Stormy Night in the Mountains

Stormy Night in the Mountains started life with an email conversation between a friend and I. He was looking for a custom jewelry box for his then girlfriend. It was going to be her birthday in a couple months and he wanted something special….since it was going to be a proposal also! They live in Colorado so the theme and name were heavily incorporated.

I had picked up some beautiful ,mineral streaked, birdseye maple on a motorcycle trip up in Northern Michigan. To me it looked as if there was a storm going on in the wood with all the mineral streaks and figure.  I knew right away I wanted to use it on this project. The main body is made up of this birsdeye maple with Black Walnut end caps. The joints are strengthened with handmade dowels of three sizes.

The lid frame work is made from quartersawn Black Walnut. I used a Bridle joint to construct it. The floating panel center is made from self made veneers, using the “stormy” birdseye maple, with a 1/4” baltic birch core. It is pinned in using brass rod. The brass rod is 1/8” in diameter which matches the diameter of the dowel that would have went in that location.

The main part of the legs are made from Jatoba. They have Black Palm caps and a Black Walnut foot. On the tall legs the Black Palm caps are removable to reveal two secret compartments....for the ring.

The removable tray is made from Birdseye Maple and uses 1/8” handmade black walnut dowels to strengthen the joint. The dividers are also made from Birdseye Maple.

The design goal was to have the main body “float” in the legs. The main body represented the encompassing storm and the towering legs represented the mountains.

Stormy Night in the Mountains was finished with three soakings of Danish Oil followed by two buffings of Briwax. It is lined with dark purple faux suede. Dimensions are 22.25” x 7.75” x 5.25”.

In case you were wondering...she said yes!