#mlc fanart

[la-muerta]

📢 Announcing the results of the Skipping Stones Competition: 1st place 🏆: Li Lianhua 2nd place🥈: Fang Xiaobao One contender with the surname Di was disqualified Judge: Hulijing

Artist: 呼葱觅蒜 on weibo; reposted with credit as requested.

[pastelcheckereddreams]

I added more things to Lotus Tower! Can you spot them all? To be honest, I can't pick anything I'm the most proud of. I'm so pleased to see all of it come together like this. Perhaps my brain will finally let me put the project to rest 😂

Breakdown of all the new fun decorations and modifications below.

You can see the first part of my model build here, or more of my art and my craft projects in my pinned post, where you can also find a link to my INPRNT store and my ko-fi if you would like to support my creative projects in any way 💛

So, the first thing I wanted to do was utillise some spare parts from my Life of Su Dongpo booknook kit to make Li Lianhua a small tea tray:

I cut tiny planks of wood from a strip of basswood to form the sides, but the base and teapot come from the Su Dongpo kit. I was also able to make the goodest girl Hulijing a stand from the same piece that makes the base of the tea tray. Now she can sit in Lotus Tower anywhere she wants to instead of being stuck into the wood outside her kennel!

To hold the tea tray, I also made a table and stool similar to the one in the show, and created some tiny baskets out of beige cross-stitch aida to replicate the many baskets and storage Li Lianhua has hanging from the Tower:

In that same vein, I used thread to make a net for some more storage beneath the stairs:

And used part of a bamboo place-mat and some dried flowers to create a herb drying rack on the upper level.

One of the more complex pieces I created was a second sail to hang under the eaves of the gourd door:

It was difficult trying to get this sail to hold a good final shape as, just as with the other sail in my first build, I had to guess how much material would be needed and how to gather it. But I'm pleased with how it turned out in the end! It, like the herb rack, is hung from the eaves with small pieces of metal wire, bent into hooks and stuck into the reinforced card.

You can also see in the pictures above that I added "rope" and a fake hook to the shelf on the side of the Tower to make it a bit more accurate to the show's design.

(You will also see in the very first picture that I made a set of removable stairs for the porches - unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of their building process and kept forgetting to move them back into the big picture.)

The biggest addition, though, is of course the lanterns:

I am so proud of these. I made them from paper and basswood, and they are ridiculously tiny (about 1.5cms). I wasn't going to put lights in them to start with, but when I bought the tiny bulbs (I was planning to try and put them inside Lotus Tower at the time) and shone them behind one of the lanterns - it looked so good I knew I just had to try it.

So here's how I pulled it off:

I first carefully slotted the bulbs and their wires through the beams of the sail awning, twisting the red and blue cables around each other to give them more structure and make sure they were hanging at the right length. I made sure the wires both led back to the side of the Tower I was going to store the battery pack on, and fastened them to one of the supports of the awning so that the wires would discretely trail down to the floor of the upper level. (I also painted them at this time.)

As for the battery pack, I stuck a small piece of wood underneath the porch where Hulijing's kennel sits for the battery to sit on. I tidied up the wires as neatly as I could and fastened them to the side of the Tower with a spare U-shaped piece from the Su Dongpo kit, wedged into the window slats of the ground level (making sure there's plenty of slack for me to unfasten it and change the battery without struggle). I then joined the wires as best I could and painted it all a yellow-brown colour.

As you can see, it looks a bit crude, but once the roof is back on over the door, the wires all but disappear!

I am so sooo happy with how it's turned out. Please let me know what you think! Is there anything else you would add? Anything you would do differently?

[greentealycheejelly]

Huli Jing deserves all the treats :)

[carduelis-art]

[huab1nan]

"Li Lianhua! Wake up!"

There's so much else you have yet to tell me...

[deboracabral]

hug for xiaobao

[tiny-breadcrumbs]

For @exitvelocities , I'm forever replaying this scene in my brain

[lei-llustrations]

“李相夷已经死了。。。李莲花也快死了” - Episode 38 of Mysterious Lotus Casebook (莲花楼）

When even rebirth isn’t enough sometimes

please read Three Autumns by @rageprufrock

[goblinkingsart]

to be young and in love

[noswordinourlake]

I don't know either so don't ask

[la-muerta]

🪷 Postcard from a travelling Li Lianhua, wishing you a peaceful Summer Solstice~ We agreed that the three of us and the dog would wake up early to go fishing, but it seems like we woke up too early again!

Artist: 呼葱觅蒜 on weibo; reposted with credit as requested.

[pastelcheckereddreams]

I built one of the Mysterious Lotus Casebook model scenes!

You may remember that I built the Lotus Tower model kit last year, and made some modifications to it:

(More about new additions to that model in another post!)

So it's probably no surprise that I also an addition of my own to this kit in the form of some tiny model lights. I love the idea that they could be fireflies accompanying Li Lianhua down the river or souls escorting him to reincarnation.

Progress pics below:

You may be able to guess from its size, that this model came together pretty quickly. Assembling the table together with both the boat and LLH was the trickiest bit:

I love all the small details, though, even if the curves were quite intimidating.

In order to wire it up with the tiny lights, I actually made very little irreversible changes to the model itself.

The base is a hollow space, as you can see bellow, so I used a hole that was intended to hold one of the lotuses to instead thread the lights up through the base to the scene. The lotus in question was meant to be positioned behind the boat, and so wouldn't actually be seen at all - perfect for hiding most of the wiring.

Then, in order to secure the battery pack to the back of the model, I cut off a small portion of one of the tabs that help fit the bottom piece in place. This effectively made a hole right at the bottom of the model for the wires to pass through. And that was all it took!

I stuck everything down with tape so it can be removed easily and without damage should I want to remove the lights at all, or make my messy wiring more respectable 😅

I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

Although you can see the wires around the boat when the lights are off, when the lights are on it pretty much achieves the floaty, ethereal effect I was going for:

[maalidoesart]

“noone can replace you in our promise”

[carduelis-art]

[potahun]

i love you. i want to live with you

yes, i have mentioned it before: fanghua has me in a chokehold

[deboracabral]

everybody is sooo obsessed with him (myself included help me)