I wasn't feeling very Musing today so thought it might be fun to revisit an older post. This one from back in March of 2015, was rather appropriate seeing as I just finished up a plaster and wax piece using one of these herring tins. (And I still can't stand the smell, or sight, of smoked herring. Ugh!) Regarding my new piece, it is the prize in a Giants of Nova Scotia giveaway next week. In case, yknow, you'd like to enter. Anyway without further ado...
Shrining
My husband loves ...LOVES... herring. Pickled. Smoked. Pickled AND smoked. Actually I have no idea if that's even a "thing" because I'm never EVER in the same room with him when he consumes 'teh stinky'.But.
After seeing these tins pile up in the recycling bin, I realized that the herring tins were kinda cool. Perfect shape for small shrines. And so ... I now have that recycling pile on my work table.
This is the first of many, I'm sure. Above is a close up of the interior which I lined with a piece of decorated cookie tin. The grommets from the upper rusty bit and the photograph keep it in place.
The "magnifying glass" is made from the handle of a silver spoon, a round plastic something filled with Diamond Glaze. I purposely washed over the "glass" with a bit of quin gold to antique it up. (it was just too darned shiney!)
I gave everything a loose wash of quin gold and payne's gray including the photo, the top rusty tin accent and the magnifying glass. [tip: heat up the tin so the paint really grabs hold]
The eye is one that I received as a present from Denise. As an aside, not sure how they worked, I pulled one apart and frankly am amazed that this level of manufactured intricacy is used for one small part of a doll. Very cool.
The turquoise and red accents were a serendipitous happening. The grommet that holds the top rusty bit in place is made of brass and after the quin gold wash was applied looked too ..erm.. round and obvious. Generally if something is sticking out like a sore thumb I either try to camouflage it or work with it and make it REALLY stick out. I decided on the latter and used some turquoise as a brass patina, sort of dripping down from the edging. But that one bit looked so out of place so I put some more around the edges of the tin. I touched up the little screw on the spoon base with a bit of red, something I do quite often with nail heads. And well, I kinda just kept going, adding red blips and then made the turquoise stronger. Not a colour combination I usually work with. But I really like it.
Finished Herring Tin Shrine #1:
