Cardboard Shrine Boxes

There were a couple of factors that tipped the scales

when it came to making my own shrine boxes as 

opposed to purchasing ready made ones. 

First and foremost, I wanted to design my own

patterns and create one of a kind pieces. Mind you, 

I looked at a bunch of different designs and

then started sketching out 

some patterns of my own on grid paper. 

The second reason goes back to

my desire to use the materials I have on hand.  

The bases are all sturdy Christmas card boxes. The

frames and details are cut from various cardboard mailing boxes

I'd saved. 

All of the pieces of these boxes

were adhered together with masking tape, no glue. 

Sorry about the fuzziness of the bottom box in this next picture,

but I wanted to point out how I used

some air dry paper clay as well as cardboard 

cut-outs to build up some dimension. 

I learned a few tips with this project. 

1) The more intricate the design, the more patience and time

you'll need to paper mache. I did several pieces at a time and it

would've been better to focus on one to completion. 

2) Also, the more detailed the design, the smaller the strips

of paper you'll need to fit in the little spaces. I thought maybe if

the paper was saturated enough, I could coax it into the crevices

and around corners. . .wrong! It didn't work and I had to undo and redo.

3) I would've been a bit more generous with the masking tape, especially

around the edges of the frame. One of the frames became

a little too pliable while sitting to dry. Gravity wanted to pull down

some of the scroll type edging that had become too saturated

during the paper mache process. I was able to straighten it, but more

tape may've prevented the problem in the first place. 

The following is my star shrine. I'll 

post pictures of this piece all finished in my next post.