You see a lot of boxes with trays. The trays seem substantial enough. So I’ve left out the box and left just the trays. With a lid and base of course.

Construction – Double skinned (5 mm Maple, 2.5 mm outer) mitred trays, interlocking, self centring. Mitred top and base

Dimensions – 134 mm square x 171 mm high overall. Trays 127 mm square x 27 mm high

Materials – Maple, Wenge, Rosewood, Walnut, Yew, Pau Amarello, Birch ply

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 400 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

The trays can be re-arranged to suit the owner’s whim with an obvious degree of colour coding with respect to the contents.

A box inspired by the American designers, Charles and Ray Eames in a tonal palate of which I hope they would approve.

Construction – EZ Mitre, Shell

Dimensions – 109 mm on the side x 55 mm high on a 5 mm pedestal base

Materials – Rosewood, Sycamore, Iroko and Birch ply (Baltic)

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 320 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

The squares and diamonds are 20 mm on a side and 3 mm thick on a 3 mm Birch substrate. So, no, its not veneered. Laminated would be a closer definition.

Its a play on words. Neither side is the star, they both…....

No its a coaster. Made from spare bits out of the last project, including Iroko squares I was going to use on ‘Octogons Don’t Tessellate’, later replaced in the design with the Ebony ones.

Dimensions – 78 mm square x 9 mm thick. 3 mm tiles on a 3mm Birch ply substrate.

All the usual suspects.

At last somewhere to put my tea mug and stop the rings on the bench.

Unless you add in some squares.

A box, or two. I designed for a slightly different orientation of the pattern but finally chose this one. So I had enough pieces left over for a small box as well.

Construction – EZ Mitre, Shell. Pattern pieces are 3mm thick on a 3 mm birch ply substrate.

Dimensions – The larger box 117.5 mm square x 58.5 mm high on a 6 mm pedestal base The smaller one 70.5 mm square x 35 mm high on a 6 mm pedestal base

Materials – Purpleheart, Sycamore (English), Ebony, Wenge and Birch ply

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 400 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

This was inspired by the ‘Family’ track ‘Burlesque’ and a memory of a fan dance I saw once in an old film. I made this box last August (2012), but I didn’t like the result. I think the Pear section at the top is about 10 mm too high. So I put it away at the back of the box cabinet and forgot about it.

I pulled out Zee to look at today and there was Burlesque at the back. I’ve mellowed towards it and so I decided to let you lot have a look.

Construction – EZ Mitre, Shell

Dimensions – 120 mm on the side x 80 mm high on a 5 mm pedestal base

Materials – Steamed Pear, Ebony, Sycamore, Padauk and Birch ply (Baltic)

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 320 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

The grooves in the sides of the pedestal base allow for air movement and so easier opening of a ‘piston’ fit box.

Like Cupcake but a hexagonal box.

Construction – EZ Mitre (modified), Shell

Dimensions – 120 mm across corners x 52 mm high on a 6 mm pedestal base

Materials – Luan, Yew (English), Pau Amarello, Wenge and Birch ply (dyed black)

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 400 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

All mitre joints made with 45° and 60° router bits. This time I decided to contrast the pattern with a black interior.
The pattern hexagons are 20 mm across corners by 4 mm thick, individually cut, on a 1.5mm Birch ply substrate.

A box, in the Op-Art style. A cross between a crown and a Fool’s cap.

Construction – EZ Mitre (modified), Shell

Dimensions – 110 mm on the side x 100 mm high on a 5 mm pedestal base

Materials – Ebony, Holly and Birch ply (Baltic)

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 240 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

When I was a child , in England, in the 60’s we had cupcakes. They only seemed to come in three types though; chocolate, lemon and orange. A memory of these inspired this box. Hexagons here as circles don’t tessellate.

Construction – EZ Mitre (modified), Shell

Dimensions – 130 mm on the side x 45 mm high on a 5 mm pedestal base

Materials – Luan, Yew (English), Pau Amarello, Wenge and Birch ply (Baltic)

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 320 Grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

Still not got the photography right but I’m persevering with the new lights.

This box was inspired by the grasses of the Savannah, in a wildlife documentary I watched, during the dryer part of the year.

Construction – EZ Mitre, Shell

Dimensions – 112mm sq’ x 54mm high on a 6mm pedestal base

Materials – Rosewood, Luaun, Yew (English), Pau Amarello, Sycamonre (English), Wenge and Birch ply (Baltic)

Adhesives – PVA, CA

Finish – Sanded to 320 Grit and coated with Spray Satin Acrylic

Title said in an Austin Power’s type voice.

This is an anamorphic, rectangular, box appearing to contain eight hexagonal tubes. Being anamorphic this effect is only visible when the box is viewed from the correct angle.

Dimensions – 129 mm x 125 mm x 76 mm. 6 mm wall thickness.

Construction – Dual layer Ez-Mitre box with Clamshell Wooden Hinge The hinge is retrofitted as described in part two of the blog.

Materials – Pau Amerello, Ebony, Sycamore, Luan and brass (hinge pin). Lined, Birch ply base.

Adhesives – PVA and CA

Finish – Wax over sanding sealer.

The box was inspired by one of Dave Grunenwald’s (last picture) seen on his Etsy site.

There were many problems during construction. Not least the hinge.

A while back I made a Wall Hanging called Dance on a Volcano. This is hung on the stairway at home. Every time I see it I think of it in a box form. So here it is, finally. An EZ Mitre, Shell box

Dimensions – 100 mm sq x 62 mm high, with 6 mm pedestal base.

Materials – Sycamore, solid and veneer and Birch ply, Dyed.

Adhesives – PVA and Viscous CA

Finish – Spray Satin Acrylic

The Padauk in the original has darkened somewhat and I am hoping the spirit based dye I used here will be more colour fast. The mitring on this one was ‘fun’ as you can see in the construction blog

The last picture is the original 3D CAD model.

This box was inspired by the track of the same name on Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon and the album’s cover picture. I have placed the moon central to the top, uniformly coloured as ‘There is no dark side in the moon really, as a matter of fact its all dark’.

Dimensions – 127mm diagonally x 80mm high (excluding base, 140mm diagonally x 7mm high).

Materials – Birch Veneer (dyed and natural), Birch Ply (dyed), Sycamore (dyed) and MDF.

Adhesives – PVA and CA

Finish – Spirit based coloured and black wood dye, Spray satin Acrylic Lacquer.

The main body of the box is 2.5mm MDF veneered both sides, total thickness 3.5mm. The black pillars are 3mm thick.

Here’s a youtube link to the track

http://youtu.be/bK7HJvmgFnM

Construction is blogged, starting, here

The title may not be original but this design is. This is an anamorphic design (it only looks right viewed from a particular angle), which I think looks a little like a polar bear. There is a negative image when viewed from the opposing corner, hence Bi-polar Bear. This is a shell, EZ Mitre box.

Dimensions – 100mm square x 60mm high on a 6mm pedestal base.

Materials – Holly, Ebony and Birch veneer, Birch ply. 4mm MDF core with Maple border.

Adhesives – PVA and viscous CA.

Finish – Spray satin acrylic.

And before people start to whine that I am making fun of of people with bi-polar disorder, I am one, so save it.

A dream. Drinking wine with Salvador Dali, discussing perspective and the fourth (linear) dimension. He suggested a game of chess. We cleared the table. All went well until he produced the chessboard….....

A shell, EZ Mitre box 112mm square x 54mm high.

Materials – 4mm MDF core veneered with Sapele and Birch (both plain and dyed red) on a 6mm, Wenge, pedestal base.

Adhesives – PVA and viscous CA.

Finish – spray satin acrylic.

....I didn’t know I was really drunk at the time…..

In 1969 a group called King Crimson recorded an album called Court of the Crimson King. This box is named after the title track. As well as the King himself there are several other characters in the song including; the Purple Piper, the Yellow Jester and the Black Queen. I have been struggling for many years to design a box which features all of these. Inspiration came with Michelletwo’s post Color. Thank you Michelle. The slotted form was perfect. All I had to do was place the relevant colours behind the slots. With a suitable lining the box was a goer. Many hours of fiddling with the design and building later here it is. This is a three layer, shell box , made using the EZ Mitre technique.

Dimensions – 100mm square x 62mm high (on a 6mm pedestal)

Materials – Padauk, Purpleheart, Pau Amarello, Black Dyed Birch, Yew and Birch ply

Adhesives – PVA and Viscous CA

Finish – Satin Spray Acrylic

It was a difficult job, with a few novel twists, which are now blogged starting here.

Thanks to Jamie Speirs, here’s the youtube link to the track concerned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNantlznCA

This is a series of five wall hangings depicting the rise and fall of civilisation. Bottom left is chaos, top right is civilisation. It is up to the viewer to decide where we (humanity) are and in which direction we are heading.

Dimensions – 160mm square x 8mm thick (x5)

Materials – MDF, Black dyed, Birch and Oak Burr veneer

Adhesives – PVA

Finish – Satin Spray Acrylic

The edge between the Oak and the chess board pattern was cut using a scroll saw.

Here are the five closer up

These reside on the opposite wall of the Stairway to Devon (pun intentional) to my other wall hangings.

This one hurts my eyes to look at for more than a few minutes at a time. It was inspired by the hazard warning tape I was stacking on the shelf, at work, one day.

This is a double skinned, EZ Mitre box.

Dimensions – 102mm square x 62mm high. 6mm wall thickness (2×3mm)

Materials – Ebony, Pau Amarello, Sycamore, Birch Ply and Foam (base)

Adhesive – PVA

Finish – sanded to 320 grit then Spray Satin Acrylic

The first box image is an isometric view, followed by the top and one side, the top, one side and open with lid in background. It is a progression from Louee in my Hewee, Dewee and Louee post in that the side pattern has gone from vertical to 45 degrees slanted,

A while back (546 days ago) I posted a project called Windmill . Recently I wondered what it would look like if the pattern spilled over from the top to the sides as well. This is the result.

This is a double skinned, EZ Mitre box with drop on lid.

Dimensions – 100mm square x 62mm high. Wall thickness 6mm (2×3mm)

Materials – Padauk, Purpleheart, Yew, Pau Amarello and Quarter sawn Sycamore.

Adhesive – PVA

Sanded to 400 grit and finished with Spray Satin Acrylic

This is an experimental, double skinned, box, with Clam Shell wooden hinge, its 6mm thick walls are made of two 3mm layers. On the inside Maple and the outside Zebrano. Experimental, because it is made of 25 parts. This is asking for trouble in terms of glue-up and alignment. Also experimental for me was the edge jointing method.

Dimensions – 117mm square x 73mm high

Materials – Zebrano, Maple, Ebony, 2mm Brass rod

Adhesives – PVA

Finish – Acrylic

The double skinned aspect of this worked well (pic’ 4). I’ll try it in combination with EZ Mitre. Making a box from so many parts (pic’ 5) is, however, not advisable. Alignment is difficult, the grain pattern of the Zebrano only truly matching on the hinge at the back. The profiling of the sides and edge joining strips was fun, I’ll probably do that again, although there are unsightly gaps on the interior corners (more time and care needed)

You don’t need expensive tools or enormous amounts of timber to make a box. This one is made from just over 1/10th of a square metre of veneer and a small piece of birch ply. Scraps and leftovers from other projects in my case. The main body of the box is three layers of Birch ply and one (the outer layer) of cherry (using the bottle in the 5th pic’ as a former). The top and bottom of the box are 3mm birch ply, veneered one side in Ebony and with a 2 layer wrap of the same around it (using the box body as a former)

Dimensions – 75mm diametre x 90mm high.

Materials – Birch, Cherry and Ebony veneer and Birch ply.

Adhesive – PVA

Finish – Spray Satin Acrylic

At last a simple box!