Four years ago, I decided I was going to make Tyla a jewelry box, but after reading through the plans, I felt like it was way over my head. I got the bug again recently, found some plans, and this time I decided it would be a big stretch of my skills but probably within reach. (Turns out, I was looking at the same set of plans both times!)
There were so many first for me in this project: first time buying walnut, first time buying wood milled only on three sides, first time using a planer to thin the wood down, first time cutting dadoes and rabbets, etc etc etc. I started off with two hunks of walnut and ended up with a jewelry box that looks much better than I expected it to. All those “firsts” took a tool on the schedule though with the project taking 43 days from the time I picked up the wood until the time I finished though of course I wasn’t working on it even close to full time.
In the past I’ve always done bigger projects that went together with screws and nails. This one is held together with only glue and the cuts I made in the wood. It was really nice working this way because you can dry fit everything and have it stay assembled while you look at it. It was also a lot of fun to work with the walnut. When I work with pine, it’s so soft that it dents easily and it’s hard to get precise cuts. But with the walnut, I could get a piece that was exactly the right dimensions in all three axes.
The drawers and the backs of the door and the box are lined with velvet. There are 4 hooks on the inside of the door and four in the back of the box. There’s also a padded velvet ring bar at a 45 degree angle in the box. You can’t see it in the photos, but that ring bar has horizontal slits in it to hold rings in place.
I’m glad that I attempted this project and that it turned out so well, but I’m also happy that it’s over. I want to queue up a couple easy projects to relax a bit.