Portal is a interactive display piece meant to represent a "portal" to a more magical, fairytale world. 

I made this to decorate my desk and dorm space. I think making a creative piece that standouts like this is really fun. It de-stresses and helps calm you down after a long day of classes. 

I first gathered and bought all of my materials. This included 3D printing two models for decoration - the crystals and the mushroom from Thingiverse.

When starting this project, I create a waterfall, a small pond, and rocks out of clay and arranged them in the lantern. 

I also did a quick coat of paint on my two 3D-printed pieces.

I continued to add shading and color to the waterfall, pond, and rocks around it. I also made a clay lily-pad for decoration as well.

I changed the mushroom's hot pink color to a darker red shade and added more dimension to the crystals.

 I also began constructing a bridge using two broken popsicle sticks. I painted it a dark brown and used clay to add the beginning of the rails.

I attached the pieces of clay to the string (handrail) using hot glue. I also went in with a lighter shade of brown to do a wood-grain effect on the wood.

At this point, I decided the waterfall looked a little bare so in order to make it prettier I added some rocks I made out of clay and placed them around it. I also added the polyester filling for a mist/flowing water effect for the bottom of the waterfall.

I finished painting and shading all the rocks and added the fake moss to the bottom of the lantern using hot glue. I also finished painting the crystal chunk and glued that to the bottom as well.

At this point, I wanted the waterfall to have more dimension so I hot-glued the 3D-printed mushroom to the waterfall and used some clay and polyester filling to give the effect that the water was flowing over the mushroom.

I glued the broken bridge to the two sides of the lantern using a mixture of hot glue and clay (rocks) for support.

Next, I began to cut up the fake flowers and plants I bought and placed them around the remaining sides and edges of the lantern. I secured them in-place using hot glue.

I decided to place my LED fairy lights in the lantern at this point. I moved them all towards the top and only secured one wire in place with hot glue.

I then decided to add more of the polyester filling to the top of the lantern to give it a cloud-like effect.

I also wanted to add more variety to the terrarium environment so I made a snail and a mushroom out of clay. I painted both and placed them in the lantern.

This was the finished product, I am very happy with the way it turned out.