Creativity
Nativity
Last week I went on a magic carpet ride to take part in Christine’s Art for Advent project.
That was a photographic project and this week I wanted to try something handmade that didn’t rely on digital effects. It occurred to me that I don’t have any nativity scene or crib in my house, and I decided to make a small one using only things I could find in my house or garden.
Well it was a brave attempt but unfortunately it ended up looking a bit like a plum pudding! Never mind, it was interesting to try looking at things in the house in a new way. I’m not (at the moment) the sort of person who has proper art supplies lying around the place, so I had to do quite a lot of improvising, which I’ll explain below. Here’s the nativity scene.
First of all I scrounged around some of last year’s Christmas cards and cut out the manger scene (which is about two inches across) and the star. I needed something to put them on and used an old CD. On that, I glued some crumpled brown tissue paper (hence the plum pudding effect - I didn’t think of that or I would have used white paper).
Then I glued on the little manger and the star. I really needed some matt varnish but didn’t have any, so in a moment of either madness or inspiration, I sprayed the thing with hairspray. That worked quite well to mould the card and tissue paper together. Then I got some rosemary sprigs from the garden and glued them on for a roof. And finally, to give the whole thing some cohesion, I got some of that ’70s glitter dust for your hair (KNEW it would come in useful one day!) and dusted that all over. Yes, OK, I know it looks like icing sugar, but my intentions were good.
So there you have it, a rather wonky nativity scene, that smells of a mixture of hairspray and rosemary. I’m kinda proud of it in a strange sort of way.
Discussion
5 comments for “Nativity”
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Tess, I love your creation. Not in spite of but _because of__ your use of found items in usual ways. Imagination, inspiration, improvisation.
Thanks Elaine!
i love it, tess! as you may remember, i, too, committed to art for advent. the first week included “the flood” so the best i could do that week was to make soup. it was really very soothing and quite creative as i simply opened the refrigerator (mainly the veggie) drawer & like you, created from what i already had on hand. it turned out to be quite scrumptious and sadly enough can probably never be duplicated. i made another one later that week from a new recipe…again soothing and comforting.
last week was a little more creative as i went to an art workshop and created the card that shows up on my post today. i also spent a morning with christine and she allowed me to play in her art supplies. it was heavenly. i was actually quite pleased with my creation, but it will have to wait until after christmas to make its blogging debut as i am giving it to a loved one as a gift
who knows what this week will bring? but i am liking this art for advent thing. it’s fun to play with my friends—even if they do live have way around the world
peace!
oops…half way…not have way
Have way or half way, same difference. There’s something deeply satisfying about making soup, isn’t there? And I look forward to seeing your mystery creation.