State Fair Jewelry Box

[Bwillie]

Hello all,

I'm new to the site and have thoroughly enjoyed your posts and pictures. gret talent out there. I'm from the sunny Florida area in the US and recently made a jewelry box for the state fair. Took first place, which shocked the you know what out of me.

I'm gonna try and attach a pic of it. It's made from curly maple, and wenge'. The sides, front and back are curved. The top edge slopes inward. It has a lower drawer in the wenge' portion and the lid opens to reveal a lower segmented area with a sliding tray above it.

Thanks.

[Shannon]

Welcome Bwillie,

That is a fine piece of work. Looking forward to some more of your work should you care to share.

[Ironwood]

Nice work !! I love the look of that curly maple.

[Phil Spencer]

Well done nice work:)

Phil

[Wardy]

excellent box bwillie,curly maple looks fantastic.top effort:D

[Wild Dingo]

Beautiful!! Well done! Well worth first prize! :cool:

[Sculptured Box]

Bwillie

You are in the right place to display your work - welcome to the Forum.

A great looking box, thank you for taking the time to share it with us.

[gazaly]

Great work BW, fantastic box. :)

Is the main panel of the lid a lighter coloured curly maple as well?

[sea dragon]

Fabulous effort.
For a novice like me, can we have some "further and better particulars" of how you went about the construction, dimensions and willingness to be in this Forum's boxes for charity effort.
It need not be solely for Australia.
Imagine working with the different timbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bwillie]

Great work BW, fantastic box. :)

Is the main panel of the lid a lighter coloured curly maple as well?

Yes it's curly maple as well, except from a different board. I was running out of material so I had to use that pc.

Thanks for the kind words.

[mongrell]

i can see why it won first prize great work and grats

[Bwillie]

Thanks CJ.

I sketched this on a plane ride and then got down to business. All the sides are slightly curved and to leave enough material on the wall thickness, I had to do the calculations of the arc so my compass could be set right. (that dredged up some memories of high school math). THe top portion of the lid frame was pretty difficult because my goal was to have an inlay and a rabbet for the panel lid and have the slope goe in towards the middle of the box. I wanted this slope and the curvature of the box sides to cmopliment one another. I had to ensure my inlay that I made was thick enough in order to take the 21 degree cut that created the bevel and not cut the inlay totally away and leave about a 1/16 of an inch above the lid medallion. The really tough part (and scary) was cutting the curve on all the sides. This was done on my band saw, stretching it to the limits. The cut was critical in that I had to keep proper dimensions on the inlaid top. The drawer front was also a challenge as it received the same curve cut on the outside and was 45 degree mitered for the corners. You can see that the miter keys there are simply for decoration, but are matching none the less. The tray on the inside has a curved handle to mimick the curve of the box. Everything is sanded silky snooth. the handles were an after thought as I ddin't know at the time how I was gonna lift the lid or pull the drawer open. The lid handle is actually ebony and the lower one is the same curly maple. The box has sort of an asian flare which I like. I've done one other in an asian flare (totally different) and kind of like the looks. I want to get good at this hobby and maybe make it a business. Who knows, maybe it'll pan out.

PS....it took about 50 hours over three weeks.

ICN,

Bill

[newbyold]

Fantastic effort - great use of contrasting materials.

very inspirational

[DPB]

What a beautiful creation! Absolutely superb and worthy of first place in any competition! I love the choice of complimentary timbers and the way you have combined these.

You explain that the curved sides were formed by cutting with a bandsaw. You must have a large bandsaw to cut the front and back pieces. I'm assuming that these were cut with these pieces standing on end. Have I got this right? :)

[Bwillie]

What a beautiful creation! Absolutely superb and worthy of first place in any competition! I love the choice of complimentary timbers and the way you have combined these.

You explain that the curved sides were formed by cutting with a bandsaw. You must have a large bandsaw to cut the front and back pieces. I'm assuming that these were cut with these pieces standing on end. Have I got this right? :)

Yep, It was definately a challenge, especially with the State Fair only 10 days out. I made an arc template on the CAD (used my high school trig), glued it to the sides and stood that box on end (the full 12 inches high). The tricky part was cutting right to the point on the lid where it chamfers down and inward towards the middle of the lid. I carpet taped the cutaways back in place to complete all the cuts. The bottom drawer also has this curve and was temporarily taped in so that I cut it at the same time the fron was cut. Thanks for the kind words.

ICN

Bill

[kingfish]

yeah well i guess its alright, for a simple box...... seriously impressive.