Innocence

They all say the loss of innocence starts with a girl's first period. Well, what about guys? I think the loss of innocence is when you lose a part of your childhood. Like losing one's baby teeth, usually the very first thing that steps one into adulthood, even with monetary exchange!

I started with the egg. I scored out a nice oval, coated it in resin, gilded it, put in a background of coloured paper and dried baby's breath, then mounted the tooth. There's a little crack in the side (which you can see there and in the finished photo above), but I'll tell you about that later.

Lessons learned here: When mounting the paper, I used a slice of cork to bring it toward the front of the opening, and the tooth is resting on a nail jammed in the cork. Put all pieces (except the tooth) together before putting it in the egg. The nail may break everything out the back. Also, take your time when scoring the egg, or else you will have cracks (my crack has nothing to do with this, sadly).

I had another canvas box hanging around... 5x5, I believe. I drove nails into the outside, and nailed a few extras on the bottom for feet, then filled it with spray foam. When that dried, I painted it dark blue to hide the crevices. I also made a last minute decision to make room for the egg while the foam was still wet and dug out the center with my fingers, and smeared it across the frame, and the nails, which did brilliant things in the long run, but in the very long run, oh dear no... Let me tell you.

Lesson Learned hardcore: The spray foam can says 3 important things: Shake well for 30 seconds. Point down. And wear protective gear- including goggles and gloves. Now, I don't wear goggles when working with spray foam unless I'm spraying something high up. And I don't usually wear gloves when I don't need to, and I didn't think I needed to, but then the urge struck me, and it was too late to go find gloves, and I just went at it. This is a HUGE mistake, because itdoesn't come off without mechanical workings, harsh chemicals, or lots of time. For one, it is VERY sticky, especially when you try to wash it off. I gauzed up my hand so I could go out of the house when I needed to, but my wonderful boyfriend helped me get as much of the stuff off as I could using rubbing alcohol. It got most of the sticky off, and anything left was masked pretty well with the lint from my hand towel. However, this lost me the use of my fingertips, in a manner of speaking. This is how I cracked my egg. I had it resting in front of me, and I tried to use my scalpel for whatever, and without fingerprints, my fingers had no traction, so the scalpel slipped from my gripless fingers, and crack! Somebody get the decoupage! Stat! So wear gloves when messing with this stuff, or your fingers will look like Giger Babies.

Anyway, when I finally got most of the use back in my fingertips, I coated the whole thing in my intended colour- pale, practically white, blue. Yes, I know my colour lingo. I continued working on it, and when I'd finished and walked away for a day, I decided to paint the exposed nails a rusty colour- a mix of red and blue that isn't really purple, but unmixed enough to make it look like a pretty oxidation.

After I finished adding the details- feathers, more dried baby's breath (which, by the way, is awful to work with, and probably won't last after a few tumbles), and a black feather with a trickle of red coming from its sprout; I had a decision to make. If this piece that is so stuffed with symbolism isn't obvious enough, should I put up a sign? Well, I thought the red trickle should lead somewhere, so I did put up a sign. I grabbed a piece of filigree and slapped a piece of paper with the word "innocence" scribed onto it.

Lesson learned: When painting the nails after I'd just glued in the egg, I realized I was tipping the thing all over the place, causing the egg to fall out at one point. If you don't wait for the glue to dry, at least acknowledge what pieces can't be turned over yet and take care.

And there you have it. My innocence... my tiny, tiny tooth, in it's little gilded shell, surrounded by this big box of complication.