My Magical Art Case

My antique art case, one of my favorite things!
I left the portrait there, it came with the box.

(Please double click to enlarge images)

Why is it things seem to quickly escalate right around Thanksgiving?  By "things" I mean commitments, work, social events, shopping, Christmas preparations, just life in general.  This time period between Thanksgiving and New Years Day will soon be a past blur.  What I'm truly getting at is I have not posted anything new on this blog in a long time.  I have been working on some portrait commissions and it was time to drag out a treasure of mine.

Some of the treasures found inside!

The label from one wooden box of pastels ...

This treasure is my "art box", I think officially it is called an art case.  The lid locks on with wing nuts and I fell in love with this old wooden box the minute I laid eyes on it in an antique store about thirteen years ago.  It is from England and was full of different art supplies but my favorite things were these boxes of old pastels.  I know they were a jumbled mess with many colors used and gone, but oh so charming.  I imagine this belonged to an art student many years ago. The portrait shown tacked to the inside of the box is still there.  I haven't had to heart to remove it, I just like the idea of someone long ago taking the time to paint it.  So, I have just left it there as I found it.

Whoever heard of "witch" pens?

I had not heard of them until I opened this wonderful box.

As you can tell, I have used them.