Assemblage Art: Part 6

I’ve been having the best time creating mixed media art this year. Dedicating most of my time to assemblage work since January 1, I’ve experimented with so many different supplies, tools and techniques learning many lessons along the way. I’m really glad that you’re along for the creative ride. Here are my most current pieces to date and a few details about each.

“To Town”

The 1932 license plate was the start of the theme for this assemblage. I googled sedans of that year and lucky me, I had a little Japanese tin toy car of just the right model year that I’d recovered in a grungy barn dig a few months back. I added only vintage decals to modify it.

The box was a very old container for tool dies. I lined the edges with vintage cigar box paper strips and propped up the wire hinged lid from the back with small brackets made from erector set pieces to create a sort of building facade. The orange label inside the lid was a great start to for collage including a vintage trade card clipping of birds stamps.I lined the back of the box with vintage wallpaper stenciled with modeling paste using one of my custom stencil designs. I placed an old real-photo postcard from around the same era as the license plate to give the illusion of the car driving toward a building with people coming and going. I added a couple of patina’d antique brass embellishments to create more relief.

“Good Luck”

This may be one of my favorite assemblages so far. The yellow wood background piece was the lid of an broken jewelry box with the most fantastic crackled decal. The little lead cowboy is affixed atop an old cotter pin tin. I created the stencil by knocking out sections from a typed and outlined word in Adobe Illustrator then sent to my Silhouette Cameo to cut from cardstock.A little aluminum Good Luck token screwed into drawer handle backplates and attached to lengths of a metal folding ruler made a fun prize ribbon rosette. The cap gun is wired into and old metal food can that my neighbor found while back-roading in California Gold Country. I rolled the lid back and sprayed it with clear enamel to seal the rust. I lined the can with a section of printed metal from a flattened vintage coffee can.

“Ascend”

My oldest daughter, Jamie, asked me to create an assemblage just for her. To me, there is no greater flattery. This is that piece reflecting my hopes for her to travel far in love, career, and life.I trimmed the old cigar sample box with custom-designed paper tape that reads “Ascend”. Once again I stenciled the background with one of my designs. The balloon was crafted from a vintage French rolling toy I found on eBay. Using the scrap from the same vintage coffee can mentioned in the “Good Luck” piece above, I formed a hillside structure to sit in front of the sweet vintage wallpaper illustration. The little tin roof is made from the same biscuit tin as used in the the “Charm & Charity” assemblage below. The trees were crafted from grungy, old paint brushes sawed at the cuffs.

“Untitled”

A more fragile piece, this assemblage includes a tree branch from my back yard which protrudes through a hole in the old wood box holding a nest found in my late father-in-law’s vineyard made mostly of horse hair.The little British man’s wheelbarrow is filled with tiny blue eggs to match the larger faux ones in the nest. The background is vintage wallpaper stenciled with one of my designs and rubber stamped.

“Charm & Charity”

The background panel of this piece is a dove-tailed panel from a disassembled old blasting box.The lid of a vintage candy tin made the perfect frame for this assemblage. I cut the oval hole, attached glass from behind, and lined with vintage ballchain.I used stencil paste, and again, one of my stencils on a section of an old book cover trimmed to fit inside a cruddy cigar box as a background piece for the candy tin frame.The inset pedestal/background piece was cut from a large, damaged biscuit tin trimmed out and folded to line a small Tim Holtz idea-ology Vignette Box. The little lead woman figure was repainted to coordinate with the floral frame and secured into the little tin-lined box. Side note: When I posted this particular image to Instagram during the process of painting, one follower commented that it looked as though she was using a selfie stick. Ha! It does!!

“Special Prize”

The box frame for this assemblage was an old, narrow drawer lined with vintage wallpaper, a stenciled word, and small paper prize certificate from a pet exhibit. I left the little drawer pull knobs in tact (at the top). Inset is a vintage candy tin of which I cut an oval window from the lid.I designed and printed paper cigar box trim that reads meilleur ami, French for best friend.Inside the tin I made a metal platform covered in a book to center the small vintage lead dog in the window, and background from a vintage trade card graphic, and faux Petaluma postal rubber stamp.The window is trimmed with distressed Dresden foil.