I had a lot of leftover maple and walnut from my coffee table build, and I finally decided to make something from them. These were some pretty gorgeous stock, especially the quartersawn walnut, and I settled for making a wooden jewelry box.
I’ve been improving my box making techniques, since these scrappy-looking storage boxes I made for my workshop. This time, I took the time to plane everything down to equal widths before building the wooden jewelry box.
I also carefully selected the sections of wood that I wanted to be the front and the back or insides. I marked each side to make sure I don’t end up cutting away at the wrong side.
It turned out way better than I expected. You can check it out on my Etsy store here.
The contrast of walnut on maple is classic. These two species of wood were meant for each other. The quartersawn walnut, sap and all, look absolutely fantastic after sanding and finishing with Danish oil.
I used a fancy-looking hasp for the front and matched it with equally fancy exposed hinges.
I decided to make this a 2-tier wooden jewelry box, so with the very last inch of my stock, I managed to create a walnut and maple striped tray.
The bottom compartment was padded with good quality EVA foam to prevent damage to heavier jewelry, and carefully waxed and buffed the entire jewelry box.
I borrowed some of my wife’s jewelry to take photos. I have to say, among all the woodworking projects I’ve done, this is the one she was the most interested in. Perhaps I did something right.
Making this wooden jewelry box was a really rewarding project for me. The best thing about jewelry boxes is that I have total freedom on design and size, unlike making a wood watch box which has to be a certain dimension to fit a number of watches.
Don’t forget to visit my Etsy shop and support my work if you find them beautiful!
