Ouija

Guess what I made! Indeed, a Ouija board! I'm so proud of it. I came up with an idea for my final mixed media project, and I was so keen to get it done that I just made it. Boy,  it feels good. This way, even if my mind changes for my final, I have still made an incredibly legitimate Ouija board.

For those of you who are somehow unfamiliar with Ouija, it is a board game type situation. There's a lot of speculation and argument to whether or not it's real. I personally believe that it isn't. Originally, Ouija was marketed and sold as 'talking boards', and you asked questions that you needed answered. Kind of like a psychic. It has also been akin to the seance, only less dangerous because you are not summoning a spirit into our realm. Or something. I'm fuzzy on the details. I would be interested in attending a seance, but other than the Exorcist, there has never been anything that insane attached to using Ouija. My siblings, cousins, friends, and myself used to play Ouija, usually by making our own with scrabble pieces and using an overturned glass. Always a good time, especially with the excitement of wondering if it's real or not. I don't believe in ghosts, even though I have every reason to, but I'm overly fascinated with the paranormal. I'm just too skeptical. Nonetheless, I can appreciate the need to believe strongly in ghosts and the like. That's what inspired this soon-to-be installation.

I made it from a piece of thick plywood, that I had cut at Home Depot (helpful people!). All of it is hand carved, hand-written, hand-painted, hand-stained. A lot of handwork. It took me way less work than I anticipated, which is nice. I'm so happy with it, and I'd like to say a general thank you to all of the sources on the internet with helpful references that I utilized (especially in the lettering and how the words and characters are arranged). I kept this board quite simple. I decided that I didn't want to have any superfluous decorative carving, especially since I wanted it to look aged. I'm thinking about giving it a test spin, to make get some nice movement scratches in it. I'll need company for that, though.

After the critique for this, I don't know what I'll do with it. I guess making my own is a nice way to move into collecting ouija boards, but at the same time I might just offer it for sale. I'm not making a planchette for it, so if I do sell it, the person will have to go without. but then again, using a glass is cooler. I'm planning to hunt down a small jigger or undecorated shot glass, and that would work quite nicely.