Cass and I observe our anniversary on August 17th (not the actual date we were married, but the reason we moved it is a different story that perhaps I will share another time). This year, 2011, we celebrate our 10th long year together. With my father passing away in June, the expense of getting everyone out to Washington and back for the funeral, and the fact that we also moved to North Carolina in June, which removed our Virginia Beach babysitting network, it was looking like it was going to be a pretty lackluster anniversary.
Wanting to offer Cass something as a token of how much she means to me, and as a way of capturing the past decade, I decided to make her a jewelry box. I worked on the design for a long time, and tried to incorporate as much symbolism from our lives together as I tastefully could.
I started with the species of wood I chose. The box is made from Quilted Maple and Bloodwood.
Quilted Maple: Much like the irregular grain of the Maple, over the past 10 years we have lived in a constant spiral of change and things have happened quite irregularly. Like Cass, Quilted Maple is difficult to work with because it has inconsistent hardness and the irregular grain makes it difficult to cut straight, but when you step back and look at it from a distance, the depth and irregularity of the grain is (in my opinion) the most beautiful wood on earth; the same is true of our life together.
Bloodwood: Its red, Cass’ favorite color. There is more meaning to this as well. If you know the history of our efforts to make a family, you know that more blood (and trips to the ER) is involved in that process than is supposed to be. So, yeah, we've seen a lot of blood in our 10 years together. Good thing deep red is Cass' favorite color, huh?
I bought a jig to assist with the box joints, and used a piece of scrap wood to make a test box.
Once I had the jig and my table saw set up and was confident that I could actually build a box, I started to work the maple and bloodwood. I selected the portions of my quilted maple board that had the most figure and best grain and built the main box as well as a test joint that would serve as a place to experiment on new techniques.
Next, I built a base out of Maple and put the bottom in the box. The base is mitered, so I built a jig to put a spline joint into the corners of the base just to accent it a bit (not shown in this pic, but look for it later)
Next, I made the lid frame by gluing strips of Maple and Bloodwood together then added the first layer for the top.
While trying to decide what to inlay into the top, I thought about what would best symbolize our life over the past decade. I decided on a compass rose. For 8 of the past 10 years, I have been in the Coast Guard, so nautical things have become a part of our lives. Additionally, the compass rose is a symbol of movement and change (we have moved 19 times in the past 10 years) as well as a symbol of constancy and direction. Cass has been my constant and, regardless of the storm, we have stuck together. There have been a lot of storms. Lots.
After cutting out the pieces of the compass rose by hand and numbering them so I could get them back exactly as they were, I took them out and placed the book-matched panels into the lid.
Then all I had to do was trace the compass rose onto the panels, and cut the panels to inlay the compass rose.
With the inlay complete, I glued it all together and after it dried, I filled in the spots I didn't cut quite perfect and sanded the top smooth.
Next, I started working on the placement of the hinges, hand cutting the mortices where they sit in both the box and the lid.
With the basic construction of the main box complete, I built two trays that fit into the box out of Bloodwood with Maple splines in the mitered edges. Then I sanded everything down and started to finish the box. I used 6 coats of 1# shellac followed by one coat of lacquer.
After the finish dried, I did my final assembly and, well, this is what it looks like:
I think Cass likes it alright. If nothing else, it gives her one place to put all her jewelry. I am truly blessed to be married to such a remarkable woman. The past decade has been hard, terrible, fantastic, and wonderful. I look forward to an infinite number of decades with her.
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