Altered Everything Else

I wish this blog could be less sporadic, but at least it continues...

After my altered book experiences, I decided that other things could be altered, as well.  For another project in Lea's Anything Goes class, I decided to do an "altered game board"--again having been influenced by something similar I saw in either a magazine or a book.  Only it wasn't a board that was altered; it was the box--actually, the box interior became the game board. 

I searched everywhere for a suitable box; after several trips to thrift stores, I decided what I really needed was a Mah Jongg case.  I found tons of them online and ordered one with a vintage world map embracing the entire cover.   When it arrived, I decided it was too nice to alter!  So I sent for an entire Mah Jongg game in a plain case.  Perfect.  I put the MJ pieces in the map-covered case and kept the plain red case for my project.  (And, by the way, I learned to play Mah Jongg!  But I gave it up a few months later; and, though I buy the card each year, I have yet to try it again!) 



The outside cover, which was all the outside altering I did

I called my project "Time and Butter Flies"--which ended up looking like a game that should be able to be played, but I never actually came up with a "real" game. 

The interior, top and bottom

Oh, yes, and I had to figure out how games, in general, were set up in this day and age, which meant starting a games collection, some of which I play solo when I have time:  Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Alhambra, etc., etc.  And then, from various online entities, I had to order game pieces, including dice, cards, bingo chips, markers, dominoes, and more etc., etc. 

For the most part, I just placed things where they made the most sense.  Though they aren't in the photo, I did alter part of a deck of cards to fit on the two little rectangular spaces.  I created the two insets outside the case and then adhered them to the top and bottom.

I had not altered anything in a couple of years; but recently, I decided, this being the Year of the Dragon, I needed to do something with that theme.  I am also a stamp collector, as in postage stamp, as in philatelic (as opposed to rubber stamps, of which I also have a major collection).  I figured that the stamps, souvenir sheets, First Day Covers, and other philatelic items featuring dragons would be works of art in and of themselves, and I was correct.



The altered stamp album cover

I had already accumulated quite a number of Asian-themed background papers, Asian-themed rubber stamps, and Asian-themed embellishments.  I had a binder from an old stamp album--so I would create an "altered stamp album" themed around Year of the Dragon.  This is a misnomer, since I was only altering the binder--I created the pages by cutting cardboard to size, covering each side with the decorative papers.  I did this project a couple of months ago in Lea's class--now called Art Fix and held at the Harwood Center Studio. 

Pages from Canada and Taiwan

So what remained was to collect the stamps--most of which I found on eBay, though I bought a few from other stamp sales Web sites.  For weeks, the USPS was delivering mail to me from all over the globe as I continued to add to this collection.  (One person has called this whole project a "collection of collections!")  Eventually, it all came together.  I finished everything but the embellishments and hope to have the remainder completed within the next couple of weeks.

Embroidered stamp is at top left

The philatelic items, themselves, were pretty fascinating, including a souvenir sheet from Lichtenstein with laser-cut designs; a silk souvenir sheet from Hong Kong; and an embroidered "stamp" (complete with adhesive on the back) from Micronesia.  I'm hoping to take the whole thing to the National Topical Society's annual convention, which this year is in Lancaster, PA--but it may be too heavy for my carry-on luggage.