Pandora and Hermia

I've recently had the challenge of working in a different way to my normal preferred methods, having been asked to produce an artwork influenced by an illustration by Arthur Rackham. I was given free rein to create one of my framed fairy works, based on an illustration of my choosing, for a special wedding day gift. Having decided that Mr Rackham is probably best known for his sometimes dark and spooky paintings, I decided to go for this one below, taken from the Greek Myth, Pandora's Box. 

Using the wonderful colour palette of the illustration, I dressed a handmade fairy doll in the mystical hues, adding black where I dared. Her clothes are fashioned from an assortment of vintage and antique textiles and trims.

The lovely antique frame picked up at a flea market held the print in a mount covered in scraps of sheet music. The fairy was glued to the frame and I added a few extra decorative touches...

From what I knew of the Greek Myth, Pandora overwhelmed by curiosity, having been told not to open a box given to her by the gods, had opened it with a large key, unleashing all the evils of disease and sickness, hate and envy on the world. Some say the story has been changed over the years and Pandora was actually given a glass jar, not a box...To my collage I have added a small antique 'jar' with 'hope' still inside. Hope can make all the difference in the world and was left behind after Pandora closed the jar again.

After creating my artwork, I was then concerned that the theme of Pandora's Box, much as the recipients may be Arthur Rackham fans, may not be appropriate as a wedding gift! - So I decided to create a second piece.
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For this one I wanted to use a beautiful fairy drawing, which was an illustration for William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Here is Hermia, dressed in delicate scraps of antique lace and millinery flower trims, echoing the colours in the Rackham print. 

I used a Victorian photo mount printed with pansies inside the antique frame, with another miniature moulded frame holding the reproduced Rackham print.

A Shakespeare quote about love, with fragments from a wooden Victorian bracelet as a decorative touch, form part of the background. I also used pages from an old copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream...which hopefully offers a more romantic story! 

Both were offered to my friend Jasmin...

And she decided to buy them both! :)

Niki x