A wooden Pirate’s treasure chest for a child’s treasure hunt. The chest has a secret drawer to house an aged scroll with a hand drawn map of the treasure’s location. ‘X’ marks the spot!
I came up with the idea to create a treasure hunt for my Niece, using a fake chest that I was going to make, dress up to look old and rusty, then cover in mud to create the illusion that it has been buried for many years.
The chest itself has a secret drawer disguised in the plinth of the box. Within the drawer resides a hand drawn map of the local woods, along with some old looking pirate jewellery folded in a tea stained envelope with wax seal.
The box is constructed with softwood pine, glued and biscuit jointed together. Ironmongery chosen was ornate and forced through a salt water rusting process. The corners of the box and curved top ends, had a thin 3mm Poplar strip stuck down to imitate a metal strap and corner edgings. I gave these strips a metal effect of black matt primer, then a dry brush of silver stippled all over.
The box received a chestnut stain then a natural wax to seal it. Then came the fun part of making it look old and rusty.
I mixed several shades of paint ranging from yellow to orange to red, giving depth to the rust effect, and last of all the coating of Mendip mud.
To finish off the entirety of the plan, three clues were formed, along with three purpose-made pirate coins, wrapped in a dry moss, then in a hessian fabric. (The coin was to ensure the metal detector would find the clues buried in shallow holes made the night before the hunt. The last hessian wrapping would contain a key to the padlock of the chest.
The hunt went down a treat, so much so that one little girl still believes to this day that we unearthed Captain Blackbeard’s Treasure!
