This devotional is called “Frida of the Crown.” I made it from odds and ends given to me or purchased from thrift stores or the Art Resource Center. I didn’t go out and buy anything new (other than glue) for this project. If you love this devotional in a repurposed Altoids tin, it can be yours for only $25, and that includes shipping! (Beware: this piece contains a small amount of added glitter. )
Here’s a Frida Kahlo calendar, NOLAgirl said casually.
The name of this piece is “Frida and the Children.” It’s made from a metal box slightly smaller than an Altoids tin and a litle more square. It costs $25, including shipping.
We were at the Art Resource Center (ARC) in Tempe, AZ. The ARC is a really fantastic nonprofit organization that gets art supplies in the hands of educators. Folks donate any and everything usable by young artists—popsicle sticks, fabric, greeting cards, yogurt containers, busted costume jewelry, yarn, interesting paper—and ARC volunteers give it away to art teachers. Folks who aren’t educators can shop at the ARC too, but folks not involved in teaching young artists pay a small fee or make a donation in exchange for the materials they want to take home to their studios.
Here’s another of the Frida devotionals I made from an Altoids tin and other repurposed materials. You can display this one in your home for only $25, including shipping. This one is called “Frida of the Blues.”
It was our first visit to the ARC, although I’d wanted to go since we’d heard about it at the Practical Arts charity pie night more than a year before. (The ARC is staffed by volunteers, so it has no set hours and is only open when someone is available to unlock the doors.) NOLAgirl humored me while I opened every drawer and poked in every cubby in the place.
This devotional box is called “Frida in the Night.” The tin it’s made with is slightly smaller than an Altoids tin and square. Like all the other Frida Kahlo inspired pieces in this post, all materials used were given to me or acquired at thrift stores or the Art Resource Center. No new materials were purchased for this project. That’s a genuine double-terminated quartz crystal between the two skulls on the bottom right. This lovely little shadow box can be yours for only $25, including shipping.
I got really excited when she handed me the Frida Kahlo calendar. I immediately envisioned cutting out photos of Frida and gluing them into embellished Altoids tines. They’d be like little altars, little shrines. I started thinking of what I wanted to make as “devotionals,” even though Dictionary.com tells me that’s not really what the word means.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I created “Frida (heart) Diego.” It costs only $25, and that includes shipping!
I had a couple of Altoids-style tines, but I knew I’d need more. I put out a call to my friends and posted a request on my Facebook pages. Several people donated tins and a myriad of wonderful small objects (buttons, skulls, jewels) to use for embellishment. At the end of the RTArt Camp, I snagged a bunch of leftover scrapbooking paper that had been donated. The paper was so pretty, but it never would have occurred to me to go out and buy it. Free is such a great price!
This devotional is called “Frida’s Blue House,” and like the others, it costs $25, including shipping.
Although I got my hands on the calendar before Christmas, I didn’t start working on the Frida devotionals until February. Even when I’m unemployed, finding time to make art can be challenging. Writing takes up a huge portion of my life, as does maintaining relationships. I wish I could stay in the house for an entire month and do nothing but create.
This devotional is one of my favorites! I love that crown I put on Frida’s head! It’s called “Hello, It’s Frida,” and costs only $25, including shipping.
“Young Frida” was the first devotional I made. Frida may be a young woman in this one, but already death is watching over her. I love the yellow color scheme of this one and the heart with the strange protruding arms.
This piece is called “Young Frida.” It’s the first Frida Kahlo-inspired devotionals I made. It costs $25, including shipping.
I’m really proud of the tiny Día De Los Muertos skulls present in many of the devotionals. They’re beads I had from my days of making hemp bracelets. While I was house sitting for NOLAgirl over the winter holidays, I decorated the skulls with extra fine Sharpie markers. My hand is barely steady enough for such fine work, but I think they ended up looking quite good.
This one is called “Young Frida and the Butterflies.” My favorite part is the butterfly that has landed on the head of the Día De Los Muertos skull that was, incidentally, hand-decorated by me. This entire devotional was created by me out of an Altoids tin, an old calendar, and odds and ends from thrift stores and gifts. This one-of-a-kind art piece can grace your desk, shelf, or altar for only $25, including shipping.
Of course, my heritage is not Mexican as Frida’s was. Is it weird that a Cajun woman who wasn’t even born when the artist died is now trying to capture her essence in tiny little boxes? Maybe. But I came to this project hoping to honor Frida Kahlo. Frida drank, smoked, laughed, had sex (with men and women, biographers always seem to point out), and cursed at a time when women were expected to be demure and proper. Frida lived by her own rules, and I respect her greatly for living her life the way she wanted to live it. Learning about Frida Kahlo’s art and her life helped to free me to live my life and create my art.
This one is slightly smaller than an Altoids tin (although made of metal) and more square. It’s called “Diego, Frida, and the Big Man.” It’s for sale for $25, including shipping.
Thank you, Frida. I hope I’ve made you proud.
I call this final devotional “Frida the Surrealist.” It costs $25, including shipping.