The Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony - Part 3

When I first started thinking about this concept for the Seven Deadly Sins, I had picked up a few of the small wooden boxes that are designed to hold a few bottles of wine at some of my local markets. They all still had their "lids" - usually two roughly evenly-sized boards - which I felt could easily be adapted into cupboard doors. One of the first things I did once I decided to proceed with "Gluttony" was to contact my handyman, Keith, and asked him to hinge the "doors" and make the box so it could hang.

Well, Keith did that and more. In the intervening years, the boards had warped, so he took the back off the box, used the boards as a new back, and hinged the still-(relatively)flat boards as the new doors. Using almost unimaginably small hinges as well as some picture wire and small staples, he set me up.

I knew I wanted to use pictures of pasta dishes for the inside of the cabinet. I found an Italian recipe magazine at my local market that had photos of 13 pasta dishes; unfortunately, the photos were almost all back-to-back, so I had to get two copies of the publication - at $12.99 a pop (the things we do for our art). But the pictures were exactly what I wanted.

I stained the entire exterior, all of the edges and the inside top and bottom of the cabinet using Minwax Ebony Stain. Once it was completely dry (and the house aired out), it was time to work on the interior. I tore out all the pasta recipe pictures (I didn't want to cut anything because I wanted to have the softer torn edge), then - using a good metal ruler - tore off any excess white space in the images; I wanted as much of a riot of color as possible inside the cabinet. I roughly placed the pictures I wanted over the doors and inside the cabinet (I wanted pictures with red sauces to be more prominent to pick up the colors in the mask) and started applying them using Mod Podge, a product I remembered from my childhood.

In the process, I discovered it was best to apply the Mod Podge to the paper using a one-inch-wide flat brush, flip it over and apply it to the desired surface and then move it into position. Using a barely-damp sponge, I smoothed the paper (as much as I could on a very rough wood surface), pushed the paper it into any corners and removed any excess Mod Podge from previously applied paper surfaces.

I did the doors first and let them dry completely before trimming them with a sharp knife - I wanted to carry the excess over into the inside of the cupboard. Because the doors were a bit longer than the interior (in order to completely cover the box), I trimmed the bottom and top images off to register as closely as possible when the doors were opened. I had one extra image, which I tore into quarters and applied randomly inside the cabinet. Then I let the piece dry over night.

It was time for final assembly.