When some of the marvelous people over at Craftster.org decided to host a “Wicked Circus Altered Tin” swap, I could not resist joining them.

If you’re not familiar with “swaps”, the basic idea is that artists/crafts people get together and agree to create projects based on a theme… and then they swap them. For this swap, we were partnered up with one other person, given some idea of their likes/dislikes, and sent forth to create.

I can’t tell you how lucky I felt to get the most amazing Knickertwist as my partner (if you haven’t looked at her work, go there now).

There were a couple of reasons I couldn’t resist joining this swap. First, there are the stories of my summer spent working as a clown with a traveling carnival.

Oh, you can beg, but I am not telling those stories today.

Second, there is this hauntingly beautiful music video from Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley:

The disquieting strains of “Evelyn Evelyn” have wafted in and out of my thoughts since my first viewing of it — it will not leave me alone.

Which is why, the split second I saw the words “Wicked Circus Altered Tin Swap,” I knew I was going to create a an altered tin featuring conjoined twins in the sideshow.

Prior to getting my assigned partner, I was happily designing my tin, but it was when the partners were assigned that things really took off. My heart fluttered to discover the Knickertwist as my partner.

I knew I had to add a fae element to my work.

And it was the fae element that really transformed the piece for me. So, I was doubly lucky to have Knickertwist as my partner — the first bit of luck being that this was a SWAP and I knew I was going to get a piece of AWESOMENESS from her.

Over the next few days, I’m going to post information about how I finished and embellished the tin. At some point, I might even tell about how I nearly burned my house down. But tomorrow’s topic is: Designing the Wicked Circus Tin.

For today, I’ll close with some more pictures of the finished tin.