These are the little fish - carved out of cottonwood bark. The egg carton gives you perspective on size - the largest just over 2" long, the smallest about 1.5" long.
The fish represent salmon in their spawning colors. Kodiak is home to 5 species of Pacific salmon: Chum, Coho, Chinook, Sockeye, and Pinks. The fish are carved out of cottonwood bark, and then painted with Daniel Smith's new watercolor ground. I then painted them with gouache and pearlescent watercolors.
The salmon will float above the gouache watercolor river, that will serve as the background of the shadow box. I build my boxes out of 1/4" poplar, which I have to stock up on in Anchorage. Kodiak's only lumber supply store doesn't carry poplar boards. I will finish the box with a plexi-glass on the front, affixed with wire brads and decorated with glass beads. The finished box will be 11" long x 6" high.
Here's a similar box I made for Whale Fest a couple of years ago, called Sockeye Run:
