So I made a thing for my friends kids for lunar new year kinda but not really. In china there is a myth that speaks to the lunar calendar and how the animals learned their place on it. There is a 12 year cycle where each year is represented by a different animal and you are said to embody the characteristics of the animal of your birth year.
My friend has 2 children who are still quite young and I decided to make them a plaque that will give them ties to their cultural history.
its topped with a cutout of their zodiac animal which I use a paint pen to color it gold to make it pop and to bring prosperity. These I intend to mount with double sided sticky foam to make it have more depth so its just not an engraving…
the text body I curated from multiple online sources and then designed it in MSWord because I knew how…
It also has the characters for their zodiac animal as well as their 5 traits as a person
finally I purchased 1oz pure silver bars will attach them plaque as not just a gift/investment/something cool that they have that others dont but also as a wish of prosperity for them
these silver bars are pretty cool and relatively affordable; they have them to commemorate each of the past zodiac animals and their subsequent year
I am not finished with the project, will update with final picture when I am
The layering of pieces and different ideas in this piece is perfect. They will have something no one else will ever have and I’m sure they’ll cherish them for years to come! Well done!
Those are lovely! I spent my youth thinking I was one (which didn’t really match me personality wise), when in fact I was another because all these things out there base it on your birth year not taking into account that the lunar new and the calendar new year are NOT the same date!
Your layout and design are beautifully done. I’m sure these will be treasured!
Are you planning on doing any sort of sealant on them?
I am not for two reasons number one it would require me to send the whole thing and I am worried about taking too much off and number two because I’m putting it inside the shadowbox so there really shouldn’t be any exposure issues not that I would be concerned that from the get go because their intended to be displayed inside
Because I’m going to be attaching the silver bars onto the front the shadowbox also makes it feel more secure even though it really has nothing in terms of security
I had a couple different alternate ideas for the animal characters including cutting them out of acrylic or for example having cotton onto the sheep to make it fluffier but instead I decided to opt for the more traditional Chinese/Japanese style drawing engraved
Are you going to put the bars in the airtight holder? Might keep them from tarnishing and keeping the little ones fingerprints off them so that someday, if they wish to cash them in they may be worth more (if they become collectible).
