Boudicca took a liking to one of my jewellery boxes which has a faux leatherette cover and more or less shredded it to pieces with her sharp little claws. Rather than throw the whole jewellery box away (especially as my current jewellery "collection" is spilling out of my other jewellery box), I decided to attempt an "upcycle".
I started by pulling off the cover material. I then painted over the wood in several layes of white acrylic paint.
I decided, for the sake of ease and speed, that I was going to go for a spray paint finish. So, I ordered a pale blue and metalic gold spray paint and some pattern stencils which I rather liked.
I used the back of the drawers (since no-one will see these) to practice the spray painting effect since I haven't done it before.
After I sprayed the entire box in blue and allowed it to dry, I started work on the stencils and gold spray paint.
I used a mixture of different stencil patterns on the different sides, because I couldn't decide which I liked best.
It was much more difficult to get a neat effect when the surface wasn't flat (ie. where the hinges protuded) because the stencils couldn't lay flat against the wood. This resulted in a lot of bleed, but I decided to accentuate this "blurred" effect, rather than it appearing as a mistake.
This was especially the case at the front (the most visible face) where the ring pulls and fastenings are located. I decided to opt for the flowery/star design which didn't have a fixed square border and took a more experimental approach, layering the pattern in different ways, making some of the spray crisp and neat and others more blurry. In the end I think it turned out reasonably well, even if it's not perfect - it's a massive improvement on the clawed faux leather.
I then went through my other jewellery box, as well as the little travel cases I take with me when I am away from home and tried to sort the jewellery into the drawer compatments of the two boxes. Boudicca especially enjoyed this process as she loves to play with anything sparkly and colourful and she regularly (accidentally) scratches me when she tries to grab my necklaces. I layed all the drawers our and had the realisation that I might have a jewellery addiction... A lot of it I buy when I am travelling and it becomes a momento of the trip/place, some of it I have made myself from Polmer Clay, the rest I buy to match specific outfits/costumes or for specific occassions (ie. a protest march or Christmas). It made me think about our MA teaching session when we discussed the difference between being a collector and a hoarder. Given the effort I have made to store and display it neatly, I'm going to say that I'm a collector, albeit an addicted one.
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