Hey there...
If you've followed my social media pages (Facebook and Instagram mainly), you have probably noticed I've been working with some wine bottles for a while. I had this project in mind (since last year actually), and have been procrastinating it for almost a year.
The initial idea was to dress three wine bottles as the three wise men... but then I had this cool inspiration about the gifts these wise men gave to baby Jesus and that was the idea in my mind the whole time.
I wrote down all that these gifts symbolized and my mind ran very fast on all the cool things I could add to this project. I love to make projects with symbols and representations... So I'm going to explain one by one. Bear with me... I hope you like it.
Myrrh, the gift brought by Balthazar, was a symbol of human condition. Jesus was going to suffer and die... he was going to be a man. So I used the brown colors to represent this gift. Not only because the myrrh color is like this but also representing Earth tones... Earth... our planet... human planet. Metals can represent our materialism as humans so I included some elements in metal but maintaining the shade selected. I included burlap and wood (pieces of cedar wood and other wood made elements) to represent that he was born in a manger. The wood also reminds us the fact that Jesus was son of a carpenter. I included a round element (button at center) with an arrow to simulate the symbol of man. This is actually the focal point when you look at all the elements as a whole. The three different sized men represent the child, the young and the adult Jesus. I also included the little woman because he was born from a woman, and since this gift represents human kind, I included both, men and women. On the sides I stamped two wine bottles in cork sheet, because as a man, Jesus made his first miracle by converting water into wine.
Gold, was brought by Melchior. Jesus received the gift of Gold because HE is a king. A King deserves the best fine clothes... shiny and valuable... with gems and precious stones... So I used gold elements, glitter, stars, gems, sequins, and gold cords and fabrics to make this the shiniest gift of all.
Then, the gift brought to Jesus by Gaspar was the Frankincense. This is a symbol of worship... know what? Because Jesus is God.
To represent the God condition thru the frankincense, I used white and ivory tones. However, notice I added a little bit of blue... this is to represent the sky... or even better Heaven, since we always refer to Heaven as in the skies, right? I used gauze fabric to cover the bottle and make a base before adding any elements, symbolizing all there has to be pure and clean.
I included a dove as symbol of the Holy Spirit, and an Angel who accompanies God. A cross, a chalice...they are both symbols of Christians and church... because Christians are the ones to worship God. Also included lots of buttons with ivory, white and a little bit of silver shades. I also included the word "Father"... as a reminder that God is our father.
So these are my "Gifts for Baby Jesus" project. This is one of those project one has in mind and takes a while but at the end is the process, and the outcome, and all that it represents what matters.
But there are more symbols... Why did I used wine bottles? And yes, there's a probability it has to do also with the fact I love and drink wine frequently so we have lots of bottles all the time... But the truth is that I thought of it as a symbol of life... you know Jesus' blood converted into wine to commemorate his suffering in Mass... So for me, using elements related to wine in all this project was a given.
The base of the project? Well, I asked my husband to get me a magnum wine bottle wooden case. He found me one. I knew these comes with engraved wine names most of the time, so I'm already thinking how to cover. Then when I paid attention to the name of what's engraved in this case, despite the fact there's the name of the wine region, vintage year, etc... it says: "Vigne de L'enfant Jesus". I was in shock when I noticed the word "Jesus". This means "Vine of the Child Jesus". Wow! I was amazed and thought this was not a coincidence. I might leave the wooden case just as is or probably paint it with some brownish stain and then add some mod podge... but other than that, I will probably leave the name of the famous vines in Burgundy after all. What do you think?
Last thing I want to mention is that I place a crown to the three bottles. (by the way, they are cupcake covers I got from a baby shower and painted accordingly). So the bottles in this project are not only the gifts brought to Jesus when he was born, but they are also the Three Wise Men or the Three Kings themselves... Gaspar, Balthazar and Melchior.... Frankincens, Myrrh and Gold.
I hope you were able to read until the end of this post because I was very excited to put all this in writing... It was all in my mind and I wanted so bad to make this mixed media project and show it to you. Thank your for visiting my blog. Comments are very appreciated. Don't forget to stop by in my Facebook Page or Instagram ... whichever is better for you... I'm there as "Scrapper Myra".
Merry Christmas!
PS: I love the Three Wise Men by the way. I think that as a Christmas tradition, these are very strong from the Christian standpoint and the story of three wealthy men traveling long distances just to see a little baby that was meant to be the Savior, is just amazing. They were following a star... I mean... stars are everywhere... It shows what "crazy" and "wonderful" things people can do when they have faith. Besides, from the fun, family, and kids' Christmas standpoint when the three kings bring gifts to children, it is more fun because they are three... they are kings so they are wealthy... and the gifts are supposed to be awesome, right? Unfortunately, this tradition is weaker every year and Santa Claus is taking over. I love Santa too... don't get me wrong... But I think we should treat our Kings better than we are treating them. Just a thought.
