Making Haystacks whilst the sun shines.

Following on from last week, I am going to show you how I make Haystacks, the main item you need is a doormat and plenty of sunshine.

HAYSTACKS.
Cut two pieces of doormat to the size you want the height of the haystack to be. Glue them back to back with white glue and then glue onto a suitable base with white glue.

Then you cover the base in glue and sand and paint this and the rubber backing of the doormat in dark brown or whatever dark colour you use for your first layer of basing.

You then drybrush the base a lighter shade of earth colour and use the same colour to lighten the rubber backing on the mat.

You will need to cut a pile of mat away from the rubber backing.The way I do this is by cutting the mat into very thin strips with a craft knife and then hold the strips over a tray and cut as close to the rubber as you can with a pair of scissors to 'make hay'. (If the strips are too thick you will find they are difficult to cut.)

You then cover the whole mat in watered down white glue and then cover with your hay cuttings. When dry I gave the haystack another layer of glue and cuttings.

When fully dry I paint the haystack by drybrushing a couple of lighter colours. I used household paint, dark yellow and then a lighter brush over with mid yellow. (I use this colour for all my wheat fields)

Having experimented making these, I think you could make them a lot quicker by not bothering to even paint the base, as the haystack ends up more or less covering the whole thing.

Cheers,

Pat.