# Jewelry Box



## RMB (Nov 12, 2008)

This is a jewelry box I made on commission for a philosophy professor. He saw a pen that I gave to my MIL and inquired about who made it. He told me the size he wanted, three drawers, and cost is no concern, he wanted the best work I could do, he even insisted on paying me more per hour for my labor than I initially told him. My kind of customer.

So I made drawings, collected materials, approved the designs with him, and set to work. It took me two weeks working most evenings and a bit on weekends, with the bulk of it done the last few days. It was almost double the work I anticipated, but it was fun. I entirely missed that it even was Halloween until about 10pm Friday night when I finished it, our pumpkins went uncarved.

So here it is:

Body and top out of marblewood (very hard, planes well, GREAT figure, but smells like rotten eggs when worked with powertools). Base and top moulding is cocobolo, with ebony accent stripe, and hand carved ebony pulls.

Drawers are hand dovetailed mahogany, mahogany partitions, black felt lined bottoms, maple slides. They where all fitted very carefully, sanding by hand until they just barely fit, one can feel the air being pushed out as they're slid in. they can be pulled to about 1/2" from coming out until they start to sag.

Finish is about 6 coats of gloss laquer, then 3 coats of paste wax, buffed to a nice gloss. The wax alone can create a nice looking finish on these woods, but scratches far too easily, so I did the laquer first, then wax over that so the finish can be easily restored (just re-wax and buff).

I decided to throw in a matching set of pens as a freebie (and advertisement) because this was such a good commission. So I made two sierras (actually the Monets, from wood'n whimsies) with segd coco, ebony, and marblewood. The Marblewood is IMHO, best turned crossgrain because of the "marbleing", which runs the length of the grain, would probably only show up as a tan pen with a brown stripe or two in a pen sized peice, whereas crossgrain, it shows up in a random marbley web pattern, darn hard to turn though. Anyways, I glued up and turned the pens while the laquer was drying.

I delivered it last Sunday, in Fresno, CA. The recipient was very pleased, both with the box and the pens. He wrote me a very generous check (farvmore than I was going to ask for!) with a smile on his face. It is for his wifes birthday, which is the day after Christmas. Up till now he tells me, she's been keeping her jewelry in one of those clear plastic divided boxes.

Sorry about the poor pictures, didn't really have time to do a proper job.


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## toolcrazy (Nov 12, 2008)

Gorgeous case. Nice work.


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## rjwolfe3 (Nov 12, 2008)

WOW that is awesome.


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## talbot (Nov 12, 2008)

A lovely box Ryan.
Not sure about the finish though I think a softer sheen would have made it look even better.
Only my opinion . please dont be offended.
regards,Bill


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## Jim15 (Nov 12, 2008)

Beautiful jewelry box, great work.


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## markgum (Nov 12, 2008)

*AWESOME*

Excellant work my friend.  Beautiful choice of wood. 
:highfive:


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## ahoiberg (Nov 13, 2008)

really cool. boxes are a blast to make... although i've only made really simple ones, this looks rewarding.


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## btboone (Nov 13, 2008)

Very nicely done.  I could see that working in a variety of exotic woods.  Somebody will be very happy with that!


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## Glenn McCullough (Nov 13, 2008)

Ryan,
    Stunning design and execution of both box and pen.


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## woodboys (Nov 14, 2008)

I've been waiting for the pctures of the box and they were worth the wait. Nice design you came up with. That marble wood looks great. I hope you signed it and gave him a card for future referrence, because you know she'll show that box off. And the pens look exceptional also. I've got some cigars on the way to try the marblewood you sent me with.


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## fyrcaptn (Nov 14, 2008)

Nicely done 
marblewood can be stunning as you've proven! the smell can be 'interesting' to say the least. great choices and dimensions. very pleasing to the eye


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## RMB (Nov 14, 2008)

Thanks everybody, especially Talbot for your honesty... I think you might be right, the thought did cross my mind, but the immature urge to make things super shiney won out. Maybe I'll develope better taste as I gain experience.


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