I made a new cigar box for my series Caching in on Respect
I call it, Where I Hang My Tears at Night
(Click on images to enlarge)
I made up a little story to go along with the box…
Before I go to bed at night I take my tears and hang them on the tree for safe keeping. They shimmer like the stars as they quiver in the moonlight. I rest my hoop against the trunk for the night, since it won’t fit down my little hidey-hole. Then, I quietly pad down to my secret spot and crawl down the hole.
At the bottom of the hole it is warm and cozy, glowing with a soft amber light. I curl up for the night in the Earth’s gentle embrace and drift off to sleep.
Wanna know the real story? I was working on another project and decided that the tree was too big. Then I had the idea to add my cool glass beads, the last of what I had, to the branches. I thought it was something that I could sell at the market, but when I saw how beautiful it looked I changed my mind and decided to turn it into a cigar box.
It’s MINE, All Mine!… for now…
Here are the specs:
I first painted the background using acrylic paints. I like to use little bottles with small tips and filled with white paint to do all the stars, it goes faster. The tree was made using a fine gauge wire and twisting several strands together. I added the glass beads to each branch and then glued the tree in place with hot glue. I used plaster to create the ground, creating the texture with a popsicle stick as it cured. I used pottery tools to carve out the den and hole. I painted the ground and then dusted with Pearl Ex micropearl powder to give it a sheen. I used polymer clay to create the hoop and mini me. It is a delicate process working at such a small scale with that clay.