Sand tray...

...influenced by Joseph Cornell and his sand boxes...

He called his box constructions ‘pocket museums’ but this blog mainly looks at his sand trays...

What I love about his boxes is how encourages viewer participation

            he encouraged viewers to freely make associations between the elements in the works, 

                                gaining ‘direct access to the projects, browsing through them.

His portable collections - "pocket museums"  necessitate the viewer to take out the contents and objects, peruse them and either return or re-arrange them.

Cornell believed that wonders, miniature worlds, and aspects of realities and dreams embodied by his works would inspire others and that they might also take the time to explore the world about them, to ‘pursue beauty and knowledge in the “warp and woof of daily life”, just as he had’ 

see the book I recommended in my last blog...

....my first attempt at making a sand tray has had a few problems...

apart from not behaving when I tried to bake the case for an aged look!.... 

view of inside the tray...

...one of the problems was that I have incorporated a compass needle..

 it keeps popping off if the tray is shaken too vigorously! so I have had to make the tray accessible, I made a fabric hinge as I didn't want it to be obvious.
The sand can disappear  behind either the mermaid or the crescent on the opposite side....a bit like the tide coming in and out...now you see it...now you don't!

I couldn't resist using this Victorian mermaid!

I decided to add washed ink onto the lid to give the effect of being underwater....

I think it would look better if the ink was much darker....

I also think the sand needs to be really dark blue too...it's too light at the moment! 

...coating the box in brown paper and distressing it created a sense of age...I really wanted some old or odd handles but cannot believe how hard it is to find trays that don't have built in handles!!!...I will keep searching tho'!

It kinda works...but needs some refining...it swishes like the sea but is not quite right....originally I had a pebble in to highlight how they roll around and erode....but it was way too noisy...and destructive!

I'm not sure about the compass now...I prefer the minimalist look...I also think it needs to mature a bit, so I'll have another go....

I've set most of my work out for my crit' tomorrow morning...

anyway, happy reading....bye