Trillium Exchange #9: Progress

Finally some positive progress on my exchange gift. The decoration on the lid have been completed and the decoration on the box body has been started. I have learned a few things along the way and can already see myself redoing this box at a later date.

Since the bas relief was not working out I decided to use chip carving to outline the figures. The chip carving is going much faster which is a good thing since I want to have the project finished and in the mail by Jan 30. Once oiled, as the lid is now, the figures look awesome and I am really happy with the outcome. I think Rylan will be pleased as well, even if it is not a perfect replica of the original.

When I started on the box I realized the proportions of the box are different than those of the original. I new they were a little off because I chose to go with 4 inch sides but the measurements provided on the Museum website were 6 x 3 x 3 inches, but judging by the proportions in the images the original base is 3 x 2 and the lid is 1.5 or 2 at the peak. To make my box the same proportions I am carving the images so that there is a wide border at the base. I am then going to use a line or two from the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem to fill in the wide border after the carving is all done.

My next attempt at this box will be very different. Instead of building the box to the size wood I have or to the size listed on the website, I plan to build it as close as possible to the proportions shown in the photos. I also plan to do the next one in bas relief. Not only to make a more accurate reproduction but to practice my relief carving.

I am finding myself completely obsessed with the box. I think about it constantly. I think of ways to improve my methods of construction, my relief carvings, my proportions, and even think of ways to recreate it perfectly by starting with a solid piece of green wood, instead of building the box and lid from commercial slab wood.

While I have not thought much about the hinges or lock for this currently project I do think about them for the next generation version. I want the hinges be hand made and to have the repousse work that is barely visible on the one remaining piece of the hinges. The lock is completely missing in the extant piece so I have been trying to find out more about box locks for the Anglo-Saxon period so that I can eventually reproduce that as well.