Homemade decor items. Ideas?

[ResidualHaunt]

So my friend and I like to sculpt clay and craft things, and we recently had the idea to open up a little shop where we sell homemade decor items for T's and Herps. I know a lot of keepers go for 'simplistic' in their enclosures, but for those of you who like to spice it up a bit, do you think you'd be interested in things like this?

My main question though would be: What would you want to see in your T's enclosure?

I'm looking for ideas and I thought this community would be the best place to ask. We are both fairly decent sculptors and wouldn't mind a cool challenge. My friend makes awesome little clay animal skulls I thought would be really neat for sling hides, and I'm willing to work on some bigger peices implementing the foam-and-grout method with the addition of air-drying clay (all will be sealed, of course). Do you guys have any cool ideas for hides, water dishes or climbing platforms? Interesting themes we could use? Any feedback here would be awesome.

 

[Mandiblehead]

Mabey something that looks like a realistic human hand ? or a thing that looks like a sacrificing pit to throw feeders in ? or mabey a human head with his mouth open with a tongue and everyhting, so it looks like a spiders in somones mouth ? as a hide

 

[ResidualHaunt]

Gruesome 8| I like it haha. So maybe...a zombie theme? Dismembered parts? Bones to stick out of the substrate? -nodnod-

 

[Mandiblehead]

ya anything like that idthink should be good. mabeey do it to scale so your T or ehatever lookd like a huge beast.

 

[edgeofthefreak]

For a theme, I've always wanted to try a graveyard with dilapidated chapel. Use spongy foam for the tombstones and such, so they'd look real, but they wouldn't injure an adventurous T that climbed above them. Then I'd construct the chapel to be a hide - make it low and wide, no floor, and partly dig out the 'basement'.

And of course, an Ephebopus murinus as the groundskeeper.

 

[ResidualHaunt]

Graves! I didn't think about that. Not sure if I could use soft foam though...but could just make them small enough where a tumble wouldn't cause any damage for a terrestrial, and larger for arboreals. Besides a chapel, a crypt-looking hide might be neat too.

So.
Zombie Theme
-Dismembered body parts
-Bones

Graveyard Theme
-Graves
-Chapel
-Crypt

My friend and I also came up with jungle ruins. Maybe something with a south american, Mayan-type vibe? Make a scale Mayan temple into a hide somehow?
She also had a cool idea with dinosaur eggs. Have them be sort of cracked and askew. Could make the shells into hides and water dishes.

Thanks for the feedback guys! Really does help. Keep them coming :3

 

[JZC]

I love the Mayan idea. How about a nomad inspired desert setup?

 

[Kazaam]

I'm not a fan of miniature buildings/graveyards but an oldish looking brick backdrop would be pretty neat, especially if it had plants such as ferns in it.

 

[PlaidJaguar]

I want to do a deserty setup for my A. chalcodes. I was thinking a vulture, some fake cacti, and maybe a little human skeleton.

 

[Kazaam]

I've used a real skull in the past without problems.

 

[vespers]

I'm not a fan of miniature buildings/graveyards but an oldish looking brick backdrop would be pretty neat, especially if it had plants such as ferns in it.

Yeah, I agree with this. "Giant" spiders stomping through out-of-scale miniature buildings is kind of tacky IMO. But that old brick back drop, with ferns/moss/dead vines or something would look good.

 

[Keith B]

I'd start with some of the things that always peeved me about pet stores. Most of the stuff they offer is geared towards reptiles and hermit crabs. I would make a cool hide for some of the larger species, some better hides for smaller specimens definitely!! First and foremost, I'd start making water dishes that were more of an optimal size, with a built-in hump in the center for the crickets to climb on. Certainly beats having to find and purchase bags and bags of sterile rocks when you have a buttload of T's and don't always tongfeed everything

Take on any look you feel like, my issues have always been with the size of items, or that the same hide ends up becoming really repetitive.

 

[Mysteryavic]

Humm, There are a lot of T's from different parts of the world there should be a few more themes there too. As long as the hides come in say 3 different sizes i don't see how u can go wrong.

 

[Kroogur]

Miniature houses and cars would be awesome! It would look like one of those great "B" movies from the 1950's! I also like Mysteryavics idea about the native habitats depending on where the T originates from.

 

[ResidualHaunt]

Ah yes, always gotta have a desert theme :3 I did mention to my friend about making cactus but...not sure if we could pull those off as well as the store brands. I could give it a shot though.

I actually thought about the bring backdrop too! Like a crumbling, overgrown ruins kind of thing? But the problem with pre-making those is...everyone's enclosures are so different. Would be hard to size. Could do...corner pieces maybe? Hm...

Real skulls work too Kazaam, yes, but there can be the problem of sharp pieces on the inside and little nooks and crevices your T can get into and you can't get them out of. Our clay ones will solve those problems...Plus my friend mentioned making dragon skulls and you definitely cant find those in real life XD Can also customize them to be cracked and hollowed out in different ways.

Ok, love the water dish idea! Not sure why I didn't think of that. Maybe I could come up with some kind of tiny dish for slings...but definitely some with raised areas in the middle to prevent drownings.

Finally, we'll definitely consider the different regions and try to incorperate them into designs. Perhaps something tribal for africa? Shrines, tori and lanterns for asian species? Hmm...what could be done for India?

 

[Keith B]

I actually thought about the bring backdrop too! Like a crumbling, overgrown ruins kind of thing? But the problem with pre-making those is...everyone's enclosures are so different. Would be hard to size. Could do...corner pieces maybe? Hm...

Some good looking compact corner pieces would be pretty cool, maybe even some corner hides for arboreals even.. Any corner pieces I've found seem to take up a TON of space for smaller enclosures. As far as the backings go, I don't think it would be so bad. Slings in smaller enclosures are often being moved, so it seems kind of pointless. Adult enclosures would be cool though. 2.5, 5, 10 gallon aquariums usually, a lot of people use zoo-med and exo-terra (obviously not the HUMONGOUS ones, but LARGE LOW for larger T's have been used). I'm not sure what inner dimensions of the online tarantulacages.com stuff is, cause I don't currently have any, but that probably covers most, besides the ones people get creative for (split terrariums, buckets, who knows what else lol). You could probably do a popular range of backdrops at least. Food for thought

 

[Mike41793]

A nuclear wasteland themed enclosure would be neat. Fallout 3 anyone?!

 

[845BigRed]

Sacrifice pits. Temple like ideas. I had an idea for a mountain side with a little cave (hide) and it lead to a "city" obviously made of foam and filed down so it doesn't hurt my T. Think California hills type idea.
My favorite set up is my B Smithi, I picked up a skull for a fish tank that was just too small for her to crawl in and out of safely. I cut the bottom part of the jaw off, sanded down the edge, added some paint and moss over the top and now she has a living in a dead skull look

You can see right where the jaw line got broken, she dug out some of the substrate inside there, she can climb through there very easily, squeeze through the eye sockets

 

[Mandiblehead]

How bout a picnic table, mabey even with people somone can buy, with people and baskets not included

 

[gizmosdeath]

Finally, we'll definitely consider the different regions and try to incorperate them into designs. Perhaps something tribal for africa? Shrines, tori and lanterns for asian species? Hmm...what could be done for India?

Maybe some chipped and broken Shiva heads haha. Best bet is to look at some cultural architecture. I also like the actual life size stuff and not a fan of the miniature buildings and army men set ups. However I did just see a pic of an old graveyard in India the other day and it was pretty cool. Here is the pic that I looked at the other day. It would be pretty cool to make a big insert that looked like part of one of those structures.