Jewelry Box

I had a great piece of canary wood I had been saving for something. I got the idea of making a briefcase for myself. So I made a “hollow box” (all six sides mitered and glued) and cut it open. I was praying for little movement. You can see how beautiful the wood is in the ‘top shot’ and how badly I messed up in the shot where the case is opened. I should have made a frame and panel but, live and learn, eh? D’oh! :-)

Over Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law was visiting me and wanted to see the shop. She saw the case (sitting so forlornly on a table in the corner) and loved the wood. I had some scraps left over so after she left, I made her this jewelry box. However, another dumb design decision was to make the case only 1/4” thick leaving little room for hinges (unless I wanted an external hinge which would be inelegant) and certainly no way to have a chain to keep the lid from opening all the way. That’s what happens when one builds without thinking.

Luckily for me, I belong to the Modern Woodworkers Association and we had a breakfast where I brought the box and asked around for ideas on how to solve the problem. Someone (Chris Adkins?) came up with using little pins. I was afraid that I wasn’t a good enough craftsman for perfect registration to keep the lid in place with no overhang after it was closed, but after messing up so terribly on the original case, I figured what the heck, just go for it.

Needless to say, the pins worked and the registration is great and my sister-in-law loves the case. A very happy ending from a disaster at the beginning.

Now to figure out what to do with the original case…