Thursday, January 31, 2008

Outside the box

This is a little segue from my usual work...but something I am very excited about.


A friend has given me a wooden trinket box - very plain and basic and obviously handmade 20-odd years ago, to restore and decorate. I thought I would share the restoration on here.

It is made of ply (I think) and what looks like a recycled drawer. The inside has a crude tray and the entire box is about 12" x 9" x 7" deep.First job was to remove the hinges and clasp...not an easy task as they had clearly been in a while. Not something you can use a power tool on!!
The hinges were once brass I think....
So time for some trusty brasso courtesy of Evenlode DIY and 3 episodes of the Simpsons later....voila!











Now for the box itself....

I already know what design I am going to paint.
The background is going to be green-gold and the design aboriginal in style.

So 3 coats of gold over primer to start with:














And next the first layers of phthalo green and sap green....














The entire process of layering gold and greens will have to be repeated a few times to build up the intense effect. Then it will be time to start overpainting the picture. Watch this space!!

3 comments:

Lorna said...

Wow!

SueC said...

Thank you!!

And check this out for another use for Brasso!!

http://todd.dailey.info/archives/2005/09/27/restore-your-ipod-nano-to-new-condition-with-a-4-can-of-brasso/

natural attrill said...

Oh this looks like it's going to be fantastic, cant wait to see the picture.
P.x