Spirit Board Painting Commission
I’m finally able to reveal my latest commission! I designed and painted a ‘talking board’ as a gift from a friend, Anthems of the Undesirable owner Ryan, to his tattoo artist girlfriend. It’s a bit tricky to tell from the photos, but there are silver, gold, and glitter elements that reflect light. As you can see in my process picture, I mainly used a mix of Matisse and Liquitex acrylics. It is painted on cradled masonite prepared with a slight canvas-like texture and varnished with a gloss spray several times to protect the surface. I did all the lettering free hand, which was a pain but ultimately gratifying.
I recommend the Museum of Talking Boards to read more about the history of different types of spirit boards. I did not make the planchette. It was purchased by a woodworker on Etsy, Lord Mock Designs, and is more of an automatic writing device. A pencil can be placed in the opening. If the planchette is placed on paper, the pencil then writes what the ‘channeled spirit’ wishes to communicate…or something like that. I created a third leg for the piece so it doesn’t require a pencil and then painted the blank wood to match the rest of the board.
This adds more to my theme of occult toys, but it is officially my second totally customized one. The first was my Vision Engine-painted kaleidoscope. Having a small show of just painted and functional toys would be fun.
