Shadowbox with Clay Figure

Having crafted her first "sculpture" at the age of 3, it is no surprise that Debra Gavant would have a broad range of artistic skills as an adult. A number of those talents — such as sketching, painting, woodworking and polymer clay sculpting — are framed in her shadowboxes.

Materials and Tools:

polymer clay
acrylic paint
bendable wire
wood for box
1 screw eye
paper scraps
crystal gems
glue

Steps:

1. First make some sketches and pick one you want to make into a three-dimensional picture.

2. From a quarter sheet of 3/8-inch plywood, cut a strip the width you want the depth of the box to be. Then lower the table saw blade until it only sticks up about 1/4 inch, set the 'stop' so the blade cuts about 1/4 inch away from the edge of the wood strip, and push the strip of wood through the blade, cutting a groove along one edge of the long strip of wood.

3. Cut that strip into four pieces the size of the sides of the box. For an 8" x 10" box, make two pieces 8 inches long and two pieces 10 inches long. The two side pieces and the bottom piece are nailed together on the edges.

4. Cut out an 8" x 10" piece of board, plywood or whatever you prefer, and nail it along the back. The glass or Plexiglas front and top piece is put on last.

5. Sculpt the three-dimensional parts in polymer clay. It's very important to let yourself make some mistakes and to not give up until the thing starts looking like what you had in mind.

6. After you have some sculptures made, glue them to the box with two-part epoxy. Then spray or paint on any white primer or acrylic gesso.

7. Instead of painting a background, add photographs, inkjet prints or magazine pictures. Glue down the print(s), paint your three-dimensional sculptures, and glue the sculptures into the box so that you don't get paint on your printed picture.

8. Lastly, after everything is painted and put in place, you can add things like flat-back Austrian crystal rhinestones, beads, or anything at all that you can glue on.

Website: www.debragavant.com