Cigar Box Challenge - Part 2

Here is my take on the cigar box challenge from the previous post. I knew I wanted to do my cigar box in green, and I knew I wanted to alter the box in some way. So, it took me quite a while to find my groove and start creating.

I took the lid off of the box and covered all sides, inside and out with various green papers. I even found ones to go around the edges that represent the seasons.

The ballerina was a stamping project from a long time ago, but I liked how she looked on the front, so added her. Doesn't it kind of look like she is dancing on the ribbon?

Next, I figured out I wanted it to open like a book, so drilled holes and made hinges out of leather and brads. The old leather button was perfect, and I found a chain and some fun metal embellishments.



I added the door knob to finish the look for the front. This made it into a door, so that got us (because of course, I had a lot of suggestions from others in the class) thinking even further outside the box, and I headed in directions I had not even considered!


As you can see, there are a lot of fun embellishments inside the box from our thinking "outside of the box". The skeleton, mica sheets, glass bubbles, a compass so the skeleton can find it's way, along with a good luck horseshoe, feather, a mask that Tara made, paper flowers, jewels, gold coins, and the finishing touch - Tiffany found a Leprechaun!

Without consciously thinking about it, when I look at my finished piece, I can see a lot of symbolism in the design. For example the Leprechaun and skeleton - in the Celtic culture, Halloween was the "day of the dead" or Samhain, and the "walls" between the world of the living and dead thinned. That is where some of the ideas of dressing up for Halloween came from - one was dressing to look like the "otherworld", and the other was the idea of dressing like that to scare them away. Either way, it has evolved into the celebration of Halloween as we know it today.

Some days you guide your creations, and other days, your creations guide you. This was an evening that my creation had a "mind of its own" and I was only the hands to put it together. I've heard authors describe writing the story that the characters in their head tell them...that's kind of like how I felt.

So, truly there are times you never know just where your art is going to take you!