Sunday, February 2, 2014

The Philosopher's Stone Reliquary...another ATB

Recently, I was in a swap with the extraordinary pottermouth who made this wonderful ATB for me.
I pondered what to make her....I knew she liked Harry Potter, but I didn't want to make something everybody else had, so I started to ask myself a lot of, 'what if?' questions about events and objects in the books.
The one that stuck with me was this one; what if shards of the Philosophers Stone survived and were saved by Dumbledore? What would he do with them?
I think he would honor the memory of his old friend Nicholas Flamel and put them in a beautiful box, a reliquary.
Not long ago, I visited the National gallery and was blown away by an exhibit of byzantine art. There were a couple things that I was particularly fascinated with - the Madonnas and the beautifully made reliquaries. (and oh, my gawd, the jewelry! But that's another post)
There's no doubt that the major influence on my making this one was that exhibit.

I used a chunk of butternut cut to ATB size. I cut the front off, cut that in half and hollowed out the inside of the remaining chunk. I hung the doors with hinges and proceeded to wood burn the heck out of the whole thing.
The idea behind all the Celtic knotwork sprouting branches and leaves was that the Philosopher's Stone was the main ingredient for the elixir of life, so the wood would be almost compelled to sprout and blossom.
 And of course Dumbledore would have the Hogwarts crest emblazoned on the front!


































The wee bottle is filled with a bunch of Czech glass beads that I pulverized with a hammer. The bottle can be removed to reveal two larger shards of the stone inset in the wood.


































The wood was finished with a mixture of beeswax and mineral oil.
A detailed view of the back:

7 comments:

Artifice said...

Incredibly wonderful! Linda

massofhair said...

OMGAunt your ATB is STUNNING! Never seen anything like this & am in love with it :-) xxx

Have just purchased my first wooden ATBs & am excited to get going.

Wonderful inspiration, thank you:-) xxx

Holly M said...

Most impressive. Most impressive, indeed.

Shannon C. said...

You always knock my Ravenclaw socks off with every one of your pieces, but his one blew me away. Superb work, madam.

Gina said...

OOOOw this is sooooo cool!!! Any "pottermouth" would be thrilled to own such an item :D XXX

Rhissanna said...

What a truly fabulous piece and yes, of course, the shards would be put in a reliquary. It's beautiful and i bet, with the beeswax, it must smell wonderful, too. It will be interesting to see how it acquires a patina, over time. Thank you for sharing.

GrammyTweetie said...

Wonderful! I really like your work...it's original and creative.