article_snippet: London (CNN)Cabinet-maker Michael Ibsen has just put the finishing touches to a coffin; built of highly-polished, honey-colored English oak and yew, it has been a labor of love, pondered over and painstakingly crafted.
article_snippet: Because this isn't any ordinary commission: the casket will be the final resting place of one of Ibsen's distant relatives, Richard III, who died more than 500 years ago.
article_snippet: It is a unique privilege," says Canadian-born Ibsen, whose DNA was used to establish the identity of the English King, found buried beneath a car parking lot in the city of Leicester in August 2012.
article_snippet: Ibsen says Ibsen's been on an "extraordinary journey" in the two-and-a-half years since Ibsen gave a DNA swab to genetics specialist Turi King on the off chance that experts searching for the burial place of Ibsen seventeen-times great-uncle might strike it lucky.
article_snippet: And while Richard III body last made that trip slung unceremoniously over the back of a horse, this time the journey will be done in style: carried in the coffin made by Richard III great-nephew.
article_snippet: Inside, the smaller bones from Richard III hands and feet will be tucked into linen bags -- each one decorated with a rose, representing the House of York, Richard III family -- sewn by children from Leicester's King Richard III Infant School.
article_snippet: Historian John Ashdown-Hill, who discovered the genealogical link between Richard III and Michael Ibsen, says it is important that the King's Catholic beliefs are recognized in the ceremonies.
article_snippet: Ashdown-Hill, who shares Richard III faith, has had a rosary, featuring the white Yorkist rose and a crucifix like one thought to have been owned by Richard III mother, made to be placed inside the coffin.
highlights_snippet: Bones will be buried in a coffin made by Richard III's descendant, Michael Ibsen .