I frequently end up with small, leftover pieces of wood too beautiful for the fireplace, but a little too small for my usual full sized jewelry box. I had a chunk of catalpa and a piece of gorgeous birdseye maple that had been hanging around for a few years. Finally, I decided to make several small jewelry boxes from the pieces in the off cut box. I resawed the catalpa to a final thickness of just under 1/2".
The birdseye maple panel in the top is really exceptional. This type of box is made by gluing up a sealed box with the top and bottom panels captured in grooves on the inside of the box. Then the top is sawed off on the bandsaw. I plan out the spacing of the dovetails to account for the small amount of wood that gets removed by the saw blade.
The removable tray is made from really pretty curly maple and the box has an inner liner of maple as well.
The finish is French polished super-blonde shellac and wax. I wanted the maple color to remain as light and natural as possible.
For availability, prices, questions or comments, please email me carl@harvestwoodworks.com and I'll get back to you soon.