Author: Aisling

The Edgar Allan Poe Art Shrine is one of my favorite assemblages.

The elements include a raven printed on muslin, in three sections.

I found him in a Dover book, and added color in PhotoShop (Image-> Adjust-> Saturation).

Then, I printed him on iron-on tee shirt transfer paper that worked with inkjet printers. (This was back in 2009.)

I repeated the design several times on the paper, and then ironed the raven onto plain muslin, which I later cut to size. The edges were treated with Fray Check, a Dritz sewing product that prevents unravelling.

Black feathers and dried Black Malva flowers, plus dried wild rose petals, accent these compartments.

The portrait in the gold oval frame is Virginia, Poe’s great love.

I found her portrait in an old biography of Edgar Allan Poe, and copied it.

I printed it with sepia brown ink, on my inkjet printer.

The frame is a dollhouse decor frame.

In front of her rest dried wild rose petals, gathered at the seashore. I usually collect them at the park at Cape Neddick “Nubble” Lighthouse, in York, Maine, just over the border from New Hampshire.

(More info about “the Nubble” – Cape Neddick Lighthouse [offsite link]).

A leaf of dried sage is to the right of the portrait. Traditionally, in addition to sage’s popularity in cooking – it’s used in turkey stuffing/dressing – it also signifies healing. It’s also supposed to be an aphrodisiac.

According to Poe’s biography, he never recovered from the death of his wife. So, the healing quality of sage is most appropriate.

In the section to the right of her, there is a skull which was hand-carved from a deer’s antler. I found it at a flea market in Hollis, NH.

That dealer sells all kinds of weird and wonderful antique and reproduction beads and trinkets. He had only a few of these, and while it felt creepy buying one, it also seemed the right kind of creepy for this shrine.

In front of the skull are brass-colored metal candlesticks and dollhouse candles (probably plastic). I really like including dollhouse items in my shrines, especially if they look reasonably accurate. They can be pricey, but I find the best deals at crafts supply shops; these came from A.C. Moore in Nashua, NH.

In the center section, the lines of poetry are from The Raven.

The scan quality isn’t very good in this copy, so here’s what the lines say:

• Then, upon the velvet sinking
  I betook myself to linking,
  Fancy unto fancy, thinking
  What this ominous bird of yore
  Meant in croaking, “Nevermore.”

Next, a golden and teal-colored pillar represents Poe’s famous Fall of the House of Usher.

In the bottom row, the center image shows a photo of Poe, taken from his biography. I’ve modified this so it looks somewhat pointillist, and a little eerie.

At the far right is a limbless china doll’s body. I’m not certain why I included it, but it adds to the Gothic sensibility of the piece. It also came from the flea market in Hollis, NH.

The outside of the wooden shrine was painted black. On the back, I glued a title card and signed the piece.

The shrine is about 8 3/4 inches wide, and about 10 1/4 inches tall. It was completed in late September 2000, and immediately purchased by a happy collector.

Art should always be fun, and perhaps a little flippant. Here’s one way to make an art shrine using a small, empty matchbox… the kind you’ll find at a dollar (or £) store.

Shrine to the goddess of mascara,
Tammy Faye Bakker Messner

Tammy Faye Bakker Messner (March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) remains an icon today as she was during her brief time with us.

Her continuing optimism was a beacon for all of us. Her sincerity was almost as remarkable as her mascara — or were those false eyelashes…or both?

When I began working with art shrines, I had to make at least one shrine to her.

When I had reason to create sample “pocket shrines,” it was clear that one had to be to Tammy Faye. Few women have achieved such distinction in modern society. She was a legend in her own time, and success never spoiled her.

Inside the shrine, I’ve posted one of my favorite quotes from Tammy: “I’m just a small-town girl at heart.”  (How could anyone not fall in love with someone that sweet and naive?)

The Supplies

The box is a plain matchbox, bought at a scrapbooking store in Massachusetts.

You can buy blank matchboxes at Amazon.com, usually in bulk. Also, discount stores and smoke shops often carry inexpensive (full) matchboxes. Empty them and cover them with art. (I suggest trying one or two of these art projects before buying 50-or-so blank matchboxes.)

I lined the matchbox with a glitzy, iridescent pink fabric that I bought at the local JoAnn Fabrics.

The beads that spell dear Tammy’s name can be found at Amazon.com, and the little star bead was from a bead shop in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA).

The photos of Tammy are from several websites. Use any search engine to find “photos of Tammy Faye Bakker.” If any are too small, you can use a service like MidJourney’s Upscaler, to produce a crisp, clear, larger photo.

The outside of the matchbox is covered with a thin foil, which I got from Gayle Page-Robak.

My Art Shrine Process

To start, I cut out a photo of Tammy to feature her remarkable blue eyes.

The eyelashes are false, bought for $2.74 at WalMart. They’re the closest that I could find, to the “official” false eyelashes given to lucky members of the audience at the premiere of “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”

(I have since acquired two sets of the official false eyelashes from the movie premiere. However, you can probably find similar eyelashes at any dollar store.)

I glued the eyelashes, beads and fabric in place with Perfect Paper Adhesive. Everything else was glued with Rollataq, but any paper adhesive could work fine.

(Now, I use Yes! Paste, the far better adhesive I prefer for all of my collage art. It’s pricey, but lasts forever, is repositionable for a while, and nothing puckers or buckles. Big thanks to Nancy and Milan for recommending it!)

 

Here’s another matchbox shrine, simply called “Create!” It was inspired by a visit to an antiquities museum in London (England).

 

If you have any questions about making these kinds of art shrines, leave a comment. I’ll answer as helpfully as I can!

[P.S.  I’ve been enormously flattered by the many requests for the Tammy shrine, but it’s not for sale.]

This is one of my workshop samples. It’s a pocket shrine in an embellished matchbox.

When I made this, I was inspired by a visit to the China pavilion at EPCOT’s World Showcase, in Orlando, Florida.

The left photo shows the outside of the shrine, and the right photo shows the matchbox, opened.

For this shrine, I used a plain matchbox that I’d covered with pieces of a Chinese newspaper.

I glued the hare (rabbit) sticker (from a swap) to the outside of the box, partly because I was born in the year of the hare. Then, I added the word “Prosperity,” since—in Chinese culture—the hare is a sign of longevity, peace, and prosperity. I like that idea.

Also, I cut the outside (the cardboard case) of the matchbox so that it would serve as a “door” to the shrine. It opens and closes, making the shrine interactive.

If you’re going to do something similar, I recommend gluing the case to the matchbox. For this shrine, I attached the case with a small amount of hot glue. So far, it’s held up well.

Inside the shrine—and for fun—I used decorated origami papers and other items that seemed to fit the theme.

Elements in this shrine include:

• a gold paper notary seal
• the Chinese symbol/word “prosperity” from a rubber stamp
• a yin/yang symbol on a Chinese newspaper
• and a small replica of a Chinese coin, held in place with hot glue.

You can learn more about making matchbook shrines at my how-to article, Tammy Faye Bakker Matchbox Shrine.

Also, if you’d like a peek at EPCOT’s China pavilion, here’s one of my videos for you to enjoy:

This is a pocket shrine that I created for an art shrine exchange – an art swap – hosted by Patty Harrison in the UK, September 2000.

Artist’s statement:

This box represents the “other” world. It’s the fantasy land of the faeries. In legends, it’s a world similar to ours but also different.

The black sky represents the darkness people travel through to reach this land. The flowers (painted, and dried, natural flowers) are part of the dazzling beauty of this fairy world.

The dangling opalescent star is what gives the shrine movement and life. The small bit of quartz crystal in each box represents “magic” in everyday life, which we add in our own, unique ways.

How each one was created

Preparing the container

I started with small wooden boxes, purchased at the local fabric store, JoAnn Fabrics. They’re each about four inches tall and have a removable lid with a star cut in it. (You could probably use one like this, at Amazon.com.)

I stained the outside of each box light oak and added color stains using a stencil that I’d cut into a classic star shape.

The inside of the lid is painted with gold. Inside the box, I used a moss green shade of Lumiere paint. The back of the box is lined with black plush velvet, which I glued to and wrapped around a cardboard base, before gluing it in place with Aleene’s Tacky Glue.

Then I drilled holes in the sides of the box, inserted part of a bamboo skewer (from barbecue supplies) and painted it black, so it’s sort of like a rod in a closet.

The shrine elements

In the very back, I used a moon-and-black-bird image that I’d created for one of my history websites. The bird represents the Morrighan, of Irish mythological history. She is one of the Tuatha De Danann, also called fairies.

Next, I drew a dolmen and painted it with watercolor. Both this and the moon/bird images were scanned a printed on shiny photographic paper, which I trimmed neatly before gluing the images in place on the velvet.

The flowers and elements of the green world were drawn with a zero-point Rapidograph (any fine-point, waterproof pen—like a Sharpie—will work fine). Then, I painted it with Dr. Ph. Martin’s concentrated watercolors. I scanned the art and printed it in full color on heavy matte paper.

These pieces (two per shrine) were glued, diorama-style, using tabs I’d left on the sides of the art when I trimmed it.

Next, I trimmed and glued bits of moss and dried natural flowers in the shrines. I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue for this.

Then, I added one small quartz crystal in each shrine, slightly hidden in the greenery.

Finally, I suspended an opalescent star bead from the “closet rod” in the box, using black thread. I glued one opalescent glitter star to the “closet rod”, and one directly to the black velvet background.

(In this photo, the black rod conceals the topmost edge of the moon. The rod is visible in the real shrines but does not generally obscure any of the images.)

Completing the shrines

The outside of the box was highlighted with gold and varnished using a glossy polyurethane finish.

Each of the four shrines sent to this exchange contained a small plastic bag. In it, there was a quartz stone with a hole in it, strung on a purple satin ribbon. (In fairy lore, if you look through a stone with a hole in it, you may be able to view the faerie world. Since childhood, I’ve loved that kind of fantasy.)

I made a total of eleven of these shrines.

Four went to the exchange, three were kept in our family, and three were sent to “four creative somethings*” subscribers who requested them.

The remaining one was sold to a collector at Artfest 2001.

*”Four creative somethings” was a four-part subscription to small pieces of art, sent at random to people who signed up. That art subscription is no longer available.