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Sunday 20 February 2011

CHARM BOX AND CHARMS TO BRING GOOD LUCK

 For the past 4 months, there was a lot going on in my life.  During the course of  playing the role of a mom and wife, my travels and creating my artworks, I found out that I had a bicep tendon tear on my left arm.  The onset of  severe pain just came without any warning when I was still in London  in  Nov '10. In fact, I regretted for having took things for granted.  I had some pain on my left arm much earlier  but with a few sessions of massages I was healed, never knew that my body was actually telling me that there was something not right about my left arm and I did not listen............' Just too late now to feel remorse'.

So, needless to say it was a tumultuous time in my life.  All my travels, yoga, blogging and art creation had to put to a standstill.  Life was miserable for me.......sigh!  I did not take heed of my Doctor's advice to have the op after CNY, instead I had my Rotator cuff repair done earlier on 12th Jan  and yes ! it's already past 5 coming to 6th weeks since my op. Thank God I made the right decision tho I felt uncomfortable during the CNY festive period.  My main concern now is to mobilize my left arm and  there's my  physio exercises I look forward to daily.

Gosh! for the past 4 months my Art Studio which is my 'hideout' whenever I am back in KL, was quiet with no sound of music nor sign of a soul in there. It was only a few days ago  on 11 Feb that I decided to express my emotions and work thru my problem knowing that art making has some therapeutic effects. Yes, it helped!

This time it was a revelation to me that I was not too lucky with my health.
Everyone in the world believes in good luck or good destiny.
Tho invisible,destiny has its impact on individuals either in positive or negative way.

Well, as I was going thru my art stuff  a  piece of charm  caught my attention. I knew this object  can bring good luck. Lucky charms are objects kept for good luck.  I wanna blindly believe it will bring happiness, good health, love, strength and protection.  These lucky charms are usually put in a bag or hang on to a mannequin dress form or kept in a box to be more effective.  Having quite a collection of charms, I decided to create a box, actually have it altered from a plain wooden box with the purpose to store my precious charms. Here's how I did the transformation......Viola.!

Painted a coat of gesso on the wooden box  prior applying Tim Holtz Distress reinker 'faded jeans' to add some colour to the box.  The colour was quite intense at first but I had it softened with  baby wipes.
Oops! How to clean my hand that looked like this and I was having a fine dining that very evening, oh dear oh dear!  Thank God, my hair stylist came to my rescue with his bottle of stain remover for hair colour and it worked, ha ha!

Now all done and I thought I would share a sneaky peek of my charm box......
 Had the front of drawers decorated with metal art. Here I need to be honest, I was unable to run the metal thru the Cuttlebug coz I didn't want to overstress my left shoulder, so I brought in a helper, guess who?    My maid, LOL.
Sides of box embellished with Tim Holtz  translucent tissue tape adhesive backed paper and metal corners that can be positioned  for adornment.
Why memories?  This artwork will in later years reminds me of the period of time when my left arm  is immobilized and this piece of box was created most of the time with my right hand.
A closer view of the metal art designs. 
The gold colour of the metal has been lightly lifted off using a small sponge with some Adirondack Butterscotch alcohol ink.
Tim Holtz's idea-ology curio knobs used as handles.  What a perfect embellishment to add sophistication and charm to my box.

From my collection of charms, I actually liked a few pieces which I believe can make lucky charms. Some people may carry a lucky coin.  As the saying goes, ' Find a penny, pick it up and all the day you'll have good luck'.  All it takes is your imagination to select the objects for making good luck charms.

Here's a one-of-a-kind good luck charm necklace I have created......hope you like it too
All the objects have a significance to me.   For instance the 3 keys worn together symbolise the unlocking of the doors to health, love and abundance.  The prominent Buddha icon is also treated as a lucky charm for protection and can you see the little palette of colours,  it's my hope and inspiration  to go on creating lovely artworks..........etc...etc...

During my recent travels, I picked up a few pieces of pendants and trinkets and they remain  important things in my life. I surely believe they'll bring me good fortune and luck in the coming years.....have a look...
My Tree Of Life pendant.The tree becomes a symbol of love, wisdom, rebirth, strength, friendship and encouragement.  Knowing that I 'm loved and not alone can give me strength to do things I did not know I am capable of doing.  The tree branches gives me protection.  This pendant is in sterling silver and it shall be my 'Wishing Tree' as well.
A ceramic clock. Being a circle, it is a symbol that represents the psyche center of personality.  It is symbolic of wholeness, completeness and unity of the self.  The passage of time indicates it is time to use my brain and come up with more things.
 I simply adore this artwork, the lovely  imprint of floral design on the ceramic is so gorgeous and I like horses. A white horse in the olden days have been mythologised as possessing exceptional properties, a sacred animal.  This is my lucky charm and it shall remain so.....
3 tube of colours, signifying my flair for creating art.  Somehow this gives me inspirations and I wanna express my life and  my art in vivid living colours.
This is my creative way to store  lucky charms.......
Lucky charms are believed to bring happiness, love, good health, strength and prosperity.
Visualize them to make your wishes come true!

HEALTH I BRING YOU, HAPPINESS TOO, WEALTH HEREIN, AND ALL FOR YOU!

4 comments:

Blossom inch said...

Get well soon Toh Ee, rest more and take care. I love this altered art of yours, what a gorgeous box to store all your charms and those charms/necklaces that you bought are nice too. Thanks for sharing. Hugs, Yuzz

Puan Sri Toh Ee Siew said...

Hi Yuzz, thanks and good to hear from you. Yes I'm getting better and soon will be scrapping more, take care too. Hugs!

Susie Jefferson said...

FABULOUS! So good to hear you are better, and so good to see you 'arting' again!

Hugs etc

Puan Sri Toh Ee Siew said...

Yes yes Susie, I'm so happy to be able to work again tho at a slower pace. Look forward to meeting up again! Luv