Altered Mixed Media Printer’s Tray: “The Witch’s Cupboard”

I have a bizarrely large collection of glass bottles stacking up and mostly I’ve collected them ‘just in case’.  I’ve been inspired by the different spooky/gothic assemblages popping up but it was Neil Burley’s “The Apothecary” that really pushed me into making this.  Unfortunately – I haven’t picked up any printer’s trays along my travels.  Fortunately I recently discovered foam core board and have a new sharp scalpel! 

The pictures below show my progress which surprisingly only took a few days in all

N.B. I find my hot glue gun to be the best for foam board and PVA was used for the papers

1. I knew the space that I wanted the tray to fit (a shelf inside a glass wall unit of mine) so I measured for the back panel and cut this from foam board.  Let’s call these measurements Width x Height
2. Using my largest bottle I measured the bottom to work out how deep I wanted to cut the sides.  Let’s call this Depth.  The top and bottom pieces were cut exactly to W x D.
3. The width of the foam board = 5mm which is important to know.  The left and right sides were cut to exactly (H-5mm) x D.
4. Using the rest of the bottles to gauge their height I measured as I went and cut out the inside walls.  I didn’t waste time making plans or making it perfect as I wanted it to look hand made in mass like the old printer’s trays.
5. painted in three stages as follows: – Acrylic paint mixed from 1:1:1 Pebeo Brown Ochre, Docraft Metallic Bronze Crafter’s Acrylic and Pebeo Bindex Brilliant (this is a bulking agent for acrylic paint to make your colour go further) and let dry.  Then, I painted on Americana Weathered Wood which is a crackling medium.  Finally once that layer was dried I covered in a single coat of Docraft metallic black which crackled away just like weathered wood as it dried.

   

6. The rest of the decoration included Tim Holtz Ephermera, some black cobweb decoupage papers that I picked up in Hobbycraft, Time Holtz idea-ology from my stash and Pebeo Empire Gold gilding wax.  The ephemera pieces were inked with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress inks.