The Ultimate Valentine's Day/Birthday/Anniversary Gift

Every so often I'll receive an inquiry to make a hand crafted jewelry box. Usually this is intended as a gift for a special occasion such as a birthday, wedding anniversary, or Valentine's Day.

Invariably the lead time is less than a few weeks time, which means that it becomes near impossible to hand craft something exquisite in time to meet a deadline. That being said, I usually have to turn down these commissions due to the impossibly of doing high quality work in a short timeframe.

To remedy this I decided to build a custom jewelry chest on spec, so that I could have something readily available the next time an inquiry like this comes along.



The Ovale Jewelry Chest shown here measures 24-3/16" wide x 18-3/8" deep x 30-7/8" high. Crafted from a rare sampling of Macassar Ebony the exterior shell of this cabinet has been vacuum formed into a elliptical oval shape.

The top has been seamlessly fitted to the contour of the oval shell, with the sculpted back apron cascading gracefully until it disappears into the horizontal plane.



Note how the grain pattern of the doors aligns perfectly with the grain of the top apron.

The doors on the front of the chest are secured with ball catches and a fully mortised privacy lock.

Five generous drawers are located inside the chest, with each gliding effortlessly on concealed ball bearing slides.

The two top drawers are each fitted with two layers of removable trays. Each tray has compartments for organizing miscellaneous items of jewelry.

The bottom of each drawer is lined with alligator embossed black leather, which was specially made by Spinneybeck.

The removable trays have been hand crafted from solid maple, and are felt lined on the underside.

Provision has been made for an engraved plate to be inlaid on the inside of the chest, which can be personalized with a special message.

(Please note that Valentine's Day is less than a week away.... )

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The Thank You Note re: Wedding Gift(s)

In yesterday's post entitled "The Wedding Gift(s)" I told the story behind some custom wedding gifts we recently made. As it turns out neither bride nor groom had any idea what the other was up to, until the moment the gifts were actually exchanged.

This morning I received the following email from "R", as she give her reaction. (Some minor editing has been done to conceal their names so as to maintain privacy) :

YOU!

The secret is out!! "A" and I were both floored to find out that you made BOTH of our wedding gifts for each other!! We just got back from our honeymoon and are finally getting a moment to take a breath - and I wanted to send you a quick note just to let you know how much we each loved the beautiful pieces that you made. The watch winder is stunning! I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to say it sooner, the days leading up to the wedding were insane. But it is more beautiful than any of the photos showed and beyond anything I envisioned -- and most importantly, "A" adores it. He hasn't stopped talking about it and showing it off to people. And I love the beautiful wine boxes with an exact replica of our wedding logo. Thank you for making our crazy gift ideas come to life even better than we had envisioned. These are pieces that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. It was such a pleasure working with you, and something tells me that this won't be the last time you hear from us :) Thanks again, John.

"R"

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The Wedding Gift(s)

Today is Groundhog Day which, in my world, is the anniversary of when I proposed to my wife more than a quarter century ago. (Yeah, I could have waited until Valentine's Day to pop the question - but I like being different) . That being said, this is an appropriate day for me to post this story about a pair of wedding gifts we were recently commissioned to make.

Several months ago I received an email from a young man named "A", inquiring about the possibility of having a Valet Stand custom made for him.

Apparently "A" found my Gentleman's Valet Cabinet online during a Google search, but it wasn't quite what he was looking for.

In the ensuing weeks we exchanged sporadic emails discussing design, woods and finishes - and I roughed out a conceptual sketch along with preliminary pricing. All of this was easy to do using digital technology and email.

Shortly after my emails began with "A" I received another email - this time from a young woman named "R". "R" told me she was the fiance of "A", and she was aware that "A" really loved some of my furniture pieces. With that in mind "R" asked about the possibility of commissioning a unique wedding gift specifically for her future husband.

That led to a whole separate series of discussions which ultimately resulted in a custom watch winder box being made. From "R" I learned that "A" really loved the split shell design of my Andiroba Armoire, and since I had already used a variation of this concept on the Pedestal Jewel Box (see earlier post) , this became the starting point for the watch winder box design.



The exterior split shell was crafted from a highly figured sampling of Pommelle Sapele, which was finished in a deep Merlot stain to enhance the grain. The box interior was finished in a satin Chestnut mahogany, with an inset panel to house the watch winder mechanism and a small drawer for accessories.

To personalize the design even further we decided to inlay a small medallion of hand carved Black Walnut, which was shaped to emulate the silhouette of the actual tree that "A" and "R" got engaged under. Renowned wildlife artist Ron Richards was commissioned to make this specific carving.

The making of this watch winder box was well under way when I received a call from "A" telling me that he was engaged to be married and he wanted to commission a special wedding gift for his bride-to-be.

"This is cool" I thought - to have a bride and groom each commission a special wedding gift for the other, with neither aware that they both dealing with the same craftsperson.

In this case "A" wanted to present "R" with gifts of rare wine and fine champagne, in specially made presentation boxes that were uniquely hand carved with their initials, wedding logo, and dates of their upcoming 10th, 20th and 30th wedding anniversaries.

The boxes themselves were crafted from solid maple with mitred corners, with sliding panels made of solid cherry. After the reliefs were carved into the faces of the sliding panels, everything was finished in a protective lacquer and a special glaze was applied by hand to accentuate the carved details.

(Incidentally, the wines shown in the photo above are NOT the actual wines that were given as part of the gift. The wines shown here were selected for photographic purposes only.)

Each gift was individually packed and shipped - each to a different address.

The wedding day came and went, and not a word was heard from either "A" or "R". Under the circumstances I knew they were busy with other things, so I assumed that no news was good news.

Then yesterday, out of the blue, "A" called to let me know how the exchange of gifts went.

The gift of the wine and boxes apparently went over very well, because "A" said that "R" and her bridesmaids were all crying tears of joy over it.

When "A" received his gift he said he wasn't sure what it was at first. But as soon as he pulled open the split shells he said he knew exactly what it was and who had made it - and he was totally delighted with the result.

Two happy customers at the same time. How perfect is that?

Meanwhile, the Valet Stand that started this process is now almost done. (It's taking a little longer than expected, because a couple of rush orders ended up taking priority) . But it's all good.

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