I bought this very old dumbbell several years ago and thought this might be a good starting point for this assemblage. Of course it is very heavy, so what to do with it... I just happened to have this hand made wooden tissue box and it fit! Glue would not hold that much weight! And since the recipient is my husband's friend, I gave him the job of figuring out how to attach the weight. He drilled some holes through the back and attached it with wire. You can see the wire in the photo below from the back.
Instead of sealing up the hole in the back of the box, I decided to use it to add more dimensionality to the piece. While looking for something to use to attach the blocks, I found this stick from an aircraft museum- wow what luck! He is also a pilot!
I like how the old worn look of the children's blocks resonate with the old worn paint on the weight. The blocks I picked up when I was with my friend Rebeca last year, she uses a lot of these in her assemblages.
The figurine in the front is a strongman from the circus. This is one of the Roses Tea collectibles that was given to me by my Aunt Nora. The figurine needed something to sit on and I needed to bring in some yellow as the "D" was the only yellow in the piece. I had a wooden heart (it is a wedding gift after all) that I painted yellow and this completed the piece! I hope they like it.
