#egg box

The Galaxy Fabergé Egg

I have always had a fascination about how much details Carl Fabergé put into his Easter eggs that were made for the Russian Tsar, Alexander III. Apparently out of the 69 that were made, only 57 survived. I have seen it featured in movies and television series, often traded as a very high value treasure. They were made with precious metals, gems and a very beautiful enamelling method called the Guilloché.

Initially, I bought this pattern that was meant for a pineapple box made of glass. It is sold by a Russian designer, Алексей Тонких, on Etsy. I decided that I did not exactly like the pineapple, so I decided to attempt a Fabergé egg inspired box instead. 

This box took me a total of 10 days to make, which is 5 times longer than I would spend on a normal (or rather rectangle or square) box with a simple structure. The parts had to be meticulously cut. Even though I tried my very best to be as accurate as I can, the two halves did not match up very well. There were a lot of tweaking and forceful manipulation to bring the box to its final fixed shape. 

I covered the box first in a lime green book cloth, and then decorated it with a sheet of Tyvek® I coloured last year while making the covers for a competition book. As the colours the the Tyvek® resemble deep space, I decided to add gold foil dots so that it reflects light like stars in the galaxy. The inner paddings are covered in a dark blue velvet book cloth which makes it look almost like an endless abyss.

There were countless problems which I took as learning experiences. For one, my ribbon is not in a good position and hence it does not hold the lid up at an ideal angle. The lid of the box is heavy, so it tends to lean backwards when there is nothing in the box. Lastly, geometry is really very mind-blowing, It is amazing how a slight deviation to angles can result in parts not lining up.