My Morpheus Box

Well, today I am really proud to be able to share with you my very first assemblage piece of art!

The awesome Micheal deMeng online class was a gift from my husband and I LOVED it!!! To me this workshop was enlightenment on new ways of painting, encouragement to leave traditional ways of creating art behind (of which I had learned a lot at university but never felt very much at home with) and - what is most important : be daring and have a lot of fun!

So I Dremel-ed, I went to Vienna's famous Naschmarkt flea market on the hunt for beautifully rotten objects to add to my box, I sculpted, I used my drilling machine and saws again... well, actually I felt like in heaven this approach to creating art being so very natural to me.

The finished project looked even surprising to myself *lol.

So beware of a picture heavy enthusiasmic post today ;)

As the fun thing with the Morpheus Box is that it has a spinning block with four sides, each displaying a different painted image, I start with showing you my favourite painting: "Grandma".

All the paintings were made by painting over copies of old photographs from my personal stash (I hope my ancestors will know that I meant no offense by turning them into ghoulish beings ;).

This picture shows the spinning mechanism on top of the box. You turn the block inside the box by switching the tiny gear on top to your desired position. Cool, huh?

The idea of attaching horns to the box crossed my mind when browsing through e-Bay on the hunt of metal findings or other old rusted stuff... I stumbled upon a shop that sells animals skeletons and horns - perfect!!!

Attaching them to the box was the greatest challenge for me as it meant I had to cut the horns to size (wearing mask and goggles and using my Dremel on the balcony making a lot of noise I guess my neighbours had some rather weird sight that day *lol).

The last step - fixing the spin mechanism with the screw that holds the wood block in place inside the box - was quite tricky, but after a while of fiddling I managed to saw and file a wooden dowel that fit with the screw's head...

I coated the two pieces with Apoxy Sculpt, gave it some texture with a fine tool, let it harden and painted it afterwards as I painted the outside of the box using fine sand texture paste first and acrylic colours on it after it had dried.

The inside of the box was coloured using a mix of GlimmerMists, Perfect Pearls Mists and mica flakes, as I wanted to have something dark but at the same time shiny to show as a background and surrounding for the images.

This image shows the box in a very early state - there I just had the two rusted hinges which I wanted to use as "wings".... no idea that I would attach some spooky horns too at that time.

I played around a lot during my working on the box and thus came across two metal hanging ornaments I had been storing for quite some time then.

I attached them to the hinges using some raw wire.

I love how they dangle a little.... thus adding more movement to the box.











The clock face is from Prima's finnabair collection and I fixed it to the Jugendstil fitting using thin wire, trying not to work too neat and proper.











I tried to give the outside of the box a timeworn and rusted look, using the techniques I have learned with the wonderful Andy Skinner "Timeworn" workshop.
















I love the look of rust and decay and colourful patina! Painting verdigris is a lot of fun actually and it always is surprising how it alters a normal everyday item into something that looks as if it has seen a long time span passing by...

Painting the areas of the horns emersion points was the trickiest thing to do, but I finally managed to find the right colour mix for "goat horn" ;)

I did not paint the horns though as I love their natural colour and texture and did not want them to look artificial.

I love how they "frame" the box and drive the focus from the base to the top of the box, thus integrating the boxes surrounding.

As you have already met the "boys" and "grandma", I only have to introduce you to "dad" and "mom"... ;)

Some of you may recall "mom", as I used her with one of my earliest tags. 

Thank you so much, dear crafting friends, readers and followers new and old, for staying with me this far! I hope you like my Morpheus Box!

Hugs and happy crafting!

die amelie x