared. Click our scientist on the right to try out "Adventures in Science."

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Antique Doll Makers - 1840-1930

Who doesn't love a beautiful creamy porcelain faced Addams Family pinball dressed in Captain Midnight flowing dresses of so long ago?

Today the antique dolls available on the market were made by a handful of doll makers who were from either France or Germany, where the art of doll making was at its peak in the years between 1840 1971 Topps baseball cards 1930.

During these years there emerged in France a young man by the name of Leon Casimir Bru, the youngest son of a weaver. The young Bru went to work for a doll maker in Paris... and history began there. Soon after he began in the work of doll making, Bru opened his own doll manufacturing company. His first dolls resembled other doll makers creations, but his later dolls, 1870 and on, carried a signature mark of Bru as he worked to stand out from the many other makers of the time.

Today we have the highly sought after, highly exquisite, highly expensive Bru dolls, a name every doll collector longs to have in his collection.

Also emerging in France at that time, or sometime before Bru, was Francois Jumeau. He married into the doll business, marrying the niece of a doll maker. When Jumeau's wife died, he opened his own doll company, his own porcelain factory, and made the bebe dolls that became so popular in those times and are so popular now... a doll that looked like a little girl rather than like an adult woman.

The antique Jumeau doll today is highly prized for its delicate, exquisite beauty, which was manufactured between the years of 1972 to 1899.

In Germany during those years the German doll makers were just as busy. They were probably led by J.D. Kestner who was making dolls as early as 1820. By 1860, after Kestner had died and his grandson took over the business. They bought their own porcelain factory to make porcelain doll heads. They continued to make dolls until 1938.

Armand Marseille was another German doll maker whose dolls are highly prized by antique doll collectors today. Marseille was one of the largest and best known porcelain doll head makers. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1856, he emmigrated to Germany with his family ca. 1860 and his doll business was going strong by 1886 after he bought a toy factory and a porcelain factory, producing 1000 doll heads a day from 1900 - 1930. All types of dolls were made there; bisque child, baby, lady and character dolls with kid leather bodies.

As Marseille worked, so did Heinrich Handwerck, who was beginning his doll making career in 1876. In 1902 Kammer and Reinhardt bought Handwerck out and produced the Handwerck dolls until 1832. The original dolls by Handwerck were designed by Handwerck but produced by Simon and Halbig and marked by very high quality that continued under Kammer and Reinhardt.

Ernst Kammer and Franz Reinhardt founded the Kammer and Reinhardt doll company in 1886 in Waltershausen, Thuringia, Germany. Designers of their own heads, they had them produced by Simon and Halbig as they did not own a porcelain factory. As stated above, they purchased the Handwerck company and then bought the Simon and Halbig company as well.

Ernst Heubach, the son of a weaver, entered the world of doll making when he married the daughter of Armand Marseille. In 1919. The two companies, Heubach and Marseille, merged and became the United Porcelain Factory of Koppelsdorf, Germany. The companies went their own ways once more in 1939.

The exquisite dolls made so long ago by this handful of French and German doll makers are now searched for by serious collectors of the time.

Seeing the beautiful faces with the painted or glass eyes looking straight at you with a liddle kiddles of wisdom that a doll cannot really have... makes you feel the essence of the doll maker himself has been made a real part of 1971 Topps baseball cards doll.

Whether you are a collector or not go here to enjoy the wonderful beauty of antique dolls made so long ago and that generations have enjoyed. It is your turn now.