Jewellery Box

For Whom Do We Make?

The stuff we make involves many interested parties. There are: the makers, staff who help, managers of the centre, recipients of the objects, et al. Given the positive power of enthusiasm, it is good to spread that good feeling as widely as possible. When the makers make more than they need, extra stuff can be given away. This week we make a jewellery box; it can be a gifted to any of the interested parties. And who can refuse a gift from sweeties such as ourselves!

Enthusiasm has momentum, the more there is the more powerful it becomes!

Construction

Boxes are simple to make. This challenge of this project is to create a simple to construct design that, when finished, has sufficient grandeur to look as though it deserves to be trusted with precious belongings.

When four hands are working at one corner it is difficult to keep boards aligned. Housing joints and rebates will help parts seat themselves into accurate place. For material there is some low grade 9mm plywood that won’t be able to cope with our doweling habits; we can use an electric stapler instead. That takes care of neatness in construction.

Batch Production
In this case I made components for twenty boxes, i.e. twenty lids, twenty bottoms, forty front/backs, et cetera. It was an efficient production run achieved by stacking boards five high and cutting simultaneously. For instance, a large forstner style bit cut holes in  five stacked boards that were subsequently cut in half to make feet for the box to stand on. It is interesting working out an order of processes to most efficiently set up a kit of pieces. Each project is a small puzzle to be solved… fun in the workshop!!

Finishing
There are wonderful water based dyes that wood sucks in. Bold colours in combination with natural wood figure should make our gift stand out. The colour will rub off if left untreated so we can seal it with shellac. All this painting exploits my friends’ abilities to wield a brush.

Here I had fun rubbing back the dye with 400 grit paper. It was then sealed with shellac.

For decoration on the inside there is a picture cut from a cheaply printed calendar. Water based PVA softened the paper and dissolved the dye. Colour leached into the wrinkles. That was a pretty accident…

Gut Gosh, There’s More!!!!!!!
Work can be planned to generate a certain conclusion. BUT, no amount of planning can make conclusions certain. This box needed lots of painting. I put out the dyes. I planned beautiful blue, red or green boxes. My friends always take my advice. They wait until it is their turn to get my attention. Sometimes the work is like having one stick and two snakes. Here are some of the conclusions; they are beautiful.