I made this custom box for my wife’s clients who recently got married. With the exception to the custom laser engraving, I was given full freedom in the design of the box.
The first thing I considered in the design process was the function. It may seem like an obvious thing, but the truth is that one can get so carried away in other factors that they forget to prioritize the main function of the piece. As for this specific box, its function was to hold a small USB thumb drive and had to allow the user to easily access the thumb drive.
The aesthetic part of the design was emphasized on the box joinery. Box joinery is one of the more traditional joineries in the woodworking world, which features the alternating end grain pattern. I decided to use box joinery for a couple of reasons. First, I had never used this joinery before, so trying it out with a small piece made it more manageable. Secondly and in full transparency, my miter adjustments have not been the greatest. I opted to try something more “fail-proof” with the help of a box joint jig I purchased for this project. The combination of mahogany and cherry allowed a gentle contrasting tone, while still keeping the overall color bright.
Takeaway
The highlight for this project was definitely learning the box joinery, but I may have underestimated the learning process a little bit. It also might make sense to make multiple boxes at once because the adjustments can be tedious.