A Woven Box with a Dinosaur and a Mammoth

Cross stitched decoration on the lid

Woven boxes and caskets can be decorated with an embroidery. So if you, just like me, have a lot of embroideries and not enough wall space, this new hobby is right for you. But weaving the lid first and then trying to make the box fit the lid was a big mistake. The box looks like a big mushroom. I like it just as it is but others wonder.

This time I used quite a lot of new stuff:

• the box is woven from stained stubes. They are a bit fragile, weaving with them isn’t as comfortable and they crack easily.
• the order of layers has changed. Before I first covered the box (or dish, or vase) with varnish to achieve firmness and then painted. This time it was the other way round. And the box shines as if woven of real twigs and branches. 
• it is my first square box. But I really need to work on the shape. Especilly the lid. Two of the sides are OK, but the other two, ‘stitched’ with paper tubes need some rethinking. 
• the lid is decorated with embroidery. It is stretched on a piece of cardboard and then glued to the top of the lid. I also decorated it with two tubes woven around it. 

View from one angle

View from the side

There is a lot to learn. I have already found several variants of making square boxes. But it will take some experimenting. 

For the embroidery I took an illustration by Brian Ajhar and turned it into a cross stitch design. The size is 100 by 100 stitches.