Heron Jewelry Box Build

[Christopher Charles]

Hello all,

For the past several years, I've been exploring marquetry with shop cut veneers. A project that has been on my bucket list has been to make a jewelry box for my mom, who's totem animal is the great blue heron. Life and work and kids and years go by, and recently it became time to just make sure it got done.

The first step in my process is to design the top. One of the reasons I really enjoy marquetry is because it has to be quite restrained in both composition, level of detail and (especially) palette. In other words, I don't think just any design can be executed in marquetry successfully. Then again there is some work that is the exception to all rules:

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http://www.staffordshiremarquetry.org.uk/gallery-john-jeggo.php

Now that we've bowed to the master, we can humbly proceed...

[Christopher Charles]

I designed the top for this piece using a sketching program on an ipad. A similar approach can be taken with any computer sketching program, especially one that handles 'layers'. I started by finding a suitable image as the base layer and then tracing the outline and identifying areas with similar tones. In other words, the process is a bit like reverse engineering a paint-by-numbers.

For the background of this piece, I envisioned a sunburst in cherry that evoked a sunset over water that was not purely representational. Here's what I came up with in the end while on family vacation in July:

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Note, the heron and background are separate layers that can be turned on an off, and both sit above a layer with the original heron image.

[Mel Fulks]

For the background of this piece, I envisioned a sunburst in cherry that evoked a sunset over water

Some dog gone good evoking. In my initial long look I tried to analyze what was making the thing work so well. It's easier to notice there is something subliminal going on than it is to figure out WHAT. But one thing I found was that the light rays mimic the silkyness and striping of the heron's feathers. And of course the design is just .....inHERONtly good.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Mel for both the kind words and for being a gentleman who appreciates a good pun!

The exterior box is from a plank of cherry that was one of 4 or 5 I bought while a grad student in central New York. The planks were the very first "real" boards I bought for woodworking and have been hauling them around literally for 20 years. My folks helped move them a couple times and stored them for a couple years while I was working one job, so it has been really fun to pull this wood out of the stash for this project. I cut some of the same cherry for veneer to make the central sunburst.

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Nothing too fancy here; plowed grooves for the top and bottom panel with a Record 043

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and saw and cut the dovetails.

Another fun element is the bottom panel, which was a tree in the backyard of the house we lived in prior to this house. There was a mountain ash that had to come down, and I hauled a small log around for only a half decade this time... Here is the panel during a dry fit with the sides. This was the first project where I really started using a LV shooting plane and am now not sure how I lived without it. About 50% of the work was also done on the (somewhat oversized) shooting board I use in my leg vise.

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And a cameo by a second set of sides and bottom that I did at the same time over Thanksgiving. These parts will sit until I've found inspiration to do another top panel and trays, etc. Which could be quite a while...

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My phone has been giving me fits and isn't talking well with my computer, so i'll stop there for now. Thanks,
Chris

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work CC!

[Mike Allen1010]

Beautifully done Chris!


I love the book matched, glued up panels you obviously carefully chose to optimally display the wood you selected, and also the tastefully designed and well executed half blind dovetails – very nice!


I really look forward to seeing the marquetry progress. IMHO, your insights into the kind of images that work for marquetry are spot on. I know I personally wasted many hours trying to execute a marquetry image that was doomed to failure from the very beginning based on a fundamentally flawed design.


With regard to design, my impression is that you not only created an original design but also somehow use some kind of newfangled "computer sketching program" to create your original design electronically? Who knew that was even a thing? Chris my friend, your ability as both an artist and a craftsman is in my experience a rare combination. I can't wait to see the rest of the build.


Thanks for sharing the pictures!


Best regards, Mike

[Christopher Charles]

Mike and Brian,

Many thanks for the kind words. Mike, you are correct about the computer program. I'll post more soon, but classes start tomorrow...

Best,
Chris

[Brian Holcombe]

Cleared out my inbox, so please resend your message when you have a chance.

[Mike Henderson]

Wow, that is some amazing marquetry. You have real artistic talent.

Mike

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Mike, but be clear, the sparrow is definitely not mine!

[Christopher Charles]

Hello again,

Here's a couple more layers from the design, showing the first version of the full background and the layer with the heron tracing over the original photo (which I will admit I found using Google images but have lost track of the original photographer. My gratitude and apologies to them!).

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For the background, you can see that I simply drew a circle and straight lines.

For the heron, I traced areas of similar tone, and then just filled with a tone that was near the original so I could keep track when selecting individual pieces of wood. One trick was to limit the number of tones by not trying to match perfectly, but by paying attention to the tones and contrast with adjoining pieces. I used red lines to see the borders of pieces more clearly.

I've done a bit of design with paper this way, but the ability to move layers, and especially, the ability to resize components and the entire final image using a drawing program is a huge boon. And is not difficult to learn on an ipad or similar.

[Christopher Charles]

There are only a couple of tricks that make double-bevel marquetry seem like magic. The big trick is to lay two pieces on top of each other and cut them at the same time and on a slight angle (giving them both a matching 'double-bevel' of 3-7 degrees). The trick is the angle of the bevel is adjusted to match the width of the saw kerf once the top piece is lowered by the exact thickness of the bottom piece, thereby filling the hole in the bottom piece.

The foreground can be on top, dropping into the background, or vice versa. I build up by cutting with the foreground on top, and working from the outside to the interior. Here's a video with the concept, but with the background on top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iubcFj1CLQ

Thus, the first task was to build up the the background sunburst. The outside ring is curly birch in the lower half and curly maple in the upper. The interior is cherry from the same boards as the sides. Happily, I knew the head of the heron would cover the center of the star burst, so didn't have to have all the points meet perfectly in the center.

The LV shooting plane was a delight here, but the veneer is only ~2 mm, so any plane would have worked well. The protractor looks fancy, but was simply for estimating angles from the design onto a plywood template that I could use to get the approximate angles. In other words, no angles were precisely measured...

This is also where I reveal my fetish for blue tape!


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I edge glued each ring together with liquid hide glue, 'clamping' with blue tape. This works well because the veneer is thick enough. Once dry, the rings are laid over each other and taped together on the backside.

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The packet is then flipped, the circle traced on the cherry and the circle cut. Once that was complete, I started the heron proper, which I'll post soon.

Best,
Chris

[Christopher Charles]

Not sure how that last picture got in there, but it did!

[Jim Koepke]

Interesting work Chris, looking forward to more.

jtk

[Pat Barry]

Super interesting! Thanks for posting the detailed description and pictures.

It seems that this is where practice and skill really payoff. ---> "The trick is the angle of the bevel is adjusted to match the width of the saw kerf once the top piece is lowered by the exact thickness of the bottom piece, thereby filling the hole in the bottom piece"

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Jim and Pat.

Pat, it sounds like getting the angle right for the kerf would be challenging, but it really only takes a couple tries with scrap, i.e., less than 5 minutes at the start of a project. But some warm up is definitely worth it. One hazard is cutting the wrong direction around a piece (i.e., clockwise instead of counter clockwise), which results in a piece that is too big or small for the opening...

[Christopher Charles]

Hello all,

Pardon the long silence on this thread, I was having difficulty with both my computer and phone, which took three days of fiddling to fix. And finding three days for such things takes a while right now...

For the veneer work, I use the technique outlined by Craig Vandal Stevens in his book, where pieces are added from the outside of the design and working in. This requires careful planning to properly sequence pieces, which isn't as hard as it seems. Somewhat more challenging, at least at first, is that pieces usually have some border that is the final outline and other parts that are cut outside the final border, to be cut away when the next interior piece is added.

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In the photos above (click 'em to make 'em big), the number correspond to the initial and final locations of the pieces. Note piece 2 and piece 4 are much larger than the final size.

[Christopher Charles]

As pieces are added, so is more blue tape!

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This is the nearly complete heron from the front (show) side under blue tape. I work on the back side to add new pieces. Blue tape is pretty good for this since the veneer is thick (2mm), but is a bit fiddly as it sometimes peels and sticks to the table.

[Christopher Charles]

OK, so I said the design is built from the outside in, but to do so on the entire top would be unwieldy, so I actually build up the heron on a piece of poplar veneer 'background' as seen above. In my excitement to see how it would look on cherry, I cut out the outside profile into a cherry background, as shown here.

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Which created a 'pucker' moment when I realized I would have to recut the outside profile _exactly_ or just to the inside border of the heron to not have the cherry background show up as a new element. Not a big deal for the body of the heron, but sketchy for the bill as minor changes in proportion there are noticeable.

This photo shows the final aligning of the heron component to the sun burst. I aligned the pieces using a small hole through the center of the eye, sawed the border and the heron then dropped into the sunburst.

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[Michael Todrin]

Truly outstanding work Christopher. It looks like it is coming together very nicely. I can't wait to see more.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Michael, appreciate the kind words!

With the box front nearly complete, it was time to prepare the inside lid, made out of sycamore, and and glue up the panel. I'm getting better at making shop cut veneers, but ended up using stock that varied in thickness by ~0.2 mm. This was relatively easy to deal with for the back because after edge gluing the pieces, I could clamp one side and work a face flat with a toothing blade. This only took ~5 minutes and I really like my LV scraper with their fine toothing blade for this task. Frankly, it is really the only thing I use the plane for and a vintage toothing plane would have been a better value...

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And into clamps. Being in N. Idaho in a drafty shop, this was a bit exciting. I warmed all three panels together, heated the OBG and got it all into clamps to cure in front of the fan of the woodstove.

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I placed newspaper over the panel packet to keep it from sticking to the veneer press. I laid a cloth between the top and the veneer press top to even out pressure on the top pieces to ensure they all glued down to the substrate since I couldn't level the back without pulling/breaking pieces beforehand.

My lame glue spreader

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Out of clamps! And leveling of the face:
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[Christopher Charles]

Hello all,

I'll at least be consistent in my inconsistent posting... Here's the rest of build.

The one bit that I did not do on the veneer before gluing up the panel was also the most important...doing the eye and getting it right. I tried a couple approaches, and in the end should have just done prior to gluing up. I drilled a recess and modified to the shape of the outer eye and cut a piece with the outer eye and iris to fit.

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This piece also had the pupil, but I wasn't completely happy with it. So I drilled a hole for the new pupil, whittled a scrap of ebony and it was all fun an games until someone gets a stick in the eye...


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From there it was a matter of trimming the panel to fit into the box using a shooting plane, cutting a rabbet to fit the groove, and tweaking with a shoulder plane. Whereby my shooting plane plays planing stop..

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And glue up of the box with the panel captured.

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The solid box gets the lid cut off. I should get brave enough to do this by hand, but I find it exciting enough as it is at the bandsaw.
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[Christopher Charles]

With the lid cut off, I then carved a lift for the lid from ebony. I was pleased with the texture, but in retrospect would have lightened a bit by making smaller or by adding a "waist".

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Built a couple of trays, with a bit more of adventure in clamping than I would have liked.
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Used some scraps to lay out the design of the tray dividers.

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[Christopher Charles]

And here's the final product.

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Thanks for following along. Build threads are my favorite, so many thanks to all that post their efforts. I continue to learn much from all the contributors here. Please share any comments or questions.

Best,
Chris

[Matt Lau]

Not sure how much I can add:
1. If you need reconstituted stone, try Rescue Pearl.
2. I like Riogrande for jeweler stuff.
3. Let me know if you want to borrow a Knew concept fret saw. Just mail it back when done.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks for the offer Matt, but perhaps wrong thread?

Best,
Chris

[Mike Allen1010]

Chris, your jewelry box is absolutely beautiful – thanks much for posting! I love the way you book matched the grain and how precisely you executed the half blind dovetails – just great!


Thanks so much for the tutorial on marquetry for the heron – it was very instructive and super helpful. It goes without saying results are fantastic.


How do you like the Old Brown Hide Glue? I intended to get some forever, but when the time comes I'm just too impatient to order it/wait for it to be shipped and just end up going forward with the Titebond I have on ha, which usually yields mixed results. Sometimes the glue soaks through and discolor the marquetry veneer and I also don't always get uniform adhesion of the marquetry panel to the substrate (yeah those annoying veneer bubbles that show up when you're all done).


Thanks again for posting absolutely awesome. I look forward to seeing more of your work.


All the best, Mike

[glenn bradley]

Really beautiful Christopher. Thanks for the detailed ride along. A wonderful piece with a wonderful purpose.

[Noah Magnuson]

Absolutely beautiful! Very inspiring. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[Christopher Charles]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the kind words. Which reminds to admit that I peened some of the dovetails to make them look good, which is a "skill" that I find takes some of the pressure off doing them.

While I did take care to pay attention to grain orientation and grain graphics, I doubt the pieces are truly bookmatched. That said, I cut all the veneer on my bandsaw, which means everything's got to be pretty close to book/slip matched by definition.

I really like OBJ and have also used Titebond. I prefer the OBJ if for no other reason than I like the bottles better. And it is made by Patrick Edwards, who I've long admired (and who must practically be you neighbor?). I will say that the veneer I make is ~2mm or almost 1/8", so I too likely end up with some air pockets, but they don't telegraph, at least not yet... I haven't ever had issues with discoloration, but also haven't used any dyed veneers.

Glenn and Noah, thank you and glad you enjoyed the posts.

Best,
Chris

[Jim Koepke]

Marvelous!

jtk