Is this Nativity Scene too crowded?

M

msiebri

New member
I'm trying to figure out how big to build my Nativity Scene stable. I have the characters sitting on a 4x8 sheet of plywood, but I think they should be a little more spread out. There will be a shepherd and sheep in the back right-hand corner, I don't have those yet.

Any opinions?
IMG_3061_cropped.jpg
 
I forgot to mention that. This will be sitting about 40' back from the viewing location, with my 6' Bethlehem star about 30' above it.
 
The height of the blow molds (judging from the 4x8 sheet of plywood they are sitting on) will make them look "smaller" at 40', but the overall clustering of the characters is fine.

The height of your star against the size of the display may be a factor.
Of course, this is just my opinion, and others will have theirs.

Please make sure you get some pics when you get it setup. It will be nice to see what you finally settled on.
 
msiebri said:
I'm trying to figure out how big to build my Nativity Scene stable. I have the characters sitting on a 4x8 sheet of plywood, but I think they should be a little more spread out. There will be a shepherd and sheep in the back right-hand corner, I don't have those yet.

Any opinions?
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The Ace 5gal bucket is a bit much for the scene but the sawhorse balances it ok I think. ;)
 
msiebri said:
Here is what I ended up with. It is 10' wide and 5' deep.
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It looks nice. I like the backdrop. That aside, may I suggest you play with the orientations. I think it might be appropriate if they were all facing the subject of the scene....baby Jesus. That is, after all, why they are all there no?
 
Here is one using almost the exact same figures as yours:
nativity_set.jpg

And some more...
nativity-manger-scene.jpg

nativity-scene.jpg



This is known as leading the eye in artistic forms.
 
Wolfie said:
Here is one using almost the exact same figures as yours:
nativity_set.jpg
Click to expand...

I wish I had seen this picture before I got all the cords lengthened and everybody bolted to the floor! I looked through a ton of pictures, but I don't remember seeing this one.
 
Sorry, just saw the thread. Not a bit blow mold guy so I don't parse this section very often. It came up in google images. It wasnt the first but I recognized your figurines right away.

Anyway, your choice if its worth unbolting and moving for aesthetic reasons. In the end, its your show and like everyone says, there is no wrong way to set up your show.
 
Yeah, it may have to wait until next year. The wife was happy with this layout, that was the most important test. I still have quite a bit more to do for this year, and I spent more time on this prop than I intended to. The cow, donkey and sheep are the hard ones to re-orient. Their light bulbs are in the side, so its hard to change their angle much and still hide the cords. All the other figures have the cords coming out the bottom, so it's easy to move and re-orient them.
 
msiebri,

I am new to the forum, but not to diy. I love your stable. What a beautiful job. I just got a basic nativity blow mold set last year and want to up it for next year by adding the supporting cast. I spent a fair amount of money this year making an external power box that is only temporarily connected to the house. We are renting and could not make any permanent changes. Next year I hope to complete my nativity set. As for the light bulbs in the side of the animals if you don't mind cutting into them a little bit here is what I would do. If they are like mine the power cord is attached to the socket internal to the blow mold with a notch to route it outside. Just don't route the wire back out the notch. Instead, drill a hole just big enough for the plug in the bottom and run the power cord through it instead. It would give you several more degrees of rotation ability with out showing the plate or cord as it is now a much lower profile with out a cable hanging out in the wind.
 
Thanks, I was very happy with how it turned out. I did drill a hole in the bottom of all of them so I could bolt them all to the floor of the stable. I thought trying what you said, but both the cow and the donkey have a big hole in the back and a big plastic disk that the socket mounts to. That disk isn't painted to match the rest of them, and I wasn't sure how to try painting those to match. I think over the summer I will just swap all of the figure right-for-left, so that all the sockets stay in the back. The worst part is that all my cords are cut to length and I'll have to redo those.
 
msiebri,

So I have one question about your set up. Did you angle the manger downward a bit so that the viewers could better see Jesus? It looks like it is level, but it is always hard to tell such things in a photograph. I thought about doing something similar for mine, but decided to wait till I get all the pieces. After seeing yours I am glad I waited because I would not have made it any where near big enough. However I was thinking about trying to do something more similar to what a stable would have looked like in that part of the world at that time. I am still researching the area and period to determine what it would look like. I think I have an idea and it is not quite the traditional lay out that we have grown up with. That being said, I still think yours is beautiful. Very nice work, I hope that when I get around to doing one it looks half as good.
 
I bought all my figures from Bronners. The set with Mary Joseph and Jesus came with a flimsy black plastic manger. I threw that away and built my own out of 1x2s. I did cut the front legs shorter to try and angle it some, but it wasn't enough. That is another modification slated for this summer.

Here is another question. I considered buying an angel figure to put on the top of the stable roof, but I couldn't find one I liked. Does anybody think that would be a good addition, or is it better without it?
 
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