The Y'Golonac Box

I stumbled across this "Y'Golonac Box" while searching through completed auctions on Ebay. It's a good example of theming the presentation of a prop, starting with the Y'Golonac statue and then developing a number of documents and accessories to enhance it's believability.







The one thing I really liked about this presentation was the detail work with the sigil and tentacles that was added to the wicker suitcase with Sculpey. What I didn't like was the suitcase itself- fresh off the shelf at "Pier One" or "Big Lots" without a hint of wear or weathering. I've said before that one of the biggest problems with my own efforts is that I don't weather things nearly enough, so please don't think I'm singling out the creator of this piece for criticism.

A good example for comparison is the thing in a bottle tutorial. Even though I went out of my way to make it filthy I pulled back out of a misguided fear of "screwing it up" in the end. Logically, that makes no sense. It's an old bottle! It's supposed to be grubby and grimy! But when you've spent hours getting things just right it takes a leap of faith to start slathering on the oil-based stain and charcoal dust.