Emerald City

Inspiration

rowing up, I shared a bedroom with my twin sister Claudia. The floor of our bedroom was tiled with large 16” by 16” square yellow tiles. Those yellow tiles served many purposes. But the most important one of all was being our own yellow-brick road! We pretended to be Dorothy as we skipped across the bedroom following the yellow-brick-road. I remember, in the evenings after brushing my teeth, following my own yellow-brick-road, from the bathroom until I would reach my bed. I would crawl in bed, close my eyes, and imagine having reached Emerald City. And then, my dreams would take over, transporting me to the magical world of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Until the next day, when I would trace my steps back into the bathroom, and into an ordinary world where there was only room for yellow tiles, and none for yellow-brick-roads or Emerald City.

An Emerald City Trinket

As a child, as I would slumber in bed, submerged in the green dreams of Emerald City, my mind would wander through the streets of the Emerald City, and the halls of the Wizard of Oz’s castle. And I would try to imagine what trinkets these walls would hide. Years later, I found the answer.

When I was in my early thirties, married and living in Columbus, Ohio, I started a collection of tiny boxes. I was very particular about the boxes I would add to my collection. They had to be unique and special. One Christmas, when visiting family in Venezuela, my mom and dad gave me the most wonderful and magical present. It was a sterling silver round box with an emerald cabochon on top.

Mom and dad had traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, my dad’s homeland. And they had visited the exhibit of a well-known Colombian jewelry artist. As I opened the present, my mind was transported to my Emerald City childhood dreams. The box was 1” tall and 1.75” in diameter. On the lid, there was a thin sheet of sterling silver artfully draped over it. A 5/8” diameter emerald cabochon decorated the lid. You could see an engraved signature on the lid, following its curvature. I was in awe, holding in my hands an authentic Emerald City knickknack. To this day, I display my most precious tiny boxes on top of my dresser, and my Emerald City souvenir is at the center of them all. So, every day when I walk by, I remember my mom, who also collected tiny boxes, and my dad, and my Emerald City dreams of once-upon-a-time.

Emerald City Ornament Design Process

I had just bought a new laptop. As part of the packaging, there were cardboard protectors molded to form very interesting shapes. As I always do with anything I think might be useful, I saved these molds. As I was designing the Emerald City collectible ornament, I thought that these molds would be perfect for the main portion of the building. I also had cardboard tubes, and an array of egg cartons. I cut different shapes out of these molded cardboards and assembled them into the main Emerald City castle. Then, I painted the building with white acrylic paint. Instead of green paint, I covered the building with green tissue paper, a technique used in papier-mâché.

The next step was to bring Emerald City to its green brilliance. L. Frank Baum describes the Emerald City in detail in his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Emerald City was so brilliant that you could see from far away “a beautiful green glow in the sky.” Its gate was “all studded with emeralds that glittered so in the sun.” Inside, its walls “glistened with countless emeralds.” And so, I went through my boxes of whatnots searching for green dazzling gemstones and beads to decorate the walls and roofs of my Emerald City ornament. I selected an array of plastic gemstones in all tones of greens and yellows. I also selected buttons, pushpins, and whatnots, in many shades of green. Finally, I chose green ribbons to trim the building. I decorated the Emerald City with an assortment of these materials and completed it by adding some accents of clear glitter.

Lastly, I placed the Emerald City castle on a white felt covered base and added yellow glitter cardstock stones, that represent the yellow-brick-road. All the Emerald City ornaments are different because they are made with molded cardboard that I find. So, as I ran out of some molds, and found new ones, it forced me to invent new shapes and styles for this Emerald City ornament. So, there is always an element of surprise when you open one of my Emerald City ornaments.