I recently had the chance to make some wooden crowns for a seminarian planning his wedding. I had occasionally seen wooden crowns in recent Orthodox weddings and so I knew it was not completely an innovation. In discussion with the patron we decided on a tiara form, which would include a miniature stone icon and some ornamental stones. The crowns were first turned in maple by a wood turner, giving me a wide wooden ring. I then shaped the crowns, carved the ornamentation and proceeded to also carve and insert the stone miniatures. Finally I shaped and added the small wooden cross on the top.

Because of the sobriety of the material I chose to design a more playful and lighter ornamentation than what I would usually tend to do. Still, I left the ornamentation flat instead of shaping it as actual leaf and branch patterns in order to focus the most detailed carving in the icon which sits in the center.