A world within a wardrobe – Handle with joy

A few years ago I got this urge to make a mini theater out of the magical wardrobe from “The chronicles of Narnia”.
Some ideas are like terrible itches it’d be an agony not to scratch.

As a child I really wanted to visit Narnia, but alas, I never found a way. The idea of fitting a whole world into something small, or traveling into another world through a secret spot, really nourished my imagination as a child.

The transparent illusion:

Printing the background on transparent paper creates a lot of depth, making the scene look like it extends beyond the wardrobe’s physical boundaries.

The inside of the wardrobe (viewed from the top, lid open). Here you can see how the curtain of coats functions. All parts can be replaced if worn out or broken. It’s empty except for the”snow” at the bottom: the snow is jointed for ease of use and for making it stay completely flat since it didn’t otherwise (left picture).

“Every moment the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of snow grew smaller”

— C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, chapter 11.

The trees, animals and dolls are all glued on to strips of transparent plastic (recycled blister-packs etc.)

This is how it looks from the top:

Here you can see the top of the icicles that hangs at the front of the wardrobe. I’ve glued half-backed, white pearls on each side which holds the item in place. I used different colors for the trees, animals and dolls (not pictured) to differentiate them.

The integrated lights are easy to remove and replace if necessary. The last five centimeters of the side-walls have jointed flaps that stay locked in place with elastic bands. The bands are fastened around “buttons” along the backside and are easy to open/close using a crochet needle.