Yes, I changed the whole “writers” idea mid-stream. The box was going to be ENTIRELY different… I must have given insufficient information to the friends to whom I wrote. That will be phase two, we’ll start over. Thank you in advance!
For my cigar box, which will hopefully be chosen as one of the top ten boxes donated and auctioned on April 17 at Tillett Gardens in St Thomas, I worked all my photos in Photoshop. The keyboard is a photo I took in an antique store in Biltmore. The photo of the inside of an old upright piano was taken a few years ago when I drove a busload of students to the Blue Ridge Assembly for a field trip. I love to wander around and explore.. the piano was upstairs in an old schoolhouse there.
My friend Donna Allaire in Massachusetts – aka The Craft Queen – gave me great info about giving the box an old look, by painting it twice with amber shellac and then toasting it with a heat gun, which Steve Monahan did. Thank you so much, Donna, and Steve. Blessings you are!
Inside, see photo – showing 2 scrolls I added. The scroll with the knobs on top is a letter with my light-hearted research on the song “Row Row Row Your Boat” – the music box attached to the box (in front of the larger scroll) plays that song. Steve was invaluable with his carpentry tools, cleverly attaching the music box to the cigar box with two screws that are hidden by the photo of the knobs above the keyboard. And Steve pointed out that those ‘pull knobs’ aren’t found on a piano.. adding the knobs made my creation - – organ-ic – -
The larger scroll contains the same letter about the song, but kindly Brailled for me by a lady named Margie at Industries for the Blind on Sardis Rd here in Asheville. I thought it would be a good thing to include an other-sighted person in the art project. Margie made the nicest little soft giggles as she typed while I was reading aloud for her. She’s a very sweet lady and I think she was pleased to be a part of the process. I can’t wait to see if the Lord brings a blind person to the cigar box auction in St Thomas, or if my cigar box finds its way to a blind person’s hands for whatever length of time.
On the radio I heard a beautiful story about a man who was on a plane, seated near Stevie Wonder. This man wanted so much to let Steve know how much he loved his music and the part Steve had played in his life, so he wrote that on a note and passed it to Steve’s companion, not knowing whether he’d be flat-out rejected. The assistant took the note, and later Steve asked for the man who’d written the note. To his surprise, Steve drew the note-writer into a tight hug – so close that “he could smell him.” It was a surprise as he realized that Steve would recognize a person by his smell, and of course, he could smell Steve too. Talk about a bonding. That’s more friendship than either of them would have known than if they’d just seen each other and shaken hands. I like that story. Steve, you bless people you’ll never meet. And whoever purchases my cigar box.. consider yourself hugged by all the people who were involved in my creation.
My “artist’s statement” is about 2 inches high.. can you read it? I made it into a little work of art of its own, framed it and wrapped it in an old ladies’ hanky and put it inside the box, with the two scrolls. There’s also a chocolate candy, a small ‘seacoast’ sachet and two nickels. Something for everyone…
So.. my cigar box is somewhere over land or sea now. I couldn’t have done it without my husband’s kindness.
I’m trying to place the photos on this blog but haven’t figured that out yet..
Next: what’s written on the scrolls.
Cathryn
