artfully letting go

 I purge my "important papers" every so often, probably not often enough but I'm always afraid of getting rid of something too soon. I figured my divorce papers from 1988 could finally be purged...right? I wanted to keep the lesson I learned in my sight but also know that I am healed from that emotional wound too.

So I shredded the papers and made a new sheet ( the grey large background sheet ).
This became the foundation for my mixed media piece.

(Directions for making a sheet of paper can be found here.)

I used a cookie cutter mold and some wet pulp made from red cardstock scraps to form the heart. I laid the cookie cutter mold onto a sheet of wax paper and then filled the mold with the wet pulp, removing moisture from the pulp with a paper towel. After the heart dried I inked the edges and then gently tore it apart and glued it to the center of the grey paper. I then sewed it with a zig zag stich to symbolize that the heart which had been torn apart was now mended, but leaving a gap to shaow that while mended, the scar is still there. 

( Directions from making cast paper can be found here.) 

I also hand stitched my word "mended" through the grey paper. 

The frame was made by making a mold out of clay from an old antique frame, and then filling the mold with wet pulp and left to dry. You can speed up the drying process by gently pressing down on the wet pulp with a paper towel thereby wicking out the water. 

I just love the symbolism to this piece and no one has to know that it's made from my divorce papers unless I want to share that with them. It's like a little secret hanging on my wall.

So maybe you have some important papers that mean something to you but you don't need them in document form any longer, why not shred them up and make them into some art?
 You'll always remember what they mean to you when you look at it.