You’re ok, you’re fine. You’re fine.

Midsommar

is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster.

It inspired me to make this small diorama.
I wanted to make my version of the films’ wonderful-looking character Dani, while exploring the possibilities for a larger scene. I might return to this idea at a later point.

The Murals

The wonderful original design by Ragnar Persson, transformed into the world of mice.

I decided to make the wallpaintings using gouache on my panel walls

The outfit

I looked for printed fabrics, but nothing would come close to what I needed.

So I had to hand-stitch the flowers and the decorations on her apron and dress.

I always make underwear for the mice, even if you never see it.

It’s a habit I’ve brought with me from working for films.

The Flowers

I needed a lot of flowers for the dress and for the head. At first, I tried sculpting them in polymer clay. Whenever I have needed flowers in my previous scenes, I have made them from silk paper, but I wanted to try something new. However, I didn’t like the result.

So I went back to painting silk paper, and created all sorts of flowers, in the same technique as before.

Somehow, the slightly translucent quality of the paper flowers make them look more real.

First little sketch of the character

Florence Pugh as Dani in Midsommar