I love to make boxes. I love to experiment with materials, construction techniques and hardware. The examples below are a few of the pieces that I actually remembered to photograph before sending them on their way.
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I have made quite a few of this particular design over the years in a wide variety of woods. It’s a jewelry box, but since it is 10” high, 10” deep and 20” wide, I dubbed it the jewelry “footlocker.”
The top includes a 4x4 ring box and the drawers are divided for earrings and bracelets with an open drawer for larger pieces. All of the drawers are lined with velvet panels.
This particular piece is made of old-growth Koa with accents of Red Palm and Tulipwood.
The ring box and the drawer dividers are Zebrawood.
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This box is a departure from the footlocker with a somewhat Asian influence. It is essentially a 14” cube with five drawers instead of three and a raised panel lid. Overall, it has two square inches more storage space than the footlocker design.
The sides are made of solid “Bee’s Wing” Sapele which has a unique highly figured grain structure.
The drawer fronts are made from bookmatched Bird’s Eye Maple and the drawers themselves are made from Flame Maple.
The corners are a unique design I created using Mahogany which, when viewed from above, look like a flower that I have dubbed “Lotus Corners.”
The top frame and the base are made from highly figured Bubinga.
The top panel contains a solid wood “Yin-Yang” which is Purpleheart and Bird’s Eye Maple. The outside and inside photos let you see that the piece is solid wood as opposed to an inlay.
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This box was the result of experimenting with double-double box joints. Essentially, if you think of a standard box joint as interlacing your fingers, then a double-double box joint is like interlacing your fingers wearing exotic wood gloves. The result is a dramatic interweaving of three colors of wood on the corners of the box.
This particular version is primarily Flame Maple and high figure Bubinga with corner accent woods in Walnut and Redheart.
The top panel is bookmatched Flame Maple with a center stripe made from Walnut and Redheart to match the corners.
It is 12” long by 10” wide by 8” high and designed to hold anything from papers to mementos.
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This box is primarily Roasted Birch. I made this box as an experimental extension of the double-double box joint. The corners are double-double box joints, but I extended them to give the box 'nubbed' corners.
The top and sides are also Roasted Birch with Lyptus and Walnut accents.
The bottom is a solid piece of Walnut.
The hardware is solid brass that I “antiqued” myself.
The stone I set in the top is a piece of "Picture Jasper" I picked up several years ago at a gem show in San Diego – hoping to use it someday in a wood project.
The inside dimensions are: 8 1/2" wide by 11 1/2" long by 5 1/2" deep.
The pictures don't do it justice...
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Something new to play with...
I have been intrigued with pieces I have seen with silver or turquoise inlayed into the surface. I recently found a source for the material used for the "turquoise" inlay.
The experiment you see here is my first attempt at utilizing this new medium. The box is roughly 6" by 6" by 17" long. It is made from Wenge frames with Roasted Birch raised panels. I wanted a natural dark wood to contrast with both the inlay and the hardware.
The "branch" on the top was carved free-hand and then filled with the inlay material.
I used somewhat bulky solid brass hardware on this box because the finer hardware I typically use on small boxes just looked out of place.
Now I want to try using this material to fill natural cracks in woods like ebony, walnut and mesquite...
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