Saturday, June 12, 2010

alicia's final contributions to deb's book: through the eye glass (part 1 of 2)

so sorry but this is going to have to be a two part installation, part two being posted in a day or four.

i am finally pretty much finished with deb's book "through the eye glass". i had initially come up with several ideas, but the day or so before it arrived she asked me "where are you going to take damien and maude?" oh... hmmm. i hadn't thought of that. so gears shifted and plans changed... except this one.

"page" one has two doors. a top door that opens from right to left like a book, and a door at the bottom that opens from the top down (shown in a previous post). the contents of the bottom door will be revealed later as it's still in the works.

debs likes "tiny details" so i tried to incorporate as many tiny things as my patience would allow... like little tiny silk flower knots.

and little tiny crackles on the petri dish i incorporated into the page...

the petri dish lid is another door, that opens once you unsnap the lion's head pull that you can just barely make out on the right.

inside, you see a cameo of maude's profile. you'll learn more about this later. this piece an (of course) be removed from its petri dish enclosure.

the cameo piece itself opens up to reveal a sweet little heart -- an obvious symbol of love. :) it fits the story, promise.

on the back of the cameo piece is another wee pocket with a note from damian. leave me alone about the handwriting please and thank you. :) i worked for FOUR HOURS to have male victorian era handwriting and failed, so gave up.

open the whole top door, and this is what you see:

on the left, a collection of tickets and such, with a scroll of sorts beneath.

detail of the scroll closure:

the scroll...

it unrolls to be about 22 inches long and is a series of diary entries that tell of their travels and all that they collect along the way. there isn't a treasure in the box that you'll have to wonder where it came from... well, maybe one or two but that would be intentional.

the other side is a treasure box. (debs! you asked me "can you sneak that wee frog on there? -- i did!) this is a collection of things from around the world that will be revealed in the diary pages.

the locket opens to reveal damian. yeps, i stole that photo from lisa's photo of what she did in this very book. we need a wee bit o' consistency, right?

i had a huge amount of fun making the hinges for the top (the lace is very stained and the metal rusty and patinaed in a gorgeous way, but you can not tell here for some reason.

oh, here you can, kind of:

next post will be a quick follow up of what's in the bottom box, and what the back is all about. i may do a video as well so the flow of the book is more obvious. peek back soon.

12 comments:

  1. ooh, i almost forgot to tell you girls that i've just posted an update to deb's book. one more in a couple of days, then it's off to kim. time to catch up on mail and such! my keyboard has been buried for 3 days.

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  2. so fantastically beautiful Alicia...the soft colors, the embellishments and the secret places make for a very inviting story...looking forward to seeing and hearing more! Love that you kept Damien as himself LOL although sometimes all those Victorian photos start to look alike! Bravo on your lovely work of altered art!

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  3. This is a masterpiece! I love every *single* thing about it. Each element just sings and is so perfect together and your cleverness with all the things that open are just amazing!!!

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  4. très joli travail.. faudrait aussi collectionner tous ces de merveilles pour intégrer ...

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  5. Brilliant! Did you write out the scroll as well Alicia?

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  6. This is fantastic,-I love all the messages to reveal,when opening up for the secrets all over.So beautifull,with the diary, -I love your ideas, very much.
    Dorthe

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  7. Stunning and beautiful! I love it all!

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  8. I've been a bit slow! What a wonderful spread you've done for Deb's book! So many lovely little things anmd hidey places! I am sure Deb's will treasure every iddy-biddy-bit! I lve that whole page with the cameo, the circular shape and fibres and colours you've used. Way to go you!

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  9. Ok - that's real weird. I posted this huge comment about this posting days and days ago and I see it didn't post here! Grrr....
    No wonder Lisa J told me to check out what Alicia had done just now. You guys must think I'm so rude not getting round to it...but the truth is, I had. So here I am again leaving a comment (it better post this time...grrr).
    This is what I said honey (something like this):
    OMG Alicia - this is as Kerin said - a masterpiece!!! I love every single thing you have done here...and as you very well know, I am detail obsessed and boy have you delivered on that front, and then some!!! Those hinges are just exquisite and the little frog my favourite (but you know that already). I can't thank you enough Alicia, on making this collaboration of ours something so very special. I cannot wait a moment more to get this book back!!!

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  10. thank you guys so very much! and shame on blogger for not posting deb's comment. i wondered if you secretly hated it. hah. i'm silly, i know. i'm off to buy up a couple of last things and finish up over today and tomorrow so should have this off to the lovely and talented kim oh so soon.

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  11. Wow Alicia,another fabulous addition to Debs book! I love the consistency you have generated here and all the little details of course. I understand completely about the handwriting thing as I have just had all the same trouble here with an art piece. It's so difficult to get consistency with the writing!The attention to detail is fabulous. Love the rusty metals and fabrics and the ephemera too. Can't wait to explore it all in person and poke around in Maudes story!

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  12. omg...this is SO IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!! You can totally tell that you worked so hard on it. The results are FANTASTIC!!!!

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