Now we're not headed for Egypt, but for the workshop of Rex Werner, Kansas City artisan.
Art director for TWA, Mr.
Werner creates dioramic or three -dimensional scenes to illustrate some of his company's publications.
Here out of balsa wood, razor blades, pins, and airplane cement comes a Lisbon fishing fleet.
The diorama completed, he will photograph the scene in Kodachrome.
Ooh la la, it's Gay Paris.
Well, Mr.
Werner knows the best places to go and he makes sure there's plenty of get us there.
Flowers for Madame? A stickler for detail, our artist in miniatures, calls in the neighborhood children to criticize his work.
Relentlessly they point out missing items and Mr.
Werner rectifies his mistakes immediately.
Well, here we are at an Arizona resort.
Besides piles of balsa, 20 packages of razor blades, 1 ,000 pins, and 60 tubes of airplane cement went into this Arizona diorama.
400 toothpicks were used in the making of one cholla tree.
One customer at the resort complained of the sun in his eyes, so Mr.
Werner obliged him with a pair of sunglasses.
You know of any resort that offers better service? But he still isn't satisfied that his customer is comfortable, so he's going to make him a shade tree.
It's really very easy.
A few branches, some pieces of sponge, years of experience, and anybody can do it.
The trees are small potatoes for this artist.
He's made San Francisco cable cars, the Grand Canyon, a goddess of liberty, Ireland, Paris, Rome, Egypt, and India.
He's even made our nation's capital, as it would appear from the air.
Mr.
Werner has certainly traveled a long way since he made his first diorama, an intricate winter scene for a family Christmas card.
Hey, what now? He's filling this spray gun with flocking, which is nothing incidentally but ground -up rayon.
With this mixture, he's created knitted socks, grass, hair for carriage horses, suede for a tiny shoulder bag, and now a lawn under the shade tree.
The best part is that no dandelions will grow here, and there's absolutely no attraction for gophers.
From Arizona via Werner Magic to Rome and a famous Colosseum.
Well, those tourists seem eager enough, but that driver's plenty bored.
An example of Werner's thoroughness, the top of the carriage actually folds down.
Mr.
Werner has carved figures ranging from one -eighth of an inch to 11 inches tall.
This fall, he'll journey to Europe, where for the first time, he'll view some of the actual scenes he's created in his workshop.
All we can of Kansas City ever wants to know it in a hurry, he's have to be in trouble.
The 1 ,200 clocks and watches in his collection might prove a little confusing, especially since every one of them that runs is kept wound by Mrs.
Hardy, and they don't all keep quite precise time.
They come from all ages and all countries.
Mr.
Hardy has watches and clocks everywhere in the house.
This one was found on a French battlefield in 1918.
In the favorite cuckoo clock, telling a hand -carved story of Aesop's fable of the fox and the grapes, that little fellow on the left chirps four times first, and then the one on the right gives forth with the hour.
And this is how it all works, as seen from behind.
This old double bell German alarm clock really woke them up.
About 1440 saw these first run through their 15 -minute cycle.
Hand carving has long been associated with fine clock making.
This old pendulum and chain type is one of the best.
Watches have varied quite a bit in size through the centuries.
These are the smallest and largest in Mr.
Hardy's collection.
And when it's time for bed in the Hardy household, his last act is to light this old -fashioned night clock and then drift off to sleep, calmed by the ticking of timepieces of all ages.
There are many and varied ways and means of picking up a little extra cash, like finding a shiny new dime on the sidewalk or with a good day at the races.
However, one of the surefire methods is that of turning a hobby into a money -making proposition.
Exactly what veteran Thomas Clifton had done with his production of plastic jewelry.
In his handy basement workshop, equipped with a circular saw, grinding wheel, buffer, and a fine hand drill, Tom wiles away his spare hours fashioning small blocks of clear plastic into beautifully designed earrings, dress pins, belt buckles, and other items that complete the lady's costume.
Easy to do? Yes, it is for those with skilled hands and a great deal of experience with a tiny hand drill.
But one slip of the burr and the intricate internal carving of the small plastic block is ruined.
Tom's an old hand and many patterns are formed by his artistic fingers.
To distinguish them, each crevice is filled with a different colored dye, the rose petal of red, the leaves of green, so that the finished product resembles the bloom itself.
With nothing gone amiss, the last touch is added, the cementing of the metal clip to another bit of female adornment.
And the highly polished piece is displayed with others of its kind to add another type of jeweled adornment to the lady's beauty.
Seeing Hubert Reagan and his wife standing in front of their place in Wyandotte County, you wouldn't suspect they were the sort of folks who would be raising bears in their backyard as pets, but they sure do.
Four of the woolly young characters that Reagan picked up as cubs on several hunting and fishing trips into Canada call 4612 Mission Road home.
The cage was built at the request of police officers after the youngsters had taken to roaming around the neighborhood a little too much.
But they still get taken out once in a while to stretch a leg and look over the cows that make up Reagan's dairy.
Nobody tries to make the bears and the cows get long with each other, so they don't.
Hubert and his wife don't plan to train the growing up cubs, the Reagans just happen to like bears and get a kick out of having them around.
Did you ever achieve your childhood ambition to build something that really worked? Warren Taylor, a model steam tractor built on the scale of two inches to one foot.
It took him better than three years to complete, spending an average of five hours per day.
Every tiny shutoff valve and knob to the steam boiler was tooled in Mr.
Taylor's basement, and every part is workable and performs a certain function.
Proof of the pudding? Well, here it is.
Steam pressure up, the throttle open, every miniature part goes into action.
For the benefit of our snapshots cameraman, Mr.
Taylor made the demonstration as realistic as possible by lighting a charcoal fire in the firebox.
For convenience sake and hobby showings and the like, he has rigged it to operate on compressed air.
However, this is only half of his ambition, for Mr.
Taylor has just about completed a scale model threshing machine that will work in conjunction with his tractor, and actually will do the job of blowing straw into stacks and the grain into trucks.
Of what practical use are these miniatures? Well, none claims Mr.
Taylor, just a hobby and the self satisfaction of completing a boyhood desire.
Our opinion is that anyone who can do a job like this should keep right on making them.
Besides, who doesn't like to watch wheels go round? A cat is always a kitty, at least so the nursery rhyme says, but Fluffy is nothing short of unique among her feline brethren.
Fish, why she turns up her black button nose at the mere mention of the word, much preferring a slice of watermelon.
Grapes too, peeled or not, are a delectable part of her peculiar diet.
Yes, strange as it may seem, Fluffy cares for nothing heavier than perhaps a tasty malted milk tablet, a true vegetarian in every sense of the word.
There are days, however, when watermelon just isn't the answer to this Persian's palate, but she isn't a bit averse to cantaloupe or even a cool slice of honeydew.
Now we all know that a hearty meal, be it vegetable or mineral, requires a short after -dinner walk to settle things.
Fluff is no exception, but she'll never admit she's had enough.
She just can't resist a nice tender leap for dessert.
What a cat!
