Trillium Exchange #10: The finished product

And I am done. The carving is complete, the brass has been added, the hinges are on, and it has been oiled repeatedly with tung oil. Now all I have to do is let the oil cure for a week or two and it can be shipped off to it's new owner.

Besides the obvious change of using chip carving rather than bas relief, I also chose to use commercially purchased hinges. The brass plate in the front should be a small lock, if the missing piece in the front of the original is anything to judge by but I simply added a small brass plate for decoration. And finally, because of the extra space at the bottom of the images I added a line from the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem in Old English and transliterated it into runic script.

The line I chose was the very first in the poem:

Feoh byþ frofur fira gehwylcum;

sceal ðeah manna gehwylc miclun hyt dælan
gif he wile for drihtne domes hleotan

 

Which translates to:

 

Wealth is a comfort to all men;

yet must every man bestow it freely,
if he wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord.

As I mentioned in my last post there are several things I would like to do differently in the future:

1) I will build the box to the proportions of the photo rather than to the dimensions, or as in this case to the dimension of the wood.

2) I want to make the brass hinges myself with the repousse decoration that can be seen on the original.

3) I want to carve the figures in bas relief as in the original.

4) I would like to make a working lock that can be installed into the box.

5) I want to cut the box from a solid block of green wood and do the carving while the wood is still wet. I think it will make a difference in the ability for the wood to hold detail.

Now mind you, it is going to take lots of practice to get to the point where I can make a finished product that looks like I think the original looked when it was brand new. I have to practice my relief carving, preferably by making plaques of each side of the box. I have to research and learn how to make small period locks and of course spend some time practicing. I have to make the repousing tools and learn how to do it. And, of course I need to learn how to make hinges.

This is going to be a lifetime project. But, with luck and lots of practice I will end up with a near perfect replica of the original in pristine condition before I die.