Woodland Village (1 Viewer)

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Well I have finished yet another small shelf Diorama that has been lingering in the studio. This 11" D X 28" L scenic was put in front of the shelf diorama 'At The Edge of the Forest' to give it some real depth for the photos.

This one features two Wigwams in the clearing at the edge of an old growth stand of trees.
Wigwams varied in size ranging from seven feet to about twenty feet in diameter. The frames were made from bent saplings and covered with reed mats and bark. In Northern areas where birch were plentiful , bark was stripped from the trees and sewn together with spruce root into rolls as long as fifteen feet. These were called apakwas by the Chippewa. Notice the spare roll near the doorway which is covered with a trade blanket.

The small second one uses a hide to cover the doorway.

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

The Wigwams usually had a small fire in the center and the floors were covered with woven mats and furs. A larger working fire is outside between the two shelters with a trade kettle suspended by hooks and chain.

You can just see inside the closest Wigwam. I made the frames from wire over a form and then covered them with reed mats and 'birch bark' that I hand painted on bond paper. I had to drive down the road to look at a stand of real birch trees to get the coloring right.

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

You can see how much larger the scene appears when it is butt up to the other shelf scenic. It works pretty well even though it was not built to use with 'At the Edge of the Forest'.

Here is a view from a higher angle...

The trade blanket door was formed from copper foil and painted... the hide door is made from very thin leather.

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

I hope you enjoyed seeing this. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

All the Best!
Ken Osen/Hudson & Allen Studio
"Museum Quality Models for the most Discriminating Clients"

 

[marco55]

Ken,
Your driving me crazy with all these great dioramas.I want them all!
Mark

 

[old tank]

KEN & ERIKA...Beautifull and beautifull that diorama super.
Ken can you tell me if we will be able to purchase the
11''x28'' scenic from treefrog under your heading. THANK YOU.

 

[thebritfarmer]

I am speechless

 

[mestell]

Ken there is absolutely no end to your artistic brilliance. The photos that you have presented here are so amazingly life like - just incredible.
Mike

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Hi all!
Please feel free to contact us at kaosen056@aol.com with any questions about any of our scenics.
'Woodland Village'
'At the Edge of the Forest'
'Marshlands'
and 'Somewhere in France' are now available to purchase.

 

[Lewey Gun Vick]

Ken this is INCREDIBLE!!!

Best Regards,
Vick

 

[PolarBear]

Ken

You have done great justice to John's outstanding figures and created a wonderful recreation of 18th C Native American life and culture.

Randy

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

When Europeans settled in North America the Native population was viewed with various degrees of curiosity and fear. Various tribes made alliances with these newcomers and the Crowns of Europe made and broke treaties.

The the rebellion against the Crown in North America culminated with the creation of an independent country. The treaties made with Great Britain south of the new border separating Canada and the New United States became void, and in many cases lands that had restrictions to new settlement were opened.

The opening of some of these lands were a result of official policy and some were part of the seemingly insatiable need to settle west.
These new settlements increased the friction between cultures, and in some cases this resulted in open hostility and bloodshed. There was widespread reporting of indian raids in the eastern newspapers... and in some cases blame was placed on the British Indian agents and military authorities. Looking back it is easy to see some basis for this as some of the far flung outposts were still garrisoned by British troops.

With pressure on the new government, various military expeditions were sent to the Old Northwest Territories to deal with the situation and send a clear message to all parties that the new center of power was Washington.

The small army of the New Republic failed miserably with the terrible defeats of Sinclair and Harmer. Only the reorganization of the army and the creation of the Legion under Anthony Wayne brought victory at Fallen Timbers and a short period of uneasy peace. A peace that was broken at the Battle of Tippacanoe in 1811, followed by the War of 1812.
Here I have used two shelf scenics, 'At the Edge of the Forest' and 'Woodland Village' along with AWI figures from 1st gear/W. Britain standing in for the Young Republic's 1st American Regiment. The defiant warrior is from John Jenkin's designs.

 

[Jagdpanther]

WOW! Ken that is amazing! I like that diorama.

 

[DMNamiot]

Amazing truly amazing!!!

Thanks for posting this Ken you are an amazing artist

Dave

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Thanks so much,
I am glad you liked the combination of figures and scenery. I have been professionally sculpting figures for about twenty years now and I have to say every time I design one I try to picture what the individual figure would look like in a period setting.
This was one of the personal joys of designing and building models for museum exhibits, or for that fact even the full scale figures I created that went in full scale displays.
Once in a while I get a chance to do the same thing with the figures I sculpt for commercial duplication and sale. I find that this part of my work is really the most enjoyable aspect of my job.
Don't get me wrong, I love to sculpt figures and build models, but I really like tying it all together. Maybe it is the model railroader still deep inside... hmmm... trains.
I am about to start another round of sculpting so it may be awhile before I am able to post some new scenic work.
All the Best!
Ken Osen

 

[Russell]

Ken and Ericka, these scenes are beautiful. It's hard to believe that the forest isn't real. I'm enjoying seeing your work; here and on other threads.

I look at these photos and wonder what did they do when it rained with the hole in the middle of the roof, and more amazingly, how did they handle winter. For the elderly it must have been fearsome. Surviving a winter, for an old person, must have meant the gift of another spring, summer and fall.
You woke up in the morning and huddled near the fire with the snow blowing outside: no books, no candles, no ipod, no TV and when you had to take care of business, no toilet!
Beautiful but hard.
And now I'm going to have a sip of wine and maybe watch 30 Rock, which I recorded last night.

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

I am sure that winter was very hard on the young and old alike. The weather combined with diseases transmitted from the Europeans devastated the native population.

Winter encampments were often more substantial and more use was made of heavier bark like hickory and elm as coverings. In some case multi family dwellings were constructed with the best known examples being the Iroquois long-houses. These winter encampments were usually more developed and could include stockade fencing, common work and storage areas.

At Mission centers the structures could be of mixed construction borrowing from European practices and laid out in an organized arrangement around a green or in streets. Many of the descriptions of St. Francis fall within this category with at least a dozen of the buildings being described as well built in the European style.
These were probably structures that had Eropeans as the heads of the house hold, but the dtails are lost to the past.

For the more temporary structures like the ones models in my latest diorama, the smoke hole often had a flap that could be adjusted with a stick that would minimize incoming weather. I am sure in some cases it might just be a matter of making the hole smaller with another layer of bark. There are many surviving images in water colors and sketches from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are also images from early twentieth century of traditional style buildings used as summer camps. These photographs were invaluable to get right look of materials and textures for the models.
Research is half the fun of model making!

All the Best,
Ken

 

[Louis Badolato]

Ken there is absolutely no end to your artistic brilliance. The photos that you have presented here are so amazingly life like - just incredible.
Mike

My sentiments exactly! I was, as our British cousins would say, gobsmacked!

 

[1879fanatic]

Museum-quality for sure! Top notch!
Mike

 

[Gideon]

Jeez, these remind me of the wonderful diorama display the Museum of Natural History displays in NYC. I used to spend hours staring at them when I was a kid.

Why not contact them and see if any of their displays need updating???