Entry #3

Today we went for a workshop held by The Green Capsule and tried out first-hand how to make a terrarium.

We were told to layer the terrarium with either gravel, pebbles or soil and upon finishing it, I was extremely unimpressed because it just looked like a lump of white flour.

Since all of us had went to the workshop with some ideas in mind, especially when it came to terrarium designs, one thing I found out was that reading about it and watching tutorials are one thing, but in practice it is completely different. In the workshop, we were limited to a variety of 4 different plants, all of which were difficult to handle. We had to be extremely delicate when uprooting a plant and transferring it to a different medium, because the roots come off easily and without it the plant would have died in a matter of days. Furthermore, it was challenging to work around the limited species and to come up with a nice design.

Throughout the process, I managed to come up with an end product that I was satisfied with, and something that really struck me was the importance of having a figurine. When I added it, it seemed as if the terrarium had an extra depth to it as it enhanced the overall feel of the terrarium. While we were talking about each other's terrariums, we suggested terrariums that seemed to fit each other's themes. For example, we asked Shiju to add a girl in his design and hide her behind the plants to seem as if she is peeking out.

Overall, even though it was challenging I was glad to find that this process was something that we enjoyed which is important because we will have to do it for a long time in the upcoming months.

Furthermore, we started discussing the possibilities of doing closed terrariums instead and had a lengthy discussion over it. While I did research about succulents and air plants which are generally considered low maintenance, I had absolutely zero knowledge about plants which are suitable for closed terrariums. In terms of the soil that is needed to the amount of care that has to go into them, it seemed to be a risk I was unwilling to take until I've seen for myself the kind of care that needs to be done. There were considerations such as how we were going to take care of the plant from the time we buy it till the time we make the terrarium, the higher cost of plants as well as how extensive the variety was.

After that we went to source for glass materials and we took stock of the different mediums we could use for open and closed terrariums- mason jars, wine glasses, beer mugs and even photo frames. After noting down the different items we could use, we decided to finally call it a day.