a walnut gift for my mom in law

this box was one of the first real boxes that i ever made. ited was for my mother in law’s birthday. excuse my spelling im horrible. anyways my mother in law had so much jewlery it was rediculouse. she tossed all of it in a glass bowl in her room. for anyone who has ever made a gift for someone they know that its a perfect opurtunity to experiment with a few things that you would never try if it was for a paying customer. this was long before i discovered i could do box joints on the table saw with a box joint or dado blade. i used the router table with a straight bit and a jig. lets just say it wasnt to succesfull and i ended with allitle gap in every joint. that was because i didnt use i spiral up cut or down cut bit. i used a two fluted straight instead and got allot of chip out. once again this is before i knew. i also found out how to make the checkerboard patern on this box. wich was actually really easy and became something that i love to do just because of that reason, i also wanted to incorporate mitered splines in the lid in base with contrasting wood. that was also an experiment in that i learned you should use a flat bottomed toothed blade instead of one with a set in the teeth. lets just say that i had v grooves in all my cuts,,,, bad…. haha. but thats how we learn. all in all it didnt come out that bad and she loved it. besides this box brought me to realize that i love box making. oh and this is when i found that when using nice wood it is well worth it. this box got me out of the pine, oak, and poplar rut that i was in. i know work with nothing but domestics, or exotics for that very reason. not that thiere is anything wrong with oak or pine, some people love oak, especially those who like mission stlye furniture but those woods just werent for me. i like collor and contrast.

-- i can do all things through christ who strengthens me