Los Secretos de Vida y la Muerte
This was total inspiration – initiated by an invitation to a Day of the Dead party hosted by a friend. The Day of the Dead has been a presence in my life since marrying my husband, Bryan (decades ago!). He’s the last degree of the zodiac, half Spanish, respects and studies Mexican culture, bilingual, and almost died in his 20s. So we have a house full of skeletons and skulls, so the energy, visuals and sentiment are familiar and comfortable to me.
This actually started with a wine bottle that had a paper wrapped, which I wanted to use. I also wanted to integrate some of the iris paper I’ve made and was just playing with ideas. I used mat board, where I usually use book board, but didn’t realize how great this would turn out.
Here’s the outside of the box, where I used a nature print, and the inside, with a book attached to the left cover, and a slide top box on the right
This was total inspiration – initiated by an invitation to a Day of the Dead party hosted by a friend. The Day of the Dead has been a presence in my life since marrying my husband, Bryan (decades ago!). He’s the last degree of the zodiac, half Spanish, respects and studies Mexican culture, bilingual, and almost died in his 20s. So we have a house full of skeletons and skulls, so the energy, visuals and sentiment are familiar and comfortable to me.
This actually started with a wine bottle that had a paper wrapped, which I wanted to use. I also wanted to integrate some of the iris paper I’ve made and was just playing with ideas. I used mat board, where I usually use book board, but didn’t realize how great this would turn out.
Here’s the outside of the box, where I used a nature print, and the inside, with a book attached to the left cover, and a slide top box on the right
Here’s the wine paper, which I used to cover a sliding cover, and the cover slid open to reveal the objects within.
Here’s a closer look at the contents. The silver case on the lower right was my grandfather’s match box, which keeps wooden matches dry and there’s a striker on the bottom. The tooth was in his box with the match box, and I suspect it is elk. There’s also Hawaiian sugar and Tibetan salt in two small bottles, along with a mixture of sandalwood and holy basil powder in another. Also a fossilized small sand dollar, marble, crystal, some roll on glitter and a box with just air.
Here is the book, which is an original composition crystallizing the wisdom of my life and which I try to practice, written in Spanish, with some Spanish editing help from my friend Nelda Slater.