I’m making my first cabinet (kinda Krenov style) and am pushing myself into a number of areas I’m not use to. Because of this I spend a fair amount of time wondering what to do next, and how to do it. Larger builds take more time and are more rewarding I guess, but I need quicker gratification too. So to relax myself when I get frustrated and need to think about the cabinet, I do something more familiar… build boxes.

This one (I call it “Balance”) was to see how detailed I could get with my tuned up band saw (and new blade) and still be fairly accurate. I resawed, which is new to me, and experimented with stuff like making the small mitered framing on the walnut handle and wrapping the maple grain continuously around the box. It was fun, relaxing and very good practice for me while I wrestle with the cabinet.

“Balance” is roughly 4.5”W x 5.5”H x 22”L made with a piece of maple I found in my bin that had some decent figure, and scraps of Walnut, Padauk and Holly sprinkled in the small checkerboard.

(I broke one of my photography lights halfway through shooting the pics so I tried to color correct a few. Even though it doesn’t look like it in some pics, the Maple is consistent coloring throughout the box. And the orange Padauk blew out when I tried to color correct for the Maple on a few pics. It’s best not to fool with Mother Nature.)

Thanks for looking… and as always, any comments/critiques are welcome.

I had a piece of Holly and Padauk laying around that I wanted to use up. I also wanted to do a project that would sharpen my skills a bit and allow me to fine tune my tool’s accuracy since I haven’t done much woodworking in a while. This keepsake box is the result. I love working in Holly. It’s very tight grained and easy to work with though sanding it with other woods can be a challenge. There’s a knot on one of the sides that bothers me a little bit (as you can see from the pics) but I didn’t have a ton of Holly to spare and besides, it’s wood. I’m especially proud of keeping the grain lined up with the Padauk strips on the top. You can’t see it well in the pic but it’s a weave pattern. It wasn’t easy. The top was originally going to be a cutting board but I put so much effort into it that I decided to use it this way instead. I made the hinges also.

I’m presenting it without finish because it may be a while before I get it completely done. I have two other pieces I’m working on and thought I would do them all at one time (clean up the shop one time and all that). The stains around some of the compartments are the result of me wiping it down with mineral spirits before taking the photos and not noticing it wasn’t thoroughly dry until I looked at the pics. I put a faux felt liner in the bottom of the compartments for the photos though I’m not sure what the final lining will be.

I’d appreciate any suggestions on a durable, crystal clear finish because I want to keep the Holly from yellowing as much as possible.

It’s 14.5” x 9.5” x 6” and made of Holly, Padauk and Walnut.

Anyway, nice to see that LJ’s has grown so much in my absence and thanks for taking a look.

To give everyone my progress report, here are the sketches for my rendition of the Thorsen table. They’re not as involved as SketchUp but will serve my purposes. I did it under “Projects” because I still don’t know how to enter pics under blogs (sorry) and noticed some SketchUp renditions done here so hoped it would be ok.

I looked over many Greene and Greene pieces in researching this piece and came to the conclusion (somewhat obvious I guess) that, as others have noted, their style has a heavy Asian influence. I also noted (also obvious) that the style is all about joinery. So my piece has several aspects to it that take these things into account:

Front and Sides: Heavy on showing joinery, some of it functional, some of it cosmetic (as in the apron fronts which I saw in a lamp of their design). The bottom shelf was influenced by there drawer pulls… tenons with dowel inserts. The legs will have some subtle carving at the bottom.

Top: Breadboard like the Thorsen table with an inlay motif taken from one of their stain glass windows. Not sure how detailed I’m going to make this… a lot will depend on time.

I’m not to worried about sticking to their wood choices… I kinda figure that’s an element that makes it specific to the woodworker, that’s my thought anyway. In my case I’m using (you guessed it) walnut… and maple.

Hope I didn’t stray to far from the original (height or anything else) as to make this an unacceptable entry but I have a client who might be more inclined to purchase this after the challenge at this height rather than the shorter version. Anyway, most of the boards have been rough cut and over the next few weeks I’ll be cutting mortises, shaping legs, doing apron tenons, etc and hopefully be ready by deadline (and that’s a really big hopefully).

Look forward to any comments, positive or negative. Thanks.

I’m doing a wine cellar for someone and since it means building 6 units I built this model to show the client. Even though it took a couple of days to make, I have to admit it really helped sell the idea for the pieces and helped me work out the production steps.

It also really drew the client into the project and got the couple really excited. They made modifications – they wanted each unit to hold more bottles then I designed – which was more then fine. They also kept the model (I met with them last week) and they showed it to friends, which has led to two more calls about doing the same pieces for these other couples, allowing me to do a larger production run… and make more money for much less work.

I know I heard from many of you that models and mockups take too much time but in this case the time and energy it created seems to have been really worth the effort. And it was actually kinda enjoyable to make too.

The model is 18” high, 9” wide and 2 1/2” deep (1/4 scale). The wood is walnut and maple.

Here’s another one of my pieces that I just finished.

It’s walnut, granadillo, bloodwood, and the lighter wood is called something like avingnon (don’t have the name right in front of me). The lighter wood (avingnon?) is extremely hard to work with. The piece is 12×12 x 3. The tray (granadillo) comes out of the box via a stainless steel dragonfly cabinet pull I bought at Lowes. I need to start making my own pulls.

Have been practicing carving letters and things lately and thought the top of this thing could have used something else like that on it but when I got almost finished, taking a chisel to it made me nervous. I’m sure you know what I mean. I’ll just keep practicing the carving for now.

I’m getting more than a little tired of just drilling holes and using straight lines so am going to plunge into steam bending or some kind of curved work for my next piece.

Thanks for looking. Be glad to hear anyone’s thoughts.

I’m new here and thought it appropriate to offer one of my pieces for the scrutiny of my peers. It’s a small jewelry box made from walnut and holly. I am especially proud of the hinges which I made myself from walnut. It was my first attempt at making them (no, I did not make the handles. They are are Lowes cabinet handles).

I would be very glad to hear any comments from you all as I am always trying to improve my work. By the way, the photo is just a reduction, for web, from project sheets I try to do for each of my pieces. Thanks ahead of time for any comments.