Mortem\’s Trick or Treats: Art Inspired By Art.

I have a lot of things to catch up on, things I  have been up to during the past year…I promised opening a shop, and for a good chunk of the year I was working on a few items to fill that shop.I suddenly find myself in a position of not quite liking the name I had chosen for myself earlier… and I still haven’t been able to settle on a name I feel at home with; nothing seems to be speaking to me much.Anyway, I wasn’t going to focus on my sewing with the shop so I started making some hand painted items– these items were made a few months ago, but like I said, I am catching up on the going ons in my humble abode.I started with a jewelry box. The idea was to make a kind of folk-y type kind of jewelry box… but I don’t know how much I succeeded, because images of vintage beistles danced across my head.

I free handed all the pencil outlines, using the popular scaredy cat napkin as a reference. It’s funny, this is my absolute favorite beistle cut out… and I don’t own it. One day I will… I’d like to focus on collecting them in the future– them and blow molds.

I can’t remember where I bought the little blank trinket jewelry box– it wasn’t normally from one of the main craft shops. Some little mom and pop shop I believe… could be a chance it was a thrift store too… Sadly my memory fails me, but I was ecstatic when I found it. I have to track down where to find more just like it.I got a little carried away with some of the details, which is why I say it is not quite a folk-y type box any longer… it’s just an art box?

You know when you love creating something, and all your love is pouring right into the project?I mean I guess I experience that with everything I am creating, but I felt it ten fold while painting this lil thing. Painting is a nice break from my usual going on’s; perhaps I am just speaking out of my ass… Well.I am second guessing that spider web ribbon that holds the lid/mirror up. Maybe I should have went with lace, as I did decoupage a bit on the top. I used some really pretty damask felt to line the top storage portion, and instead of using it in the drawered portion I continued the spooky design– there was a lack of bats on this box, these kind of turned into a nice little ‘surprise’.Oh oh, and my favorite part of this little box?It glows in the dark!Glow in the dark paint is my new favorite thing. I can’t stop painting with it, and adding it anywhere I can.So this was supposed to be for selling, yet despite what I made it for, I don’t think I can replicate it… and its been in my possession since I made it back in December of last year, and since no one has expressed an interest in it I feel extremely inclined to keep it for myself.I did make another little hand painted piece of vintage-halloween inspired love around the same time that I hope to have sold to a loving home.It’s heart shaped, get it? Get it?

I really wanted to continue experimenting with some of the surplus of supplies I had bought from doing a halloween swap and the supplies I had bought to build stock for my shop; I got a little zealous, to say the least. I had a huge block of white sculpey clay… so I’ve been making a few things- pendants, charms, pop out details to some hand painted wood wall hangings… hehe.

This one was inspired by another popular beistle stand up cut out, the pumpkin wasn’t a part of it and was also inspired by yet another beistle print (couldn’t find the exact pumpkin I referenced, but it was a set of pumpkins not unlike those in the link). Of course it also glows in the dark as well!Ooooh, spooky lil ghosts!Though I guess I didn’t use as much glow in the dark paint on the pumpkin as I thought I did. It’s so faint in the photo… but still visible in person.If you’re interested please feel free to email me for info and such: mari.mortem@gmail.comI hope sooner than later I can land on a shop name to get this ball continuing to roll… in the meantime, I will be making many more Halloween inspired goodies that I may or may not decide to keep, haha!