Cool Shadowbox!

Hey!

I did a really cool shadowbox last week! The clients had been to the Caribbean and had snorkeled. They found broken pieces of coral that spelled out their young daughter's name: Lucy. They wanted the coral pieces framed and the pieces "sunk into" the batch of sand they had brought back in a plastic baggy.

I thought about the task at hand for a moment or two, then said, yes! I can do this! I quoted them a price, which, of course, was FAR too cheap, but that's what happens in this business!

Upon thinking further about this project as it loomed above me, I came up with a cool solution! Since the acrylic modelling paste I bought for it dried OPAQUE, I couldn't mix it with the sand as I had originally thought. So I layed out the modelling paste into a semblance of wave-washed sand and layed the coral pieces slightly embedded into it. It took ALL WEEKEND for it to dry! It was about half an inch thick. It cracked, so I painted decoupage medium into the cracks. Once that was dry, I mixed the beach sand with the decoupage medium and painted it all around the coral pieces and the wave-rippled beach I had created. Then I placed little, teenie shells I had all around the coral pieces, to make it look even more like the sun-washed beaches of the Caribbean!

Wendy

The Art Corner

264 Washington Street

Salem, MA 01970

978-745-9524

Hours: Mon to Sat, 9-5, Thurs, until 7, Suns, 1-4

artcornersalem@verizon.net