Alan Bennett and a burnt tin of sardines

It was Alan Bennett who said, "Life is rather like a tin of sardines, we're all of us looking for the key", and this gave me the idea for my latest project - a burnt tin of sardines. Plus, I will be selling this box, which you can personalise with any message, so scroll down for details. 

I am a big big fan of Alan Bennett. I think I've read everything he's published. It's the word 'rather' in this quote which makes me laugh. Without the word 'rather' it wouldn't be an Alan Bennett quote would it? I can only read this quote in his voice, and I like to linger over the word 'rather' in his round Yorkshire accent. 

Anyway, enough of my idiosyncrasies! I loved making this box - planning it out, problem solving, deciding on colours, making mistakes, having to buy an eraser to rub out the mistakes, redrawing it, burning it, painting it while the kitchen was finally finished! All good fun. 

I pencilled everything onto the box, and then realised that the box was upside down! How I managed to make this mistake, I do not know. I really surprise myself sometimes at just how stupid I can be. I had to go to Hobbycraft to get an eraser, but by the time I got back home, I was ready to get going again. 

My little girly took a shine to this box and claimed it as her own before I'd even burnt it. She kept interrupting me to put her toys in the box while I re-pencilled the design on the front. I had to hide it from her the next day! 

Painting it was the best bit, and it also took away the stress of having the kitchen finished. Plus, it meant kitchen-fitter-chat was down to the bare minimum. No offence to kitchen-fitters, they do an amazing job, but I've spent soooo much time with them recently that I'm small-talked out. I've got no small-talk left in me - I've used up my life-time supply of it. So for the last few hours, the fitters just got grunts from me. 

I did manage to finish the box though, and I'm going to try selling this one. If you would like this one, the details are below. I can burn any message you want on the inside of the box - anything at all (a quote, a name, a poem, a short story!). Why not give this one as a Christmas present? If you would like this one I will be setting up an Etsy shop, so leave a comment of your interest and I'll post shop details soon. Plus, on the Etsy shop I'll have better pictures for you. 

Box details: Hand-painted, hand-burnt, original one-off design. This is a good sturdy box, which can be personalised however you prefer. 

Dimensions: 34.2cm x 25.2cm x 5.2cm (basically in-between A4 and A3 size)

Price: £35 plus postage and packaging