Hi guys. Tonight's Daily Nature Fix is going to be a bit different. I figured I'd explain my username; something I don't think I've really done yet. While I am a nature enthusiast at heart, the name actually refers to my career. It's pretty straight forward, really. I custom make "nature". For about 7 years I've been working as an exhibit designer and fabricator for zoos/museums around the US. When you go to a zoo and see animals running around on giant sculpted trees, or waterfalls, or pieces of a mountain... I'm a guy that would make those things. It's pretty much my dream job. Unfortunately, I've been out of that job field for about two years now. I won't really be mentioned the company I worked for or where we put exhibits because I didn't leave the company on good terms, really. In fact, I ended up punching my boss in the face about a half dozen times. So yeah, lol, don't ask where things are from. That being said, I'm going to start sharing some of my work over those years with you guys.
One of the big parts of creating "custom nature" is painting. Actually, I'd say it's one of the biggest steps in creation aside from the initial sculpting or casting. This is one of my earliest painting tasks. We were making a habitat for some large salamanders and I put in a fiberglass casting of a white birch tree. The casting is as plain white as a sheet of paper, so I had to paint it to make it look real.
There it is. While I've improved my skills exponentially since those first few months on the job, I'm still happy how it came out. Especially for my first go of it. Excuse the photo quality, btw. Keep in mind, it was around 2010 and I was using an early iPhone. Here's a wider shot:
In the photo above, you can see a plain gray tree to the left side. That's a casting of a beech tree that only had a flat base coat on at the time. It gives you and idea of what the birch looked like before the detail painting, except it would have been white of course. Here it is in place:
As you can see, when the rest of the paint job is done and the live plants are put into place, it all comes together. It looks even cooler when the water was put into the habitat and the waterfalls and streams were running.
That's it, guys! "Custom nature". I make fake nature. I'm basically a professional terrarium/vivarium builder. I tried to take photos off all my work, so I'll start sharing a lot more of it with the Steemit community soon.
Thanks for reading! I post a nature-themed Daily Nature Fix blog every day. Please upvote if you enjoyed it and resteem if you found it especially interesting! Be sure to follow me 
*** These daily blogs showcase the natural world. It is all original content using photos, stories, and experiences from my own travels. ***