One of my goals for this year is to create an Egyptian scribal kit–palette, pens, brushes, and paints.
A project I’m currently working on is crafting a palette like one held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art dating to New Kingdom Egypt, about 1386–1347 BCE. (Link here.)
This will not be an accurate replica, in part because the original was carved from ivory.
I’m still working on this, but what I’ve done is to scale and print to scale the original image. I had a piece of birchwood from a failed project which happily was the same height as the original artifact. I measured this out and had my sheet of wood sawed into 3 blanks. I’m under no illusion that the first one is going to come out like I want it to.
I took my printout at size, then cut out the spaces where the paint cakes sat, so that I could carve those holes just as they were in the original. I then used the printout to stencil those in–this is what it looked like.
I do have a disability that can make carving a challenge, so I’ve been taking it slow and carving a little at a time. The original palette is not perfect and even which bugs my eye a bit, but after I put paint in it, I kind of doubt I’ll notice.
My plan is to “block” out all the shapes and get them to be about what the right depth appears to be by hand carving. Then I’m going to see if I can use a mini rotary tool to neaten it out and sand. I haven’t yet decided how I would like to address the writing on the original and if I’ll try to replicate that or since this is a tool for myself, if I’ll label with my persona name. (Which would not have a cartouche around it.)
The Cleveland Museum of Art has a paintbox which, truthfully, would have been a better one to replicate. Alas, I didn’t find it until I had already committed to this one. However, it does show that these types of palettes/paintboxes seem to have been used by scribes across multiple periods. I might do the Cleveland box at some point and see if I can create a more accurate replica. This, however, is planned to be something I use everyday as part of the kit for the second persona I’m working on.
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