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KenazArt β Chinese Dragon Box Top
Published: 2014-04-27 17:09:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 2487; Favourites: 92; Downloads: 11
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I have been dying to show you all my new favourite, The Chinese Dragon Box!
I had a bit of a breakdown burning this one.. Not enough time and everything that could have went wrong, went wrong. To make matters worse, the wood was terrible to work with. When burning, there was a halo that kept singeing around it, that I had to keep sanding off. The wood was also very 'dirty', clogging up my tool with carbon that needed cleaned off every 10 seconds.
Anyway.. I had spent 4 days straight burning, then decided to take Wednesday off. I woke up on Thursday meaning to get started on the Dragon box, but I had an awful pain day and just couldn't manage it. I was left only Friday to complete it, as I was supposed to be surprising the new owner of it on the Saturday. I got a week long extension and without the pressure, I fell back in love with it, and it's now one of my favourite pieces This is also my first time experimenting with using colour, the dark scales are actually gold but it was difficult capturing a picture with them all glistening at once! I hope you love it as much as I do, and needless to say, the pictures do it no justice at all!
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Comments: 25
I can not describe how much I like this work. He is gorgeous!
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I really like the different textures you achieved on this, it makes it look very 3d. The tail really looks like it would be soft to touch, great work
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Thank you so much KettleQuill! The box is a wonder to feel, so many different textures. I'm a bit disappointed with the quality of some areas, but saying the wood was a nightmare is an understatement lol. It's difficult to get fully into something when you have to stop and clean your tool/sand the wood almost immediately after you start burning. So. Frustrating. My finest tip broke aswell 
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That sounds like a struggle! Was it coated in something, or just a really hard wood? I burnt some Christmas decorations for someone earlier this year and I think they may have had a coating on them. I've sworn to only burn wood I'm sure is 100% non-treated from now on
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It was originally varnished, I get a lot of requests for rolling boxes, so I buy Original Roll Tray boxes, they're really well made and have a basswood veneer top so I usually just give it a good sand and it's a dream to burn.. But I think this wood might have been more porous and absorbed more of the coating than usual? It burned black on my 'low' setting whereas usually they burn black on 'high'. I haven't had that kind of trouble with the boxes before.. Nevermind, it's done now! lol Yep, that's a solid plan!
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That's a good idea, I guess I keep thinking of the really thin coated wooden shapes etc that craft stores sell, but I might try sanding off the outer layer of some thick, good quality wood. Ages ago I was hand sanding beechwood rounds and it was taking forever so maybe that put me off!
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I know what you mean, sanding is the worst. I usually try to do it in short bursts, or get my partner to do it instead lol. I just do the easy finishing with the fine grit. I have an old fiddle that's in pretty good nick that I plan on burning, but I'd need to strip it first and sanding it if putting me off.. It's going to be a mighty task but hopefully it'll be worth it! It's a good idea to give anything a quick rub down with the fine grit before you work on it (if you don't already), most wood feels almost velvety smooth afterwards, makes burning much easier! Do you have any burn plans for the near future?
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Sorry for the slow reply! Haha I've tried coaxing mine into doing some for me, sadly to no avail. Ooh that sounds like an awesome project, a lot of work but definitely worth it! I really should use some fine grit on things first, I get too eager to start burning sometimes and dive ahead. My sister's currently borrowing my tool but it's been quite a while so I'll probably nab it back soon. As for projects, I want to do a design involving swallows. They remind me of summer and with all this hot weather I'm seeing a lot of them at the moment. I might accent some parts with colour too, but I'm not sure yet!
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No worries! I hope so 
Me too.. I should practice what I preach really.. lol
That sounds really exciting! Swallows have got to be my favourite birds, I had an arab X thoroughbred horse called Swallow, he was beautiful
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Lol yeah I always think that when I'm giving advice - I should really be doing some of this myself! 
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haha! it's true though, I maybe shouldn't be quite as lazy with some things.. but whatever. lol
Aww that sounds perfect! Horses are lovely, but they cost so much and take a ridiculous amount of work. So quaint so be around though, wonderful creatures
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Yeah they are exspensive! I'll just stick to watching them and sneaking them the odd polo (I was always a terrible rider anyway!) That's a beautiful colour combination! I don't know much about horses, but arabians, along with akhal tekes and marwari, are some of my favourites.
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