Circus Box by Sue Murphy

Circus Box
4" x 7 1/2" x 4"
by Sue Murphy
Woodlands, TX
Somerset Studio - Sept/Oct '02

After a lightly sand and gesso to a papiér maché circular box, Sue painted stripes on the outside with red and yellow acrylic paints.

She drew a curtain opening.

Sue painted the inside of the box with black acrylic paint and decorated the inside and outside with collage elements such as color photocopies.

Sue glued the lid of the box to top of a foam core with the center pole in place. She stained a wooden ball with black Ancient Page ink and secured it to the skewer. She also attached tea-stained fibers to the center pole below the ball then to the sides of the box and added a small flag to the top of the pole.

She applied a light wash of walnut ink to the outside of the box and polished with a light shoe polish.

Sue cut 18 skewers the height of the interior of the box and stained the cut skewers and one long skewer with black Ancient Page ink. She cut two circles of foam core board to the size of the diameter of the inside of the box and decorated one with glossy black cardstock. She trimmed the edge of the foam core with a strip of yellow cardstock and covered it with black cardstock that has been punched with diamonds. She also cut a small circle in the center of both the foam core pieces that will accommodate the center long skewer and the 18 pieces around it. She made a hole in the lid of the box for the long skewer to act as the center pole. She secured all the skewers around the center pole in the decorated base foam core and glued it in place.

She made 18 glassine envelopes to fit around the skewers in a hingetype fashion and punched star border into the edges of each envelope.

Sue cut 18 small pieces of cardstock to fit into the envelopes and decorated them with color photocopies of circus posters and punched stars.

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