It’s always great having someone in your corner and my mum is my greatest fan. For over 20 years she’s kept my year 8 project and brings it out every now when the topic comes up at a family dinner as proof of my amazing invention and artistic ability. This has come up even more so recently as I have been painting the past few years with watercolour and had completely forgotten my childhood artistic abilities. I’ve been self taught books but when I think back I have small recollections of attending some art classes in primary school (we used acrylic not watercolour) and mum was so proud of some of my work she also kept those paintings (which I will post at another point in time). I also choose art as an elective class in year 10 before making the hard decision to drop it for the sciences – since you can’t really have a career in art and I was more interested in studying medicine or IT.
So my project has gathered dust and as much as I love the physical reminder of my amazingness particularly in times where I had self doubt, I now have a lot of other paintings now that I can look at. It is no use holding on to something gathering dust and taking up space so it is time to throw it away. She rescued it from the bin a second time as I had given Dad permission to bin it. So this time I decided to take some pictures so that she can still have some evidence but hopefully it will give her the permission to let it go.
As the story goes – we were given a project before the school holidays to create a map of ancient Egypt. I had created a basic map and done the standard dying with a tea bag and burning the edges. In a recent trip to Malaysia we had bought quite a lot of plasticine cheaply. One day on the holidays I found it and decided to make something with it. I wasn’t sure what to make with it and remembered the project was on ancient Egypt so I decided to make a miniature 3D version of some of the landmarks to go along with my map. Mum was always interested in travelling and always had some travel magazines lying around (though she tells people she took me to the travel agent to get one just on Egypt) and created a model of the Sphynx. However when I attempted the pyramid I realised quickly that I wouldn’t have enough plasticine to make all the sites I was planning.
My mum was quite arty and growing up we would always be making something infront of the TV. She had 1-2 close friends that were into different crafts and we would sometimes go to their house to learn how to make little tissue box covers that look like houses, painting ceramics etc. So I already knew the basics of making a box and I decided to make a pyramid out of cardboard and cover it with plasticine.
At some point I had the idea to make it into more than just a map but a treasure hunt where you have a clue and the answer points you to the next site etc. This was also around the time that a new Indiana Jones movie had come out and there was Egyptian themed promotional games included in cereal boxes and I had kept this codex that had the hieroglyphics translated to letters on it (I’m sure it’s made up by Kellogs) and so I used this as the basis for creating the first clue coded with the fake hieroglyphics which pointed to the next clue. I wrote the code around the border of the map to help with the first clue on the map. I then had the clues pointing to the different sites with other clues in a little scroll hidden inside the site. So each site is made of a box that can be opened up in some way and inside is the little scroll containing a clue.
Over the 2-3 weeks of the holidays I was just making these little pyramids, landmarks etc based on the travel magazine in front of the tv or when I had a chance and then popping them into a little shoe box when I had finished.
The plan was to have the little scrolls with clues also written using the same codex but at the end I ran out of time so those clues are simply written in English. Each one is different. In some of the pyramids I’ve actually made the tomb of Tutankhamun or a little pot to put the scroll in. For the Rosetta Stone I have actually hidden it inside the rocks. The obelisk I carved some of the hieroglyphics on it but can’t recall if they were legit or just made up. If there was a tomb the clue would be hidden inside the tomb. One of the pyramids I tied with string then made a little top to cover it so that when you open it up it opens like a flower revealing a tomb and under the tomb is the scroll containing the clue to the next site.
I remember it was quite fun to make and looking back I also think it was a bit crazy and I can’t believe my 13 year old self made this or that I had gone to so much effort for a simple school project. The incredible thing was that I didn’t start out to make this and I wasn’t doing it because anyone had told me to. It just kind of evolved over a series of decisions from purely because it was interesting and because I kept asking myself wouldn’t it be cool if I did this…? I wonder if? Then I would go away and see if I could make my idea into a reality.
When I took it to school to to show my teacher we had run out time and didn’t even get to show the class, but I did try to meet with her later and only had time to quickly showed her the concept. Later mum told me that the teacher was raving about it and had taken it to the staff room to show the other teachers. I didn’t think much of it other being a cool project and it had been left to collect dust under the stairs in my mum’s house until they decided to clean it out.
Here’s the pictures – the quality isn’t that great. I can kind of see why she might have kept it after so many years and perhaps she was thinking I might become a famous artist and it would be worth a lot of money haha.
Are you interested in buying it? Reach out to me soon before before it goes in the bin.
Rachel Fong Art 