So, we will need:

- box made of pine;

- gas burner (I have a "Micron" one);

- brushes for metal;

- azure for wood;

- pearl acrylic paint;

- acrylic paint with metallic effect;

- shellac varnish;

- soft cloth or sponge;

- acrylic primer;

- acrylic paint;

- glossy acrylate lacquer;

- transparent contour gel;

- suitable accessories for the box.

When choosing a box, pay attention to the pattern of annual rings: the more interesting and more often the lines are located – the more decorative the effect after firing will be. Various flaws, cracks and knots will also add to your work a unique charm and originality. Best amenable to brushing: pine, walnut, spruce, oak, ash.

1. Brushing the base.

This stage will be the dirtiest, so I recommend, if possible, to perform it on the street. We will need a gas-filled burner (use a gas mixture for lighters – it is sold in large supermarkets) and the workpiece itself.

We begin to gradually burn the sides of the workpiece to the state of embers (without fanaticism). We work slowly, carefully processing through each section. Make sure that the wood does not catch fire and, if necessary, blow off the flame.

Do not forget about safety, so we work in goggles and gloves!

After all the parts of the box are burned, we proceed to cleaning out the soft fibers of the wood with a metal brush. We work strictly along the lines of the annual rings, otherwise ugly transverse scratches may form, and we do not need this at all. We drive the brush on the wood with some effort, cleaning to almost white. Periodically brush off the dust with a soft cloth.

The box already acquires a decorative appearance, but this is not enough for us, so we proceed to the next stage.

2. Coloring.

Since the box will serve as a tea box, then it will be painted in the appropriate colors: crimson-red, golden-brown, bronze-green.

Before painting, once again pass a clean cloth on the sides of the workpiece, brushing away the remnants of dust, then arm ourselves with a brush, azure (I have a shade of mahogany) and pearl acrylic paint.

Apply azure along the fibers of the wood and, without waiting for drying, erase it from the surface of the box with a soft cloth or sponge. Thus, the protruding parts of the burnt wood remain dark, and a noble red hue appears in the recesses.

Leave the box alone until the azure dries completely, then do the same operation with pearl acrylic paint, rubbing it into the fibers of the wood, thereby giving a beautiful glow to the sides of the workpiece.

We wait for the paint to dry completely and cover the sides of our box with shellac varnish in 2 layers with an intermediate drying of 12 hours. Shellac lacquer gives a light golden hue and a soft shine to the surface, adds depth of color, emphasizing the structure of the wood.

After that, we proceed to the preparation of the surface of the lid for painting.

3. Painting .

Priming the surface of the lid with acrylic primer in two layers with intermediate drying of 1 hour between layers.

After drying the soil with a simple pencil, apply an approximate figure, which we want to depict. Since my box is made in the autumn theme, its main pattern will be colorful leaves, on one of which a fiddler beetle settles.

If you find it difficult to apply a drawing by hand, you can use a ready-printed outline of the leaves and copy paper. This motif is also good in that the leaves are rarely the right shape, they can be torn and have curved edges, so no one will blame you for the asymmetry of the pattern.

We begin painting. We paint the leaves with the first, lightest tone, which will serve as a background for the next color spots and at the same time the color of the veins, like this:

The center of the composition, consisting of three leaves and a beetle, I will work very carefully, so I paint it a little brighter.

On the example of the central leaf with a bug I will tell the main points and features of painting.

First, immediately outline the leaf background color (mine is the color of ripe eggplant with metallic effect), which allows to clearly define its boundaries and immediately creates a certain contrast. I did not accidentally choose such a dark tone, but so that the colorful leaves look especially advantageous on it. Then we outline the veins and darken the edges of the leaf.

We work through the center, adding bright color spots, I draw veins and jagged edges, which we make lighter than the main tone of the leaf in order to add more volume to the work. Add shadows along the contour of the leaf.

Do not be afraid to use saturated colors – you will only benefit from this!

With a thin brush (zero-numbered) draw a beetle, placing color accents on its shell with grassy-green paint with a metallic effect to create beautiful iridescence in different lighting. In addition, we shade its contour, making the figure more voluminous, we work out the legs and antennae.

We evaluate the resulting picture, correct, if something somewhere does not fits, add small bright dots on the edges of the leaf as an accent and move on to the next stage.

4. The creation of the volume.

Yes, our drawing will also be voluminous! I really liked this technique, which allows you to "revive" the image drawn with love and, thus, to touch the soul of the artist. In this work, I decided to make a volumetric beetle, and convey the mood of autumn with the help of volumetric raindrops on the leaves.

To do this, we need a transparent contour gel. It is best to use the gel in a tube, in which case it is applied directly from it and corrected with a toothpick, needle or palette knife. But in its absence, suitable and modeling transparent gel from the jar, which can be applied with the same palette knife, brush or with a special tube with nozzles.

Apply the gel in a thick layer on the body and head of the beetle, leaving grooves between the wings and trimming the gel with a palette knife to give a rounded shape, the excess gel is carefully removed with a toothpick. On the leaf we place small dots in the form of raindrops, large and small, as if it were a real leaf.

Waiting for drying (for a day would be perfect) and...

We observe the birth of a miracle!

If necessary, adjust the volume of the bug by re-applying the gel. The rest of the leaves are decorated in the same way.

In the process (seems to have the smell of rain):

At the end of the painting, cover the lid of the box with glossy acrylic lacquer in 2-3 layers.

Lyrical digression.

As is often the case in the creative process, the design ideas appear right on the go, and sometimes the thing itself suggests solutions. So it happened with me. Even in the middle of working on the box, I realized that its native hardware looks poor and does not fit my artistic plan. Of course, it would be better to replace it at the very beginning (or after firing), but, unfortunately, the one that suits me, was not available and had to wait for its appearance in the store. And it appeared! Here is such a beauty:

If you suddenly have the same "insight", then I advise you to follow it, because in this case you will get full satisfaction from your work.

As carefully as possible, unscrew the old hardware (which, incidentally, can be useful to you in other work), without damaging the picture. We place a new one at work, admire, make sure that everything is done correctly and fasten with the same maximum accuracy (I also put additional "Titan" glue).

That's what we got in the end:

The inner part of the box is covered with shellac varnish and glue a carved tag with a suitable inscription.

Put tea bags inside the box and enjoy!

I apologize if I missed something, this is my first tutorial, I tried to describe everything in detail and clearly, I hope that it turned out :)

Thank you very much for the attention from me and my furry assistant!