Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Witchy Jar

As promised, I have photos of a craft project today! The witchy jar I'm going to show you was inspired by many things I saw other great artists doing on etsy.com. For example, I love witch balls, glass orbs you hang in your window to catch bad spirits or witches (who come in the window I guess??)

I also kept seeing seed pods from sweet gum trees all over the ground as I walked Talon (my doggy). As I kid, I always called these witch balls. I imaged that a witch had captured some kind of fierce bird and magically imprisoned them in the pod, only their beaks sticking out desperately cawing and snapping.
etsy.com.

Finally, I love the look of vintage/old fashioned/primitive Halloween decor. Here are some examples:

























So, my little creation is a cross between a witches ball and a potion jar...


















Inside is a black papel picado. Mine is very simple, nothing compared to the intricately cut decorations, kind of like a snow flakes, that are used during El Dia de los Muertos, Mexico's festival for the dead. The papel picado I made is decorated with silver glitter. As a side note, El Dia de los Muertos is a huge creative inspiration for me and I will be sharing more related art pieces as we get closer to that time of year (Nov. 1,2).
Also inside the jar is one of those sweet gum seed pods that I scented with some essential oils. The outside is decorated with a variety of beads, eyelash yarn and feathers. I also made special embellishments like the bat pendant and a small, stamped tag on the other side. I'm really proud of it! Just to let you in on my creative process, this poor thing took me a month to finish at least. I usually don't know what my object will look like at the end so I make it up as I go along! I rely a lot on filling my head up with images from etsy, art blogs and catalogs then waiting for whatever comes out... Anyway, I've enjoyed creating this post for you all :) Please forgive my photography, hehe. My pro-photo hubby will surely be giving me some pointers in the future!
Allison

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