Cedar Faux Ivory Cigar Box

I am so pleased with this box, and as often happens in such cases, I've held onto it for a long time. I made it out of a white-ecru mix which I textured, then cut into I don't know how many narrow strips and covered the entire exterior, including the bottom. Once that was done, and the box cured, I sanded and buffed and then applied a glaze of raw sienna and burnt umber. A striped agate bead I especially liked was then fixed to the top, a narrow black bezel created and the piece was cured again to fuse the glaze and cure the clay bezel. I've left the interior natural to allow it to be used for proper cigar storage, and cut a removable dark brown suede piece for the base. The box is 5 3/4 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide and 4 3/8 inches tall. The entire exterior of the box is covered, including the bottom. I have signed the underside of the lid.

Tidal Blues Bangle Bracelet

Not exactly leftover scraps, but I had been fooling around and came up with this mixture and then didn't know what I wanted to do with it. After making a couple of pairs of earrings (not yet photographed) and a small pendant (ditto) I decided, being on a bangle binge and all to make this ......

Almost There . . .

In some ways this box took control of itself somewhere along the way and morphed into something slightly different...voyage of discovery in terms of design and technique. I’ve enjoyed the journey.

Now just some final tweaking here and there...cleaning up the tiny bits of claydust in the gazillion crevasses and then some final buffing and perhaps a tiny bit of wax or polish here and there.

Day 6: Coral-copper/gold striated veneer applied to center motif......crisis! While the colors looked fine together I expected the coral to deepen more than it did in curing and simply didn’t care for it. After a day of looking at it.....

Day 7: Dremel Stylus to the rescue ....not only did the carving dilute the strong color contrast, but I found I loved the element of additional texture

Day Six

Day Six: A veneer of polymer clay tiles in a blend of moss green, ultramarine, turquoise and copper (Premo) was added and hand-buffed.

A lot of buffing remains, but I am taking the day off.

July 22 2011 Cedar Box in Progress

Day One: Cedar box, gessoed black and incised with Dremel Stylus to establish overall design.

Day Two: Top covered in Polymer Clay (using old fashioned Terra Cotta school clay) at various thicknesses to establish dimensions of design. I then textured the “cross” motif with a ball tool, and incised the outer “frame”.

Days Three & Four: The sides were covered (two each day) in the same manner as the top.

Day Five : The textured areas were antiqued with straight black acrylic paint, forcing paint into the grooves and divots, then wiped.
Then the center motif was dry brushed with a mixture of metallic gold, copper, green and black. Three very light applications were done to achieve sufficient contrast with the outer area with was simply wiped.

Next I will apply polymer clay veneers to the "raw" terra cotta areas and set stones, most likely turquoise, in the centers of the motifs.

May 17 '10 Rembrandt Treasure Box

May 17 '10 Rembrandt Treasure Box,
originally uploaded by pati b.

The top of the Rembrandt box. What lovely portraits have come down to us through time.
Originally I had transferred these images onto polyclay, but once done, I felt they lacked the warmth that canvas/fabric can impart, so redid them on linen/homespun.
The tiles are all bits and pieces cut from a series of medallion tiles I made and then dabbed with several metallic paints to both gild and warm them to enhance the images.

May 17 3 Views of Rembrandt Treasure Box

May 17 3 Views of Rembrandt Treasure Box,
originally uploaded by pati b.

I am so happy to have finally finished this piece. It seems that every bit of it except for the brocade fabric on the body has been done or redone at least twice.

Click photograph to see a larger image.

2010 0510 Treasure Box W.I.P. #2

2010 0510 Treasure Box W.I.P. #2,
originally uploaded by pati b.

End of day. The inside of the box is sponge-painted after black gesso applied in metallic deep red, titanium gold and bright gold. The bottom will possibly be tiled in polyclay or covered in fabric...
Images are on transfer paper, reversed and ready to transfer to clay. I printed an extra for safety, a tiny pair possibly for earrings and medium size for mini boxes and/or a two sided pendant, if I don't tire of these images too soon.
The squares are made from the fabric motifs, which I scanned.

2010-0510-Treasure Box W.I.P.

2010-0510-Treasure Box W.I.P.,
originally uploaded by pati b.

Got very fortunate yesterday and found a wonderful bunch of cigar boxes, cedar and paper for $2 and .25 each respectively. Then, at a flea market, found a book on the Uffizi Gallery, which I visited a long time ago ($4). Started today on a box. Gessoed black, fingerpainted gold, determined sizes etc for polyclay transfers, cut fabric for exterior of box from a piece I bought about 4 years ago "just because" .....
I'm either going to love this or.....not so much.
best viewed large, if you like this sort of thing.