Lacewood and Canary Wood Box

[Vaughn McMillan]

Here's a little trinket box I made for my ex-wife for Christmas. (We've been divorced for nearly 20 years, but we remain good friends.) It's been our long-standing tradition that I give her a box for Christmas, but this is the first year I'm actually made the box.

The box is about 6" x 9" x 3.5", the sides are lacewood and the raised panel top is canary wood. This was my first time using lacewood, and my first raised panel anything. It was also the first time I got reasonably good results with shellac. The box construction itself was a simple slam-bam, thank you ma'am process (not unlike our marriage ;) ). I think it maybe took me an hour to build the box. Fnishing it, however, took somewhat longer, and I still may add some more coats of either shellac or perhaps Arm-R-Seal topcoat. The finish as shown in the pics is two coats of amber shellac, followed by a couple coats of clear shellac.

The grain in the canary wood top really is as splotchy as it looks...it's NOT the result of my poor application of amber shellac, even though it looks that way.

With no further ado, here are some pics...

28117

And another angle of the closed box...

28118

And a view of the inside...including the purple velvet lining. (It's her favorite color, plus it looked better than black, blue or green...the other colors I had available.)

28119

Any comments or critiques are welcome.

- Vaughn

[Jim Becker]

Vaughn, that lacewood really looks great on that box...the "lace" is just the right "size", IMHO. Wonderful box!

Since you asked for commentary, I'll add that I'm not convinced about the canary wood for the top based on the photos. Tone-wise, there is little contrast to the lacewood, again, based on the photos, and the grain/figure makes my eye stray from the lacewood. I think I'd like ebony or something contrasting and "plain" better for the lid, but that's just me.

[Jack Hogoboom]

Vaughn,

The heck with the box. Tell me how you managed to remain friends with your ex-wife. That's a real achievement. I've been divorced for close to 8 years, but my ex-wife would gladly watch me bleed to death if given the chance.

What's your secret???

Jack

[Jason Tuinstra]

Vaughn, nice box. The lacewood looks great for this one. Just right!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Vaughn.....your skills are seemingly endless! Nice box! I like that lacewood!

[Vaughn McMillan]

Vaughn,

The heck with the box. Tell me how you managed to remain friends with your ex-wife. That's a real achievement. I've been divorced for close to 8 years, but my ex-wife would gladly watch me bleed to death if given the chance.

What's your secret???

Jack
The secret? Long story short...she left me for another woman. Wasn't like I did anything wrong. :rolleyes: It's proven to be fodder for some of my best jokes for almost 20 years. :D

- Vaughn

[Gregg Mason]

Very nice! and 1 hour :eek:

[Jim Becker]

The secret? Long story short...she left me for another woman. Wasn't like I did anything wrong.

I see we share something quite unique...and I'm still very close friends with my ex...and her partner. She still carries my last name, too. They are both wonderful people and I love them dearly. There was no "wrong", anyway...

This is a wonderful gift for her!

[Travis Porter]

Very nice. You turn out a lot of stuff in a short time. Is this your full time job or are you just playing after work?

[jerry cousins]

very nice - i like the "layers & steps" that the bevels create.

jerry

[Mark Singer]

Vaugn,
Another nice box! I like the simplicity and great choice of woods

[John Buzzurro]

Nice box, Vaughn. I love the look of the lacewood.

[Frank Chaffee]

Vaughn,
I have never seen anything like that lacewood. The grain looks like tooled leather.

Nice finishing.

Frank

[Dick Parr]

Very nice Vaughn !

[john whittaker]

Lacewood and design look great Vaughn. I agree with Jim that the top might benefit from more contrast. Either a darker plain top or...I like the looks of plain maple with lacewood.

You sure are pumping out some nice projects. And you seem to be really enjoying it. Glad to see that your rekindled interest in woodworking is going so well. Keep it up...

[Jim Young]

Nice looking box.

Your back drop does somehow remind me of the 70's velour. :lol:

[Pete Harbin]

Nicely done Vaughn! The two textures work really well together. The straight grain of the canary looks sharp with the lacewood.

Pete

[Corey Hallagan]

Vaughn another beauty! I love that lacewood. Great work buddy!

Corey

[Vaughn McMillan]

Thanks for all the comments and compliments. I agree that the canary wood and lacewood don't have quite enough contrast in the pics, but in person the canary is more yellow and the lace is more brown, and it seems to work pretty well "in the flesh". (Although I think ebony -- or maybe wenge -- in the top would also look very cool.)

This particular board of lacewood caught my eye a few months ago, largely because the grain was a bit different than the other lacewood in the store. Frank mentioned that it looks like tooled leather...in person it almost looks like snakeskin.

Travis, I'm just an after-work/weekend wood hacker. I wish I could afford to do it for a living, though. I played with woodshop stuff in high school and for a few years after, but until a bit less than a year ago, I hadn't done anything other than home improvement (2x4s and nails) type stuff. LOML gave me a belt sander last Christmas, and that started things rolling again. I've been pretty serious about getting back into woodworking ever since I found local sources for hardwoods, which was about 7 months or so ago. It's definitely addictive.

Jim Y, you nailed it on the backdrop. It's the '05 version of black crushed velour. Same as the 70's stuff; they still sell it at the fabric store. I bought a chunk for lining box bottoms, but I've been using it as a backdrop (instead of the black terrycloth towel I used previously).

Jim B, maybe you can relate to the fun you can have taking your wife, your ex-wife, and her girlfriend out to dinner. Current LOML (fiancee) and my ex sit and compare notes about me, while me and the ex's partner go watch football in the bar. :p We all get along great. To her credit, my ex is into woodworking, and in fact she's going to be the recipient of my old benchtop bandsaw.

Thanks again all -

- Vaughn

[Dan Forman]

Vaughn---You are sure putting out some nice stuff. Sounds like you have an interesting life too.

Dan

[Jay Knoll]

Vaughn

That is a cool looking piece of work! If you gave your ex that, I'm wondering what the LOYL got from the shop.

All the best for a great Christmas.

Jay

[Jim Becker]

Jim B, maybe you can relate to the fun you can have taking your wife, your ex-wife, and her girlfriend out to dinner.
We do socialize a few times a year and I took everyone out for a "ching-ching dinner" awhile back when my ex got her Masters in Education. (She is a principal of a religious school) Friendship and love knows no bounds in my book.

Happy Holidays!

[Gene Collison]

Vaughn,

Nice little project, well done. did you use splines in the corners or? Either way, very pretty!

Gene