Carly's Jewelry Box

Quartersawn White Oak and Spalted Silver Maple

This is my first official attempt at building an actual jewelry chest. I made this for my beautiful daughter for Christmas 2011.

Completed box assembly with drawers and lid "mocked up."

Edge banding on lid and molding piece below drawers....

1/8" brass rod used to pin the corners and spalted maple blanks for drawer pulls...

View of the spalted maple lid with clear stain on it (Watco black walnut stain on the oak)

Close up of completed drawer pull, also pinned on with brass rod...

A couple shots of the wonderful medullary flaking in the quartersawn oak...

Gettin' a bit better at velvet linings but still need much practice...

Completed project came out pretty fair overall...

The things I'm happy with about this box:

I've always loved the look of quartersawn oak. It sort of gives this box a bit of a "mission style" look which never goes out of fashion.
Pinning the corners with the brass is a unique idea that you don't see all the time.
That wine colored premium velvet sure makes a nice box lining. Now if I can just get cleaner at it!

Some things that I need to improve/ change:

As mentioned, my skills at working with the velvet are far from perfect. I did learn alot this time though and have no doubt I'll improve with time.
I'm not happy with the way I did the lid. I'm too used to building cabinets where the back is the back and it isn't seen. I set this on my dresser for safe keeping and immediately noticed a grievous error; The back, which I spent little time caring about, shows in a desktop mirror. Guess what. My daughter will likely store it on a dresser I built her a few years ago with, you guessed it, a mirror on the back. Something to keep in mind next time.
As mentioned, I like the idea of the brass rod pinning the corner. However, I wish I would have laid the pattern out a bit different to make things appear more uniform.
I don't particularly care for the proportion of the top tray area. I wish I would have made it closer in height to the drawers, or shorter. As it is, it's taller and just doesn't quite appeal to my eye.

Overall, another project that I'm very pleased with, given my novice status.

Woodgrain on the background of this page: Spalted Maple