Druid Dolmen Diorama and Talisman

Lately, I have been more interested in scouring charity shops and car booth sales for anything I can find in order to create some artworks from rather than painting. I picked up a couple of tea-light candle jars and instinctually turned them upside down as if there were crystal balls. As tomorrow is that appalling Roman Bacchanalia of Liberalia, which has been fobbed on the Irish as our 'National Holiday' of drinking, puking, fighting and STDs in honour of Saint Patrick, who was the Roman version of Henry Kissenger of his day, and who was sent to Ireland to eliminate our Gaelic culture, spirituality and identity. The mythology of the snakes is almost certainly the drowning of the last of the Irish druids at Lough Derg in Country Donegal. 

I decided stay up most of last night so as to create a celebration of real Irish culture and not Roman Imperialism. After all, Irish people celebrating Saint Patty's Day would be like Native Americans celebrating Wounded Knee.

The mini dolmen was made of stones collected at a real megalithic pagan site here in Sligo, as was the stone the glass dome sits upon. The figures (2 male, 1 female) are reshaped and painted commercial models made in 1/72 scale. At the top - to hide the original bottom surface of the tea-light - I formed a cap in modelling clay and glued an old button on the top. I used copper tape to hide the seams on the sides and also where the modelling clay meets the jar. I painted the top in metallic gold and ran a gold ribbon around the circumference of the bottom before gluing the dome to the base.

Lately, I have been fascinated by the idea of the Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities and have started building crafts projects such as this Druid's Dolmen, and the Fairy Pirate Ship below to create my own museum of oddites.