Work in Progress-Compulsive Fixation

I am working on my first instillation piece. I started working on this about a year ago and usually it would bother me if something was that slow going. But when I started working on this, I knew that it was an ongoing project and I accepted the fact that I would have to have a lot of patience in order to get this completed. Basically it is a shelf that houses my obnoxiously large collection of lip gloss. For some strange reason I have this crazy attraction to lip gloss, lip balm, or any kind of make-up that you apply to your lips that is not labeled as lipstick. And it isn't just about the actual lip gloss, but it is also about the container and the packaging. This is my first and only compulsive buy and since I think each of the lip glosses are art within them selves, I decided to put them on display so that everyone can see them the way that I do. The shelf is made of 1 1/2" x 1/4" strips of pine. I created a jig that has 6 different sizes/shapes which fits about 95% of all my lip gloss. I created each box individually using the jig and then I attached the boxes together to form a single shelf.



I then repeat the process to form more shelves. I don't follow a specific pattern when I attach the boxes so each shelf looks a little different. When I hang the shelves, I place them close together so that they look as though they could all be one continuous shelf (bottom). I have 3 shelves assembles at this point and I think I need about 4 more to hold all of my lip gloss. Once those are completed, I will sand the front surface of all of the shelves and finish them with maybe a little color and some sort of lacquer or varnish.