DIY Wooden Jewellery Box from Goynar Baksho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pQuyyd6dWA

বাক্সটা আদতে ছিল এক পিসি ঠাকুমার, নাম রাসমণি. তার বিয়ে হয়ে মাত্র ১১ বছর বয়েসে. ১২ পড়তে না পড়তেই বিধবা. পিসি ঠাকুমার সেই গয়নার বাক্স কি ভাবে আমার হাতে এসে পৌঁছলো, সেই কাহিনী বলছি.

[Translation: The jewellery box belonged to one great aunt named Rashmoni. She was barely 11 when she was married off. She was widowed by the time she turned 12. Let me tell you the story of how I got her beloved jewellery box.]

Before we start, make sure to subscribe to this channel & take a look at my other videos for more such DIYs and home décor tips

How to make the base box

I’ve been wanting to make a DIY wooden jewellery box from Goynar Baksho, Aparna Sen’s horror comedy, for some time now. Now that Halloween & Bhoot Chaturdashi are here, I decided to recreate it using the scrap wood that I’ve accumulated from my various DIYs.

I began by cutting two plywood pieces to the size of 10 by 4 inches for the front & back walls & two pieces to the size of 7 by 4 inches for the side walls. Then, I simply joined them with nails to form a rectangular box shape.

Next, I sawed the top & the bottom panels to the size of 8 by 11 inches, leaving an overhang of about half an inch on each side.

How to cut wood at an angle using Jigsaw

You need to watch the video for this part!

Making the motifs with clay

Now that the base was ready, it was time to get into the nitty gritty flourishes, starting with the borders.

I used some trims and glue to border the lid and the bottom piece. For the facades, I used the half-round mouldings leftover from my showcase DIY project, which you should definitely check out, by the way.

Once those were dry, I began the most gruelling part of this project – the ornate motif.

First, I drew the original pattern from the movie prop directly on the box. Then, I moulded small pieces of polymer clay into the various shapes of the motif & glued them on.

If I had the right rotary tools, carving these motifs out of the wood would’ve been the way to go. But those can be very expensive, so I went with polymer clay instead.

And don’t worry if you don’t have the professional sculpting tools. A utility knife, a screwdriver and the round bottom of a painting brush do just fine in shaping the clay.

Fair warning though, sculpting clay motifs can be an extremely time-consuming process. It took me nearly two days to finish the designs on each side of the box. I took breaks in between to attach the top & other little flourishes, because I was starting to lose patience with myself.

Finally, after about a week of late-night sculpting after work, it looked something like this.

Painting the jewellery box

Now, it was time to move on to painting, which was quite a relaxing endeavour after the motifs.

I mixed two parts of brown acrylic paint, with one part of black & one part of red to get the dark wood colour of the movie prop.

After testing it out a bit in different lighting, I began carefully painting the wood bases with a thin brush, before moving on to the motifs.

By the way, if you enjoy listening to audio stories, do check out RJ Mir’s new channel. You won’t be disappointed.

T: “Are you sure you won’t absentmindedly dip your paintbrush in the tea? It’s quite possible with you.”

Attaching the hinges & latch

After letting it dry for a few hours, I glued a mirror to the underside of the lid. Then, I moved on to attaching the lid to the jewellery box.

I got these baby hinges on Amazon. While they look cute, they were a pain to attach because the screws were so tiny! And I decided to add five of them to ensure nothing came off, so that took a minute

When I finally got done with the hinges and moved on to the latch, it was late evening. So, excuse the poor lighting.

Off camera, I sprayed on a clear top coat. Then, it was time to wait for the ghost to stop by to haunt her beloved jewellery box.

That's it, it’s all done! What do you think? Did I do justice to the glorious jewellery box from the movie? Or does it remind you of the 'goynar baksho' from the Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s stories?

Let me know what you think in the comment section. And if you want to watch more such exciting DIYs, subscribe to this channel and follow along. I’ll see you soon again. Till then, take care & keep well.

PS: By the way, in preparation for this project, I must have read Goynar Baksho the book & Rashmoni’r Shonadana, the short story, at least five times. I don’t even know how many times I watched the movie that they inspired.