1:35 Kamenný sloup a smírčí kříž

A stone that stands on the site of an old wrong

Reconciliation crosses are a particular chapter of the central European landscape. They were raised by whoever had killed someone, as part of a settlement with the bereaved, and in the Czech lands hundreds of them have survived to this day. They tend to be roughly hewn, low and slightly tilted, because nobody ever set them in a foundation. The stone column beside them stands in for the second type of sign, the one raised out of gratitude or in fulfillment of a vow.

Box contents

Five resin castings are completed by a photo-etched part. The combination of two materials has its reason: a casting can handle the rough mass of stone, whereas thin metal offers what resin could not reproduce - a plate, a grille or a wrought element of a thickness a mold would not fill.

How much of this measures in reality

A typical reconciliation cross was sixty to one hundred centimeters tall, so seventeen to twenty-nine millimeters in reduction. A column tends to be taller, around three meters, and comes out at eight and a half centimeters. The difference between the two signs is therefore immediately apparent in a scene, even when the viewer sees them from a distance.

How to make stone out of resin

A smooth casting looks like plastic. Roughen the surface, then, with an impression of coarse abrasive paper or by light tapping with a needle, before the base coat goes on. After that a gray coat, a light dry brush along the edges and a greenish pigment in the shadowed places are enough to make the lichen look like the work of many decades. The photo-etched part calls for its own preparation: degreasing with spirit and a primer intended for metal, otherwise the paint will come off at the first touch of the tweezers.