Carved wooden box no. 1

At the last flea market I found a really nice, carved box showing a stag, woodland animals and some floral work on the lid and the side panels. The lock is exquisitely sweet - it's a tiny handle looking like a door handle that, if pushed, opens the lid. The filigree elements of the carving were obviously backed with blue paper that must have made a smashing background for the light colour of the carved wood.

 At the time I bought it, the box was in a mild state of disintegration. Only fragments of the paper had remained, the glued-on carving on the solid lid had come off, and one of the lion's paws it stood on, as well as one of the glass stones of the decoration, were lost. The lock, however, was in perfect working condition, and the wood itself stable with only slight damage to the bottom plate.

After some time for inspiration I decided to restore the box almost exactly to its former glory - with some exceptions: I won't use the lion's paws (one is missing anyway, would be hard to come by, and they are kitschyyyyyyy!!!), and I won't use the same royal blue for the backing because I think green will fit the woodland-inspired carving better. And it will be done in fabric-covered cardboard, which won't be as prone to damage as normal paper. As the box will be for one of my larp-characters, I actually intended to stick with the blue and add some golden fleur-de-lys to the inside fabric. But as I recently discovered how simple woodcutting is if you have access to a laser cutter, I can make my own design to match the royal blue. With fleur de lys ;) Of course there's no such fabric at hand, but I happend to buy some stamps in that design and will do my own fleur-de-lys print. Some golden trim as adornment, and also that box will be fit for Madame la Comtesse! ^^ I've been busy making jewelry so she'll need two boxes anyway.

But that's just the plan (or, actually, two of them), and there's quite a long way to get there.

First, the whole thing had to be disassembled and freed of the remnants of the paper. At which point I realized that one of the hinges had been repaired most meticulously by using a small lead clamp to keep it on the broken piece of wood. An interesting thing, but as I want the boox in full working condition and not as a museum piece, I had to content myself with documenting it in some pictures and moving on. I will move the new hinges (the old ones were rather cheap and fragile work) a little more towards the center of the box so they have fresh, undamaged wood as a basis.

Then I started sanding the panels with very fine sanding paper to give them back the natural white colour of the wood without abrading too much of the surface. I quickly moved to less fine paper to get the job done in an amount of time that is acceptable with a human lifetime and a shedload of things to do ;) Especially for the reverse side of the lid where still remnants of blue paper and glue were stuck, the rougher paper did its job very well. Finish will be made with fine sanding paper and wax polish.