The fantastic (and scary) thing about launching the Cabinet of Curiosities Class is that almost everything for it has to be made. The risk involved is huge for me and my suppliers, but the satisfaction level is huge. Take today, while I have been working for months now to get the casket hardware made (I need to tell you that story for the next few days!), nothing prepared me for opening the first box of production pieces. It was like Christmas. And that is starting to happen on a weekly basis as things that are being made are rolling in.
When you look at embroidered caskets from the 17th century, they have elaborate escutcheons and hinges. While there are many reproduction hardware companies out there, they concentrate mostly on brasses and pieces for the 18th and 19th century. Sometimes you can find 17th century designs but often they are for large doors. Rarely do you find small box hardware and if you do, it doesn’t conform to the shapes of the embroidered caskets. And on top of that, the hinges for a casket door wrap around the door and box side and hinge where
the lapped door hits the frame. This is not a usual spot for modern hinges, they normally are mortised into a door and frame and appear invisible. Thus they are symmetric and the same size on each side of the pivot point. So you can’t even take modern hinges and get the same results.
So my searches left me in the position that to get the right ‘look’ for my casket, I would need to mould new hardware. How to do that? More in the next post.
Tricia
I can’t wait to start!
I am really looking forward to hearing the story behind the Cabinet of Curiousities.
Oh yes, I’m wanting to hear all of the details involved in the making of this cabinet. It’s going to be such a fun journey. I feel like one of the privileged few to be going along for the ride.
Many thanks to you, Tricia, for seeing to the details.
I am beside myself I’m so excited – May will not come fast enough! At least we get to follow along with the process before the class starts. I’m finding that I really enjoy the back story on the materials – it really adds so much more to the classes!
Your enthusiasm is contagious. I can’t wait to read the next part to the story.
It is getting very exciting!
Hi, I am so excited and itching to start. I knew of indigo of course but woad was new to me, I had to look it up on wikipedia. It appears it grows here as well as extensively in Montana. Also the woad plant has cancer preventing properties