Using my mood board of Catholic reliquaries, I decided to experiment with creating decoration for my relics using some beautiful blue ceramic tiles that I found in a skip. I focused in some patterns found on my mood board and began drawing these out to create a stencil. The small scale that I chose proved to make this process quite difficult and time consuming as I tried to use a scalpel to cut out the negative space; it was rather fiddly and parts of the stencil ripped. I did use a rather thin paper as a first experiment, so perhaps next time I could move onto a thicker card. My plan was to place the hand cut stencils onto the blue tile and spray the 'ancient white' colour over the top. This was the most horrible experience... I blue tac the stencil and protective pieces of paper onto the tile, spray the paint then move these all around again. The paint was sticky, the stencils would stick to my hand, it was a disaster. What I've learnt from this process is to be patient, let layers dry and to use a more substantial material for the stencil.

What did I hope to acheive? 

I wanted to play around with an alternative technique to make a traditional looking reliquary by using contemporary techniques; you wouldn't have seen stencils or spray paint involved with ancient Catholic decorations. I like this idea of juxtaposing the hand crafted/traditional techniques with the quick-fix, sort of lazier contemporary techniques. The idea of hand crafting/painting a reliquary/stained-glass window etc. is almost a dead art, we strive to find the quickest way to create such things in modern society. 

The colour blue in the church can refer to both Catholic and Protestant Christians and the meanings of these are explained below. It seems to predominantly represent the Advent :

- The Advent

- The night sky (announcing Jesus' birth)

- The Queen of Heaven (Mary) 

Perhaps my next step could be to crest a narrative according to these church colours and Christian symbols?