Mock up of Queen Mary tin lid

I took an image of the Queen Mary tin lid and placed tracing paper over this. I then traced over the detail that would easily be seen from far away e.g the head, the sections of the border and circles.

I then scanned this simplified version into my computer and scaled it up to the size of my tin (10.9cm x 8cm). Using this smaller image as reference I then created a mock up version of how I want the lid to look. 

I cut a thin piece of cardboard the same shape as the lid to use as the base. I then used thin, bendable wire to give the shape of the circle in the centre and the border to the lid and taped them down. 

I cut the shape of Queen Mary's head out of cardboard and stuck this in the middle of the circle so that it will be raised. I then covered the whole piece in PVA and a layer of tissue.
After that had dried I started on the more intricate bits.

I couldn't get the wire to bend the way that I wanted it to, so I made this from twisting a thin strip of tissue and shaping it. I did the same for the bottom shape and the circles either side of the lid.

Looking closer at the image of the original lid, Queen Mary's hair is slightly more raised than the rest of her face...

I created this on my mock up by shaping a thick layer of tissue and PVA into the shape of her hair, which will look quite effective once painted. 

I then covered the whole thing in another layer of tissue and PVA to make it look like one continuous covering. 

I found this a really effective way to make the lid. However I did find trying to make small details quite difficult e.g I wasn't sure how to make the leaves around the centre circle. I was thinking of using small pieces of cardboard but wasn't sure how effective this would be so I still need to experiment with that.