Jewellry box

Many years ago when I was working in shopfitting an acquaintance in the timber trade offered me a small parcel of very old veneers that had been used by a company as salesmen samples, these veneer samples dated from about the 1920’s and were about 1.5 mm thick. they were very small so they had no immediate use, they were set aside until the right project came along. About 20years ago I decided to make my wife this Jewelry case using these small pieces of veneer in a random pattern for the outer faces of the box.
The box was made as a single box using Maple as the substrate with the lid and base glued onto either end, this was then all cleaned up to leave flat surfaces all round. The veneers were cut into random width strips and joined together with gummed paper to form a sheet of veneer. These sheets were then cut to a set length and rejoined back together having inverted each piece so that the species were moved along. When the five separated pieces were complete (2 ends, 2 sides and a top) then these were applied to the box using an animal glue in the traditional manner. the box was cleaned preliminarily before the top section was split from the bottom section using a fine saw. the interior tray and musical movement section were competed using 4 mm sections of Brazilian Mahogany, the tray being hand dovetailed all round. The small Queen Anne legs were all hand cut from Brazilian Mahogany and attached to the box with a small spigot on each leg. The box was finally cleaned up and finished with French polish, hinges and clasp were then fitted to the box. The internal lining was made from a blue natural silk and fixed into the box using a specialist adhesive.

-- Bill, Nottingham. Remember its not waiting for the storm to end, but learning to dance in the rain that counts. If you dont make mistakes, you make nothing at all.