You can create wonderful, pocket-sized art shrines by combining tags with other art elements.
I’d already worked with many traditional matchbox shrines. This time, I wanted to deconstruct a matchbox – and add it to a tag – to see what I could do with it.
I had in mind a theme that was magical and whimsical, perhaps referencing the fairy world.
The results were okay. In fact, when I first made this and displayed it at Artfest 2002, it was considered almost radical.
Today, in late 2024, it seems a bit simplistic, but I think the concepts are worth sharing with you. You’ll no doubt take this idea further.
Here’s what I did.
I started by cutting the matchbox – the actual inside box – into pieces.
After refolding the new top side of that little box, and gluing it together, I lined the reconstructed box with origami paper.
Then, I attached a miniature Tarot card and a small iridescent bead like a crystal ball.
On the outside of the matchbox, I glued a bit of gold ribbon and some more origami paper, and I added my “signature” antennae with gold-colored wire and beads. (I’d been using wings and ornate antennae starting in the late 1990s.)
Next, I glued the matchbox to a pair of stamped wings, reinforced with wire so they bowed like real wings.
(I use this winged stamp often. It’s from Stampers Anonymous.)
Then I attached this whole thing to a small tag, stamped with the word “CREATE.”
Finally, I added beads to the tag string, and glued a miniature Artfest 2001 logo to the back of the tag.
Looking at it now, late in 2024, almost every aspect is a lot simpler than art shrines I’m making now.
However, the basic concepts remain the same, so I’m sharing this with you, hoping you’ll explore matchbox shrines, too!