The Lovers – Javanese Chest (2)

Here comes the second part of the documentation. I am a bit behind the posts but try my best to not leave too large pauses in between.

This chest has been carved from pine wood again – please check our the last post below with the photos of the raw wood work. As it was supposed to be varnished with a dark colour again – mahogany colour – I did not remove the knotholes but left them as they were.

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What is different from the Chinese Chest is that the edges have been worked in a different manner – they are rounded. This implied adding another timber (looking like the piece of a cake in cross section) which was inserted between two adjacent panels and then rounded. You can see this in these pictures:

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The working process was the usual one: detailed drawings first which were transferred to the wooden panels – the carving itself took quite some time and finally sanding of the wood. Only after all these works the wooden panels were varnished and finally assembled with wooden dowels which have been glued into the wood.

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An additional adornment was chosen for this chest: various parts have been gold plated to highlight the motifs. In order to not let it appear too prominent the gold has been sanded off again slightly to give it an antique look. After finishing that work the appropriate parts were covered with schellac (french polish) in order to protect them.

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(will be continued…)

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