Christmas Presents

The two What-Not boxes shown here are simple yet pretty. The one with the rose is more of a small jewelry box. It’s made of 3/16’ thick walnut and is coated inside with medium blue flocking. Cutting the pearl rose requires a bit of a technique.

First, starting in the center, some of the cuts are made that define the petals Then 5-minute epoxy glue is applied and left to dry. Once dry, more cuts are sawn, and more glue is applied and left to dry. The idea is to keep the glue joints even and not skewed.
Finally when all of the petals are cut and glued, the outline of the rose can be cut.

The stem is worthy of note. The hard part is to taper the stem to a fine point where it joins a leaf, without breaking it. I can assure you that not all the stems I’ve cut were done in one attempt.

This box was made of walnut, planed to 3/16” thickness.

The other box, the one with the green flocking, has two tops, both of which have hangers attached to their backs so that when one is in use as the top to the box, the other can be hung on the wall as an ornament. The symbol employing the circle and the free spirit inside a stylized “P” denotes the Ontario Physiotherapy Association, as the recipient of the box is a professor of physiotherapy. The other top, showing a wolf howling at the moon is quite spectacular in real life due to the chatoyance of the abalone. Unfortunately, the photograph just doesn’t due it justice; it can’t catch all the sparkle.

This box was made of bubinga.