The World is one of those cards that surprised me at how well it came together. It sat as a painted backboard for the better part of a week since I was entangled in preparation for one last vending event this month (the fourth of four!) It wasn’t until yesterday that I was able to put together the rest of the piece. Once the four corner stones were laid in place, they drew it together perfectly!

This is one of the few cards that uses a resin replica skull rather than a real one; it’s not legal to trade in hawksbill sea turtle skulls, so I was happy to pick up a Bone Clones replica. I chose the sea turtle for this card because of the common association of turtles with the planet itself–a large green expanse of land surrounded by vast oceans. Additionally, sea turtles have access to areas of the planet we can only traverse with specialized equipment, and they’re able to move easily through more dimensions of space than we are on dry land. This reflected the open horizons and higher awareness symbolism of this card. And, of course, there’s the eye-opening experience of travel–a sea turtle may go many thousands of miles in a given year. Finally, the ocean is the birthplace of life on this planet, and this sea turtle skull is wrapped in a cradle of “seaweed”. (Here’s the tutorial I used to make the faux seaweed out of an old plastic bag.)

This is the 63rd assemblage completed; my pace has slowed down some due to being busy in other areas of work and life, but I still am well on track for completing all the assemblages by the end of the year, keeping me on my production schedule.

Seaweed