I worked on my background Saturday and had the great fun of working with Handi-foam for the 1st time. I taped off the glass & false floor with blue painters tape then put duct tape over that. I hot glued my branches to the plastic backchamber to hold them in place while I was making the background. I got a little impatient and used up most of two cans of Handi-foam in about 10 minutes, not something I would recommend. The stuff is so sticky and messy it’s a total necessity to use disposable gloves. The foam kept expanding for 15 or 20 minutes after I finished spraying it on, so I stuck my hand into the largest bubbles and pulled out pieces to create ledges & planting holes. I covered the foam with a mix of cocoa husks & peat moss while it was still wet and tried to press the mix into the foam. Some stuck but not as much as I had expected.
I have to admit I like the look of the Handi-foam background and I think I’ll leave a lot exposed. I also experimented with Flevopol. I mixed up some of the Ace concrete primer with peat, cocoa husks & orchid planting mix and applied the mix to a few spots on the background. It was a little on the thick side the way I mixed it, so I pressed some peat & cocoa husks onto the top of the Flevopol. After it dried for a while I hosed off the loose mix, leaving the results you see in the pics.
I figured I could always mix up and apply more Flevopol later if I decide too.
Here’s what I did with the extra Flevopol that I had left over
Flevopol Pots
Here is a comparison of the viv with the parabolic lens removed in the 1st pic
& the lens back in on the 2nd pic just so you can (or can’t tell) the light loss.
