Wooden Fruit/Veg Cart

I got inspiration for this cart from Laika's Boxtrolls film, where they have a man pushing a cart like this through the market trying to sell vegetables etc. I started by creating the planks of wood for the base of the cart out of air drying clay. While drying I put bits of wood underneath corners of the planks to make it dry with uneven sections, making it look more realistic, warped and aged. Once dry I carved in the wood grain, which I will later enhance with paint.

For the wheels I used a cookie cutter to get a perfect circle shape, which I then made a bit wonky to give it the character I wanted. To enhance the homemade appearance I added sections in the wheels that weren't straight or perfectly arranged.

I then started to add the uprights for the fence around the edge of the cart, which are also made to look like knobbly, wonky bits of wood. Once set into place I added the top section, which I lay on top enabling it to dry exactly how I needed it too.

Once I added the handles/legs and was happy with the overall appearance of the cart, I started to add some colour to bring it to life. I started by adding a base coat of brown acrylic paint, once this had partly dried I rubbed sections with my finger to remove some of the paint giving it a more natural/old/worn appearance. I then added a darker shade of paint to enhance the grain in the wood I had carved in previously.

I then added more details to the wooden cart by using chalk, which enabled me to give the impression of dust and dirt upon the surface and within the grain of the wood.

I then repeated this process on the wooden wheels before gluing them to the pivoting pole.

To completely finish the cart I thought some nail heads needed to be visible to show how the wooden cart would have been constructed in real life. For this I cut the tops off some nails and glued them into wholes I made earlier. I then added the appearance of rust by using scrapings off chalk with some water, giving the water wash to show how it would have run when the cart got wet. Also by using the scrapings a bit of rusty textures was enabled to be incorporated, which I feel makes it more realistic.

Below are some photos of the finished Wooden Cart:

I then started to create the vegetables/fruit that would go upon the cart. I wanted to have a variety of colours ranging from the pale to the vibrant making it more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Firstly I made some apples from air drying clay, painted with acrylic paint with some glossy red enamel paint over sections to make them shiny. Finally for the stalks I used the bristles from a hard brush.

 I also made the carrots from clay using lichen for the green tops. I then made a balsa wood basket for them to be displayed in.

 For the potato sack I used plaster of paris bandage, which I then painted to give it a sack look. The potatoes were made from clay with chalk scrapings for the soil.

I didn't want to just make wooden crates/boxes for the food, so decided to create some wicker baskets. For this I hammered nails into wood to create the shape needed before gluing into place to make sure they were securely fastened. I then had some garden string which I wound in between the nails to give a wicker appearance. I then plated the string to create strips for top/bottom to finish them off.

 Below are some photos of the finished food items:

This is the final wooden cart: