Oil-based paint is the primary medium used to paint the composition on this box. The palette used has a variety of bright and vivid colors. The natural colors of the scene, as it would look in real life, are used to add realism to the composition. The detailing of the piece is nothing less than exquisite. The only inlay he does not paint over is where the people are ice-skating, which shows the reflective quality of frozen water.
Gold paint is used to add detail and artificially create a light source within the composition.
The box is constructed out of paper-mache made in Fedoskino. The exterior of the box is decorated with dye-resist and the interior is painted with red lacquer. The dye-resist leaves a pattern which looks very much like polished stone. The box has a hinge located above the composition and rests on a flat bottom.