Another art object by Alexander Shorokhoff
The painter’s brush floats on the dark brown mother-of-pearl and immerses the observer in an unusual, fairytale-like representation of the dial of the “Fairytale” model. It tells the wonderful story of the firebird.
The firebird is a bird in Slavic mythology. The magically glowing bird lives in a distant land and brings its captor both blessings and calamities and becomes the subject of difficult tasks. The rich plumage of the firebird has many shades and shines in red, orange and yellow, like the embers of a fire. The beautifully shimmering dark brown dial supports the radiant depiction of miniature painting, which requires exceptional precision and skillful hand guidance.
To produce such a miniature painting, the painter works with a magnifying glass and it takes over 40 hours on average. First the colour palette is put together and the appropriate colour mixes prepared. Only the highest quality brushes with marten hair bristles are used for this art. Ten to twenty of these brushes are needed to make such a picture. The basic colour for each element is applied evenly so that the mother-of-pearl does not shine through. The other colours are gradually faded in to achieve the desired shades and nuances.
In the next step, many extremely fine additional layers are applied, nevertheless after completion the painting is barely five hundredths of a millimeter thick. In order to ensure that each layer of paint has dried out, the small work of art must be dried out several times in an oven at 100°C. The process of repeated drying minimizes the exposure of the wet paint to dust, which could damage the work. This takes between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on the thickness of the paint layer. The finished painting is then burned for five hours to prepare it for finishing. A transparent varnish is then applied sensitively to the entire surface of the dial, which then has to be dried in the oven for another 24 hours.
For the case, Alexander Shorokhov opted for the round case form in 18-carat rose gold. The case back is equipped with a sapphire crystal, through which the automatic movement with hand engraved and refined rotor becomes visible. The decorations are well adapted to the enchanting motif. The golden hands and the golden hour markings complete this delicate masterpiece. The small limitation of only 5 pieces underlines the uniqueness of the model.
