How do I furnish this cage?

[Oneearringlost]

My mother gave me this ornamental cage for my birthday. I have spent months trying to decide how to 'create' it. I do not want a plant!

What I'm after is a scene for the base. It could be a 'story', so curios that would link with each other, or a disparate collection to create a 'feel'.

The hanging boy at the top is a bit twee, and I don't necessarily need to continue with the twee tone, but he works, I think, in that he fills the upper part.

I love macabre, dark, ( see my doll's house).
The aim is to draw the eye and spark curiosity.

The cage opens at the front, but the floor also opens, so larger items can be put in, than would suggest from the front opening.

Please give me your unusual, dark, eerie suggestions.

It may take a while for the photos to appear due to review.

So many thanks.

No ideas for your cage but love the dolls house. You know the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death?

No, tell me!

Actually, my curiosity us peaked, I'm looking it up...
Thank you!

Oh my goodness, how did i not know about this....its RIGHT up my street. Going on my Christmas list. Thank you so much @LemonTwix !

Anyone else willing to throw in their thruppence?

I don't know about inside, but I would definitely have a raven or crow on the outside, peering in!!

Also, I need that book!

Glad you like the Nutshell! For the cage I think I’d try and do a landscape, like this painter does (she creates a model landscape and then does a painting, I mean you could just do the model landscape). That would cover the bottom third of the cage. I’d remove the boy on the swing and have loads of miniature birds of different sizes hanging down and then lots perched on and around one of the houses in the landscape, like the film The Birds.

https://wertn.com/2019/05/amy-bennett/

Yes, thats a thought...I'm experimenting here, with my real mouse, I can develop something there, I think.

Ah, you've made me think about my model graveyard...as a scene at the bottom. I even got a tiny Bluetooth speaker that I put in the church, and I can activate it with a click on my phone to play the Mozart Requeim. It's a different scale though.
Thank you both for the ideas.
I've messaged our DC to suggest the Nutshell studies for Christmas already!

The hearse broke, so I've got another one waiting to be delivered.

Haha, a beautiful demonstration by your mouse!!

Your graveyard scene has inspired me to think a victorian funeral procession scene could be interesting in your cage, with a horse drawn hearse on a misty cobbled street (no idea how on earth you would make it misty 🤣) and houses with yellow flickery light seeping from the windows, and probably some mice or rats scuttling ahead somewhere!!

@BasketOfNewts Yes! That's my kind of idea, but thought I'd exhausted it with the graveyard. But, i think I will reinvent something similar after your beautifully and redolently Victorian description.

I set up electrics in my dolls house, so can definitely try out lighting, which is essential to creating atmosphere.

I do love the macabre.

Now, to source the items...There is alot in the US but ££££s for delivery.

Spiders? (I am an Aussie - we could cage some of ours)

Ahh, now that's, unfortunately out of the question due to PROFOUND arachnophobia! Even the sequence of letters sends electric shocks of revolt and fear down me...but I take your point as fulfilling the criteria of weird/eerie/shocking!

I'm currently looking up trade fairs for miniatures in the South ( UK).
Trying to channel my inner Angela Carter!

Bat cave?
Halloween style

https://www.stonedaffection.com/product/four-spot-flower-beetle-woodland-globe

This sort of has a plant in, but also a beetle?

Make it a Victorian church crypt?

I have to say, I had no idea stuff like this went on on MN and I'm loving it! The Nutshell Studies Amazing.

Bats, good call @Seeline !
Actually, a crypt ( so the inside, rather than outside) is a very good idea, or maybe an undertaker's scene? @LittleBitofBread .

I've found the Kensington online Dolls house showcase, open 29th-4th Sept. Also Xmas fair in Nov.

Oh dear, everything macabre is consuming my thoughts now; it could get expensive!

Wow, the Kensington online Dolls house showcase looks amazing!
This is a fantastic new discovery – I have never thought I'd be interested in dollhouses/model crypts
Although I have liked Joseph Cornell and his assemblage for ages, which is similar I guess.

I see some sort of blackened tree or vine with branches poking out from the bars. Think you need something that will provide height. Also works well with birds.

Or a circus, you could have trapeze artists dangling, like the boy but perhaps not the boy. Easy to make circuses macabre of
course.

Oh, that's funny @LittleBitofBread I've just looked Joseph Cornell up, and see i already have something of a similar vein in my kitchen.

Oh yes! I love him.

Yes, a blackened vine would work, I think, and also the circus theme could be very disturbing...

I bought this for £1.50 at a car boot sale @minipie . It's in our downstairs loo...i tried to post a short video clip of it wound up, as it moves and plays music but it was too big to post on MN...occasionally, it'll start out of the blue, triggered by movement or something, very unnerving

Ooh I quite like the circus idea too!! Whatever you go for @Oneearringlost we need aaalll the pics and links and plans.

And at least one raven because everything is better with a raven!