A Tour of Aisling's Pocket Shrines
(samples from my Artfest 2001 workshop - lots of pix, worth the wait)
by Aisling D'Art

The Elvis Matchbook Shrine

outside of shrine

inside shrine

You can never have too many Elvises!

I made this shrine from images I scanned from a deck of Elvis playing cards, plus some glittery wrapping paper, a plain matchbook, and a few phrases related to the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

The "matches" are three layers deep. I folded a couple of them over, so you can see the layers. They're held in place with a thin bead of hot glue inside where the matchbook folds over to hold them... no staple.

(I have some notes about working with matchbook shrines, in the library section of this website.)

The Prosperity Matchbox Shrine

top of shrine, half-opened

inside shrine

For this shrine, I used a plain matchbox which I covered with some Chinese newspaper. I glued a hare sticker (from an Artfest swap) to the outside of the box, and the word Prosperity. (I was born in the year of the hare/rabbit.)

The outside "door" effect was created by cutting the outside sliding cover of a plain matchbox, and then I glued that cover to the inside matchbox so the "doors" open.

Inside the shrine, I used decorated origami papers. Inside the matchbox, I used a gold paper notary seal, the Chinese symbol/word "prosperity" from a rubber stamp (no company name on stamp), a yin/yang symbol on Chinese newspaper (no name on stamp), and a small replica of a Chinese coin (purchased at Absolutely Everything, Georgetown, MA).

I used hot glue to hold the coin in place. Everything else is secured with Rollataq, my favorite paper glue.

Create! Matchbox Shrine

By the time I started this shrine, I was pondering ways to seriously deconstruct matchboxes.

This shrine was made with a cut-up-and-reconstructed inside of a matchbox. I lined it with origami paper, attached a miniature Tarot card and a small irridescent bead like a crystal ball.

On the outside of the matchbox, I blued a bit of gold ribbon, some more origami paper, and I made my signature antennae with gold wire and beads.

I glued the matchbox to a pair of wings (I'll post the name of the rubber stamp company as soon as I find the stamp as I'm unpacking from Artfest...) that were reinforced with wire so they bend like real wings.

Then I attached this whole thing to a small tag, stamped with the word "CREATE" (Antique Alphabet Set by Personal Stamp Exchange).

I added beads to the tag string, and glued a miniature Artfest 2001 logo to the back of the tag.

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None of these pocket shrines are for sale, but I can teach this workshop at your shop or class. Contact Aisling for details.

Or, you can learn about shrines at Aisling's Art & Science of Pocket Shrines page.