Day 249-250-Old Metal Trunks

For someone who loves travelling, 

I sure have an inexplicable dislike for luggages. 

I love old metal trunks though, 

especially if they are vintage rusty steel suitcases 

reminiscent of old India. 

When I first saw this plastic box, it really reminded me of a luggage. 

All new and functional and completely  flawless. 

Before my mini days, this box would have been chucked into the bin.

Now, I just take out my paints and brushes

and see if I can make it into something I love.

I have two of these boxes so I painted one metallic blue and the other purple.

Then I gave them rust which added 100 years to their otherwise shiny surfaces. 

I also gave my metal trunks old fashioned handles, locking bars and brackets.

The handles and bars were made from wires and brackets from papers.

It took me quite a while to stick that tiny bit of bar in between the catch.

But I think it was worth it, don't you?

I made one of the trunks open and the other shut

but I made both just as flawed. 

This is so I can love them now. 

And do you remember the ones I painted in the dark last November?

I have always wanted colours on them. 

So I repainted one metallic red on red

then mixed the red with some  autumn yellow for green.

All the closed trunks are placed one on top of the other.

Then back to the corner they stand. 

And I knew exactly what I wanted them for.

Books. 

Precious, treasured books like the ones I won from Flora. 

Books which we take for granted 

but for the Rollas, they must be worth their weight in gold. 

The last trunk I placed at the foot of Ro's bed.

A footlocker for things close to her heart.

Will you find her dowry? Pieces of embroidery? Jewellery?

Just more books, rare editions, handmade books,

foreign magazine few can lay hands on,

a couple of love letters

and  mementos from their walks in the sand.

Things that are close to her heart. 

Credits: 

Sun bleached books on the 3 steel trunks were made by me 2 months after I started my hobby in 2009. I had printed the covers on the wrong side of the glossy paper and the colours ran. I decided to keep them because they looked worn and old, like my favourite books. In that stack are readable books on ceramics and Iznik pottery. 

In the opened trunk, the "books"-one of them with a blue cover titling Mahatma Ghandi - lying flat on the left (facing you)- and the 2 wonderful "letters" were made by Katie. The readable magazine "Happinez" as well as the mini conch shells were from Jollie. 

In the same trunk, the black book was one of the first minis (actually my 2nd but the 1st which were goblets were all dismantled, thanks to lousy glue)  I made. It is a book on Indian miniature paintings. I made the 2nd special edition book with a little pearl on the cover shortly after. This book is about Iznik pottery. They are both readable. 

Last but not least, the opened book on the floor (2nd last pic) was by Erika Vanhorn. I bought it  in December last year. It is an Illuminated Book of Days. I bought it because there was a very famous Arabic version which  is now lost in history. 

And now may I show you my real life trunks.

I met these trunks long before I was interested in miniatures. I was shopping for a themed party in Little India when I saw them. I had bought trunk loads of Indian textile  from this shop and I brazenly asked the owner if I could have these trunks to bring the textiles home. He said yes and I remembered lugging these heavy trunks to the car with some help. I believed one of them was blue and the other green before I painted them white to go with the guest room. They now hold the fabric for my miniatures.