Diorama Miniature Rope Bridge

Create your own miniature rope bridge to use in either a movie set, a diorama setting, or a fairy garden. With just a couple of simple steps and supplies you likely already have around the house, you can easily build a realistic miniature rope bridge!

• Blue insulation foam
• Small saw
• Super glue
• Plywood
• Painters tape
• Gravel
• Sledge hammer
• Black spray paint
• Pewter gray acrylic paint
• Toothpicks
• String
• Coffee grounds
• Dark brown paint
• Disposable container
• Pallet wood or wood scrap 1"-wide

On blue insulation foam, mark eight rectangles 1-1/2" x 2". Cut them out using a small saw, and super-glue them together in stacks of two, to form four foam columns.

Cut a piece of plywood, measuring 2-1/2" x 13". Place two foam columns on either end, and glue them in place. Place painter's tape on the board between them, and spray paint the columns black.

Using a sledge hammer, break several pieces of gravel into smaller pieces. Glue them in place on the columns, but only on the front and sides. Remove the painter's tape, and apply pewter gray acrylic paint to the middle of the board.

Trim and discard one pointed end off of four toothpicks. Place the toothpicks into the foam, two on either side, closest to the middle. Cut two more toothpicks in half, and place them behind the larger ones. Cut four pieces of string to go from the tall posts to the smaller ones. Cut two more pieces that will span the length of the bridge.

Place the cut string in a disposable container, with used coffee grounds, a squirt of brown acrylic paint, and a little water to dye the string. Remove string to a newspaper to soak up excess dye. Tie the short pieces of string between the tall and short posts on each column (Photo 4.) Tie the two long pieces to the tall toothpicks spanning the entire bridge length.

Using recycled pallet wood or a wood scrap, cut eight bridge slats 1/2"-wide by 2-3/4"-long. Lay the slats along the string bridge supports and glue them in place.

After I built this bridge, I added it to a waterfall model, the first diorama I had ever built!