Boxes from Uluru

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Derek, my wife and I visited Uluru in 2014. We found the area amazingly beautiful in many ways. Nice work on the boxes!

[Mark Gibney]

The Aboriginal art posted here is incredible. It reminds me of a Gustav Klimt painting, but has obviously been in existence from long before. I'm keen to seen more.

Regarding adding elements of this art as motifs to your box, I am siding with those saying maybe not. It will be your first time doing this, you used wood you scrounged, so if it all goes south do you have enough wood available to remake the box?
Maybe do something interesting to the drawer bottom? - a nice surprise on opening the box, plus it's replaceable if you're not happy with what you do.

[Stan Calow]

I think its a brilliant idea and worth exploring.

I've been to Uluru, and it does make a powerful impression.

[Derek Cohen]

Box #2

Originally I planned to make 3 boxes, one each for the godparents, and a ring box for the wedding ceremony. Then Lynndy, my dear wife, suggested making one for my soon-to-be daughter-in-law's parents (who are great people with whom we get on so well). So, now there are four boxes.


I decided to build this box next. And this time to incorporate Aboriginal symbols, as this was not the case with the previous box, where the figure was too nice to disturb.


The wood for the box is West African Macore, which is wonderful to work with, and has amazing chatoyance. It is perfect for this project as it has little figure or, rather subtle figure.


Here are the milled boards laid out for joining. The aim here has been to create waterfall sides to the top, both left, right and drawer front.





Once again, the construction is a mitred through dovetail case with a dovetailed drawer. Overall dimensions are 185mm (7 1/4") wide x 150mm (6") deep and 63mm (2 1/2") high. The case sides are 10mm thick (a little over 3/8").


The completed box ...





Waterfall on one side ...





With drawer extended (a nice piston fit) ...





Half-blind dovetails at front, through dovetails at the rear ...





The drawer sides are 6mm (1/4") Tasmanian Oak. No slips on this drawer. Instead, the 3mm (1/8") solid Macore drawer bottom is attached in a 3mm groove ...





It is free to expand towards the rear, and captured by a round-headed screw in a slot ...





Now let's took at the symbols of the top of the box ...





The two circles (three circles within each other) represent a group, in this case, we have two families. The connecting lines, with circles, reveal the journey each taken by two people to join and bring together these two families.


So, two down and another in the making ...





Regards from Perth


Derek

[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful work, as always Sir!

[Jim Koepke]

As always an inspiration.

jtk

[Mel Fulks]

Love that sports stadium. What a wonderful job they did making it “blend in” to the countryside. I’d like to see a Super Bowl played there.

[Tom M King]

All gorgeous, as usual!

Where are the signatures and dates? All gorgeous, as usual. I expect your work will become collectors' items long after we're all gone. I think most of us can look at one of them, and know who made it, but I feel like they really should be signed and dated for future generations.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Tom.

What I am planning is a small inscribed brass plate to commemorate the occasion, placed inside the drawer.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Box #3 - what would you do?

Last Saturday I built the case for another drawer-box out of Hard Maple. These photos do not do it justice. The wood here is just planed (and needs a little more planing), but already it shimmers and glows. The dovetails seem to float in three dimensions. Very promising.



I was aiming for waterfall sides, but there was very little interesting figure, and this was at the edge of one side. The side below is engineered to appear as a waterfall. The figure is hard to see in this light. It is subtle and very pretty ...



The waterfall was possible on other side. With regards figure, the wood is rather plain, but keep in mind that the aim has been to use the wood as a canvas for texturing.
Unhappily, the board cracked as it went together. I was all glued up already, and no way to reglue the crack. Lynndy noticed it pretty quickly ...



So, what would you do - toss the box and build another, or use it regardless of the fault?

Regards from Perth
Derek

[Jim Koepke]

Can you ad an interesting inlay or incorporate it into some carved detail?

jtk

[Jim McCue]

Disheartening I am sure. I don't think I would give that as a gift. I would keep it for myself or repurpose it to a different use.

[Derek Cohen]

I have rebuilt the box. Made a new one the next day. Redo, Repair, Keep as is - I am a little too much of a perfectionist to let this go. So ...




However, the old box will be used. I have an idea to disguise the crack, and it will be fun to do this weekend.


Regards from Perth

Derek

[Christopher Charles]

Excellent example of the craftsmanship of risk.

And fun to have you ask a question I suspect you already knew the answer to

Beautifully done.

Best,
Chris

[Derek Cohen]

We left of with an incomplete Box 3, with a split in one side. I knew that I could not make a gift of this box, and the next day built another case, also in Hard Maple.

However, it was always the plan to complete Box 3, and now I would use some art to disguise the split. This is an afternoon's work, which included machining, sizing and dovetailing the drawer parts.

It occurs to add that, although small, these boxes are essentially about the same work as building a simple cabinet ... just less material. Here is the completed box ...




The disguised split ...



Rear of box ...



Drawer in West African Makore ...





Thanks for looking.

Regards from Perth

Derek