SS Chest

I'm putting the final touches on some sculptures for my Infinite Spaces show (coming up at SCYAP Gallery in Saskatoon May 2 - 20 in case you're interested!). I was "finished" this underwater cavern catoptric theatre - which just now I decided to call SS Chest*  because I can't remember the very clever name I'd decided on several months ago - I didn't like the gaping peephole hole I'd left on one side OR the fact that the rusty bits I'd glued on to the lower edges kept scratching the furniture - so back to the studio it went!

*SS is short for South Saskatchewan because all the rusty bits came from the river courtesy of my husband's curiosity and his summer job on the riverbank.

I thought some sort of board to elevate the sculpture slightly would end the gouging. I went to a store on the weekend to buy some moss for another project and saw some nicely finished letters and thought "hmm...that will do the trick; I don't have to sand it down or anything".

I bought a letter H and covered it with black fake velvet (so there'd be no more scratching):

Here's a picture of that destructive rust (the hunk on the bottom left corner):

I used gel medium and stinky E6000 to glue it to the bottom of the chest (just to be extra sure it would all hold):

So now the sculpture was up off the furniture but I still had that gaping peephole to deal with. I'd found a rather interesting rusty bit of filigree last week and pulled it out of the pile of supplies I use for my 5000 keys project. Sadly I did not really set it aside - I just moved it somewhere and now I have yet another thing on my list of special things in safe places that I cannot locate.

I tried a few different objects around the peep hole and in the end I used another rusty bit (from my curious husband who's currently working for a different company on another part of the riverbank). I had to file the piece down to get it to fit.

Here's a picture:

The white stuff is the gel medium (which is my preferred glue); it will dry clear.

And here's little peek inside that peephole:

Now I just have to figure out the lighting...