Saturday, July 29, 2006

Wedding Shrine from start to finish in photos - part one

Here's the ugly duckling I chose for the base of the shrine. Ghastly, isn't it? There was a method to my madness. The creative couple's ceremony and celebration had elements of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Indian themes, with, as the bride told me, "a little 19th Century American." The shape of the piece echoed classic American cabinetry, a Duncan Phyfe curve to the top with the simple molding of the trim and base. The doors, however, were quite tropical with their carved relief palm trees, echoing the Indian and Pacific influences.
Paint and collage would easily eliminate the unfortunate leopard spots. I also liked the duality of the base -- symbolic of the union of two individuals -- two doors, two drawers for the bride and groom singly, and I would remove the interior shelf to create a unified space for the unity of the two as a couple.
Here is the couple's invitation (names redacted). Isn't it lovely? It gave me the pallette for the colors of the work, all warm shades. Originally, I intended to add teal as a single cool element for visual relief from all the warmth but the abundance of blue in the collage materials (see post below) would supply that contrast. I mixed my paints and set to work to transform this ugly ducking into a swan, an object that could become as personal and special as their celebration.

The bride wanted a partially finished shrine, so that they and their guests could together create the final product. In the post below, I show how that was done. After their wedding, the couple will send me pictures of the finished shrine in all its glory, and I will follow up here to show what evolved from the ugly beginnings.

Wedding Shrine -- from start to finish in pictures part 2

As usual, Blogger is not cooperating in loading pictures. I seem to have reached my limit. I will try to create a separate post showing the very start of this project. These are the photos of the finished stages.

I selected the embellishments, below, for my clients, in keeping with the wedding theme. These will be applied by the couple and their guests at the wedding celebration. There are 20-30 lengths of various fibers and ribbons to coordinate with the colors, some pressed flowers in self-stick dimensional resin, large blown glass beads in shades of red and gold and gold wire to attach them for drawer pulls and door knobs, metal tags with the couple's initials, and with words like "celebrate", "dream", "joy", poetry magnet words suited to love and romance, ceramic tiles, a small bottle, more beads, charms with the moon and stars, two small metal frames, chinese coins and metal charms, brass rings which can be tied to the ribbons. The couple can add personal objects with special meaning to these embellishments. I enclosed a package of Glue Dots for easy application. Here are about 30-40 small eye bolts I spray painted gold. They will be put on the back of the piece in whatever arrangement my clients wish, and then the ribbon and fibers can be threaded through them and tied on.
I collected many Asian and Indian images of couples, gods and goddesses, and fertility symbols and altered them in Photoshop and created collages. This is one such page.
Then I tore them into individual pieces or small groupings and ran them through a Xyron machine, which applies adhesive to the back and places them on paper, so they are easy to peel and stick - resulting in collage by the group effort.
Here is the front of the shrine, ready for further embellishment. I layed down layers of gesso, various shades of red and pink, transparent glazes in red and gold, and gold leaf detail on edges and to bring out the palm tree carvings.
Here is the side of the shrine. Each side was painted, freehand and with foam stamps, to replicate the background of the wedding invitation, with gold leaf on the outlines of some of the elements.
This is an old temple image of the Buddha on the back of the shrine, altered with paint and gold leaf, and with additional Buddha images added in a circular collage. The eye bolts for the ribbons will go here, if and where the couple desires.
Here is the interior of the shrine, with an image of an Indian god and goddess couple flying on the back of the bird god Garuda, placed over an abstract acrylic base, and further altered with watercolor, pen, and whatever else I could think of. More of the collage images can go around the image, on the sides and shelf, and inside the drawers.




I can't wait to see how this ends up -- it will be a treasured keepsake of their celebration, made with loving hands.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Wedding Shrine - quick update

But first, some Fine Whine:

I have to admit, I really don't like Blogger's format. I have another blog about the rest of my life (yes, I have one, such as it is), hosted by Typepad, and the options are endless, the format easy and intuitive. I opened this on Blogger, as an experiment, and I'm not happy with the result. Especially when posting photos. They just seem to appear wherever they want. Compared to Typepad, Blogger blows.

And now, back to our regular programming:

I spent a day or so laying on the gesso to cover all the ugliness and leopard spots. Then I mixed paint to match the invitation -- I opened it in Photoshop, did the eyedropper thingy, and made a sort of paint-chip pallette of the shades of red, lighter red, pale pink, pale yellow and bronze to check against. I need a cool color in there for contrast, can't have it entirely made of warm shades, so I'll probably work in my favorite dark teal as a small accent.

Yesterday, I laid down the background color, same as the background color on the invitation, which appears like a light red -- not pink exactly, just over the line into red. My carefully mixed acrylic, which matched the pallette shade exactly on my paint chip chart, went on smoothly. Unfortunately, it looked like I had poured a bottle of Pepto-Bismol over it. Precisely that shade of obnoxious pink. How could it look red on the invitation? I told myself not to get despondent, it will dry darker, and I'm planning to use a transparent bright red glaze over all the tints of red. I've put on the darker red today on some areas, and it appeared to be what the first shade should have been. After it dried and a second coat of both colors, I'm more optimistic. Once I apply some detail work tonight -- the swirly, fringy shape of the darker red on the top half of the invitation is going down the sides of the srhine over the paler red -- I'll glaze it first thing tomorrow and it should be, as Goldilocks said, "just right." In the meantime I'm working on the collage to go inside, and some reinforcement for the back panel, which will be covered with ribbons.

Here's the invitation, with the lettering Photoshopped out.

Or maybe not. I can't get the picture to load. Right format, all according to the instructions.... and nada. I really don't like Blogger. I really, really don't.

Friday, July 14, 2006

The Wedding Shrine, continued

In my previous posts, I discussed my proposal for a wedding shrine. To my delight, my client has accepted my proposal, and we have determined a theme and format.

A little background: This isn't your cookie-cutter type of wedding with the usual church service and reception that is like every other wedding you've attended. This couple has taken the time and trouble (and are creative enough themselves) to put together an event that is unique and very much THEM. I applaud this -- I am in favor of creativity, period -- and would love to go myself if it wasn't 1000 miles away, it sounds like a lot of fun. Basically, it sounds like a cross between Burning Man, a Renaissance Fair, and a Shinto temple ceremony. The celebration is a three-day event, in a gorgeous remote valley in Oregon -- with a lake, a bridge, a stage, campgrounds, and a beautiful view. The ceremony is on the first day, and will include a classic Japanese tea ceremony. There will be camping, picnics and festivities for the next two days, with entertainment, wandering philosophers, and possibly a marching band!

Their theme is suitably cross-cultural: Asian, Indian (as in India, not Native American), Pacific Islands, with a dash of American Victorian. The colors are shades of scarlet and gold.

I intend to take the ugly thing shown two posts back, paint and collage its surface and the drawer interiors, embellish the front, top and sides lightly with beads and microbeads for a bit of glimmer (in fact, I am going to try to reproduce their lovely invitation background in acrylic using gold leaf and microbeads for the gold accents on the sides and the drawer linings). In the interior, I will collage multi-cultural couples taken from art, primarily classic Indian and Japanese, with some Victorian vintage images. I will attach a Japanese tea cup in the center, for the couple and guests to fill as they wish. Each drawer will be personalized, one for the groom, one for the bride. On the back, I will attatch lots and lots of ribbon streamers, trailing behind the piece like the train of a gown.

Then, I will include a number of small embellishments, mostly dimensional, with a glue dot on the back of each. The bride's idea, which I love, is that the guests will finish the shrine themselves. The embellishments will also be Asian/Indian/Pacific Islander/Victorian, just peel and stick.

I can't wait to get started!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Another Custom Shrine For Comparison






In my last post, I discussed my proposed base for a commission for a custom wedding shrine. It could politely be referred to as the "before" picture. Dirty, ugly, in need of a facelift.

This would be the "after" picture, although featuring a different base. This was another custom altar, memorial, shrine, whatever you like to call a devotional object. This was made in memory of someone who had passed on and was very much missed.

So you can see that there's hope for the "before" picture, sad as it is. I'll post some more images of this shrine soon, and tell its story.




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A new commission....

... for a wedding shrine! Here is my proposed base, which at first blush is hideous. But with the misguided attempt at leopard spots removed, and a little color, and a little magic, it could be fabulous.

Here it is closed. Note the tropical palm trees carved on the door, yet the American/Victorian shape.

Details of carving below:








Here it is open. Look at all those wonderful places to tuck things away, the space to embellish. I want to remove the shelf inside, leaving a place for the "us" of the couple. Yet the two drawers can be for the individuals, because each member of the pair must be his or her own person, too.

Progress reports as they develop ............


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