Tissue Box, Opinions Please!

[doug parker]

Hi, I am finally getting in some time on the laser. I cut the sides and top out of oak on a shopbot and dovetailed the sides on a porter cable jig. I made the clover and wording out of aspen from lowes and pocketed them in the oak. This is my first attempt and would like some feedback, Friends and Family liked it but they may just be trying to be nice? Be gentle on the feedback! Thanks Doug

[Mike Null]

Well done! How did you do the colorfill on the letters?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

It looks fantastic. Your friends and family were not being nice because they had to. They were telling the truth.

[Dee Gallo]

I like it, Doug!

And I'm the kind of person who buys and uses these. MY one complaint with them is that nobody makes them for the long boxes, only the cube shaped ones. But that's probably because the rectangular ones are all different in proportions.

Your design is very nice and the workmanship is beautiful.

dee

[Larry Bratton]

Doug:
Well done. I would put that up against any.

[Tim Bateson]

Thanks a lot Doug. My wife saw those pictures last night. Now I have another project added to my Honey Do List.

I'm also interested in your technique for the color fill. Oak has pretty wide grain and bleeds a lot when color filled, so your insight would be helpful.

[doug parker]

Thanks to all, I really appreciate the feedback. I am on this forum to learn and get better and I know I picked the right forum to do that. As I said, I cant believe how time poor I am so the learning process is slow for me. I do not know if you can tell in the pictures but the shamrock and lettering are raised and made from aspen. The aspen is from lowes, its cheap and engraves nice. We tested the oak for engraving and it was horrible, it was not a flat pocket and as for coloring it, that was worse. Since engraving the on oak was out, I had to come up with a way to do the lettering and clover and the aspen worked good. We colored the lettering by using regular craft paint, we totally painted the whole part let it soak then wiped it off with a damp sponge. It kinda stained the raised border and left the recessed area nice and red. It looks nice and crafty. I think If I had applied a coat of poly to the parts I could have wiped the red totally off the border of the parts but the wife was happy with the stained look.

Any suggestions what people would pay for something like this??

Again, thanks for the honest opinions. Doug

[Tim Bateson]

Any suggestions what people would pay for something like this??

In a retail store maybe $10. At a craft show you'd be lucky to get $5.

FYI - This is not a refection of the craftsmanship, just the cheap nature of savvy buyers.

[Daniel Muller]

Doug,
The tissue box look great. I believe you could sell this for $30-$40 is personalized. the only thing is I personally like the dovetail look and would rather see that in the front but that is up to you. To make it a little easire you can also do a box joint that you can hammer out on the table saw much faster. I am an irish man and might borrow your idea for my own tissue box. Thanks for the photos

[Jacob Hebert]

Excellent work! The work you put into it really shows.

[doug parker]

Thank you all for the nice comments! Daniel, you are 100% correct! I didn't realize I pocketed the non-dovetail side! Good eye! lol!!! Feel free to run with the idea and please post pics.! The clover logo was lasered out of 1/4" Aspen, rounded over with the dremel, and stained green with milk paint. Thanks for the price suggestions. These are for my wifes High School. We figured somewhere in the $25.00 range.