Shadow box project

This was going to be using a wish bone… I had a totally different idea in mind, but alas, life intervened. (In other words, I still can’t find the damn bone) But either way, in my frantic looking for it, I came across a million other things in the random drawers, and the doll arms had to be used.

The box started out with a basic gold interior and a black exterior. I then aged the gold, and made it a little less pretty. I think it made it more pretty to rough it up. I added gold paint to the black and painted a second coat that way to give it depth. Sealed the whole thing with a matte sealer.



The heart is a porcelain slip. I used metallic paint, sharpie and thick gloss sealer on it. I wanted a sort of steampunk look to it. After the fact it occurred to me I had tons of metal findings from making steam punk jewelry and assemblage stuff. I think in the future if I make another heart that is similar I will use real clasps. Ditto for hinges. I might actually break the next one then reattach it to itself with hinges. In any case, this turned out nice on the fly. I mounted this about ¼ of an inch off the bottom, I felt it looked better than being flush against the back. I don’t know, I like things to come out a bit.



The “flame” backing for it was textured card stick. I drew the heart onto it to get an idea of the shape of the top, then freehand cut the flames out. I started with red paint and kept slowing adding yellow to it, painting another further up layer until it became yellow. It took a while but it achieved the look I wanted so that is okay. I gave it a wash of gold to warm it up a bit and then sealed it with gloss.



I put a length of vintage brown ribbon across the top. I love old ribbons and it needed something I think. The arms got wire armature in them to make attaching them easier. I drilled holes in the box for the wire to go through. (I also scared our dog using the drill in the house) I glued and put them through, used eyelets in the top of the box to “finish” the edge of the holes and wound the wire into loops to hold the chain for hanging.



Last but not least… the writing is done in a cool font I downloaded. The quote I’m a bit embarrassed to admit was compliments of the Toad on one of his emo sites. Leave it to overly emotional teenagers to have a great quote on being broken hearted. I used the basic print/packing tape method for making a vellum and adhered it, sanded the top and sealed as well. I used a long chain loop to hang it from a vintage hook. I’m torn on keeping this piece, it actually looks pretty cool in my art room. I have a few offers for it though so it may be getting a new home soon.