A few blasts from the past

[Mike Stafford]

These are all scans of 35mm photos that I took of my work back in the day.

The first is an artsy box with a drawer. I called it a Moon Box due to the birdseye maple moon inlaid into the walnut disc. This was shown at an art show and sold on the first day. Not something that you will see everyday.



The next box was being built as a humidor when one of my best female customers dropped by the shop and saw it in the raw. She said she wanted it outfitted with multiple lift out trays and she would pay me anything I wanted for it. This is one of the prettiest pieces of ribbon mahogany that I ever had. The box was outfitted with Brusso hardware.. Soldit for a pretty penny. Still had to build the humidor which was identical in size but the ribbon mahogany I used for it was not as gorgeous.
This jewelry chest was outfitted with 7 trays.



These boxes were very popular and I managed to get rid of a lot of rough sawn white oak that I had been given. I used the nearly 2 1/2" thick planks of oak for the lids. The lids were sawn apart, shaped and then glued back together. I sold every one I made. Some were plain lift off lids and some were hinged with pins like the one on the right.



This was an artsy box I built that made use of some of that "rosewood" that I have been using as knife handle scales. I made al lot of boxes that were solely for art shows. You can charge almost anything you want for stuff in an art show. This box was built from rosewood, zebrawood, and ebonized cherry. The bottom was 1/8" plywood veneered on both sides walnut.



Again, I apologize for the lousy picture scans but at least you can see some of work from years past....way past.

 

[Chuck Ellis]

I don't do flat work like this and don't really want to... would mean buying new tools and such. I do have a box that I received from 'the Ambassador" that is priceless.... my wife uses it as a jewelry box. Yours are in the same category.

Some years back I was showing at a local venue here in Tellico Plains... we had a fellow set up an area along side the Cherohala Skyway across from his restaurant... we would set up every Saturday... the booth next to mine was a fellow that made boxes... he was an architect by trade and used that skill in his designs... he didn't do well because while his designs were superb his prices were higher than the venue would support...

My first visit up to Tellico Plains, there was a guy that had a shop on the square... he made band saw boxes.... my second visit he had moved up the mountain to Coker Creek area, then later move over to Murphy, SC...

I really like your designs.... very well done.

 

[Jonathan Shively]

Mike these are beautiful. You sir are a craftsman of excellence. I hope you share every picture of every box you made. Actually should start a thread specifically for it to honor your work and put it here for eternity to see.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Not sure how I missed seeing these earlier, but thanks for posting the photos. The wave-lidded boxes are my favorite. I really like that look...might have to try making one sometime.

 

[Mike Stafford]

Vaughn, it was funny being a fly on the wall, There were a couple of venues where I sold stuff that I had an opportunity to work there and see customer's reactions to the work on display.

I cannot tell you how many times I heard a husband or a boyfriend in the company of their beloved tell the women that those wavy lid boxes were done with a router and that they could do it also. Those waves were carved with carving tools, a Shinto plane and curved Surform rasps and lots of shoeshine sanding. A Sand-o- Flex contour sander did all the finish sanding work work and left that silky smooth finish.

They are not hard to do but one caveat is to make sure you leave some flat surface areas at the bottom of the "wave" so you can glue them back together.