Shadow boxes 5 and 6 in the Inside and Outside series

 Shadow box #5 in the Inside and outside series. I've nicknamed it "Fowl Play" (har har). 10"X10"

The birds in the tree is a colored pencil drawing. I made the little quilt behind the tiny chicken eggs out of upholstery samples. The ducks are pieces of the same samples glued onto foam core and cut out. The nest is real, a gift found by a good friend. I carved the edges of the wood, again, to get rid of the manufactured look. The 3 squares on the left "wall" are pieces of a watercolor, cut into 1" squares.

This one, #6, is 12"X12". It was inspired by a scene I saw on a walk on a day that the snow was retreating from under a stand of trees. The drawing is done with pastel, charcoal and colored pencil. The 3 stones have been coated with polyurethane. No title. Yet.

Shadow box #4 in the "Inside and Outside" series

Shadow box #4 in the "Inside and Outside" series. Untitled as of yet.

It's 12"X12". You might have seen the colored pencil drawing of the horses and trees alone, which I posted a few days ago on Facebook. The trees continue onto the top as they do in the last two boxes. The panels on the sides contain white horse hair from violin bows, wrapped in yarn with small brass doodads (I guess they are for jewelry.) The four little blocks at the bottom are pieces (glued to the drawing surface) I made by cutting and laminating pieces of paper painted with acrylics. Sort of like quilt pieces. You can see the pattern is the same, the pieces of paper are switched for each block. There are wood "walls" between the drawing and the horse hair panels and a "beam" across the front, all carved on the edges to take away the manufactured look. The tiny black horse is made of clay and was one of my 365 projects (Day 175 ~ Create a tiny version of something that would normally be much bigger). There are some curly grasses wrapped round the beam, too. I coated them with acrylic gel medium. This was hard to photograph, to get the richness of the drawing and, at the same time, the detail of the dark recessed places. I did my best!

The third shadow box ~ "A Dream in February"

The third shadow box ~ "A Dream in February", 6 X 6 X 2 1/4".

Like the second box, the colored pencil drawing wraps around the sides and top inside. The 'floor' is covered with sticks that have been wrapped in fabric and thread. The wood pieces have been carved to make them look a bit less factory produced. The design on the frame is done with pencil and watercolor.
The acorn is a 'found object', as well as the grasses and twigs stuck in the wood beads.

More to come >>>>>>> ! Many ideas!

Second shadow box ~ "Young Woods"

The second in the shadow box series. It's 8 inches square, 2 1/4 inches deep. The charcoal and colored pencil drawing wraps around the insides and top of the box. The drawing was inspired by the view out my studio window after our last snowfall. The little river rocks have been coated with polyurethane and sit on a cloth-covered shelf.

So, I've been getting into a shadow box thing.....

This is 12 X 16. It includes an original colored pencil drawing in the upper middle section. That was the first thing I did. Then I manipulated a print of the drawing on the computer, cut out an oval to reveal a shell. The tall panel on the right has a piece of an upholstery swatch with added beads. There are small chicken eggs, a deer bone, calligraphy done with a stick on velum. The flowers, done in watercolor on watercolor paper, are cut out and mimic the design in the fabric behind it. The grassy stuff in front of the figure is painted palm inflorescence stuck in holes drilled in the wood shelf. The bone is suspended from a hammered and painted eye hook with yarn and beads. The print if the tree sticks out, you can't really see that.

This was SO MUCH FUN!! And just the beginning. There will be more! I'm on a roll........