Retro-Blaster

I always loved the 'ghetto-blasters' of my youth back in the 80's, such a powerhouse of sound for their time.  I of course was too young to buy any of that cool stuff, but it was a fun time.

Fast forward about 30 years and I came across the empty carcass that was once a counter top radio, or so I imagined.  I marveled at how this piece must have been manufactured back in the day, providing basic woodworking jobs that are now extinct by today's standards.

Another 10 years goes by with it collecting dust on the shelf and I come to learn about bluetooth speakers and fell in love with this small one made by Bose.  I knew right away what I was was going to do with that old radio carcass!

Being an artsy fart I wanted to blend the stylings of the vintage countertop radio, but mix in the bluetooth speaker inside as a sort of treasure to be found!  The idea of carrying this unit around as a modern/vintage boom box kinda tickled my senses.

Adding a myriad of mechanisms to turn this piece into a functional puzzle was an even bigger challenge.

I found some vintage speaker cloth on ebay and I used a bunch of exotic wood banding for a yosegi-like effect in the drawer bottoms.

With a piece like this I learned to trust the flow, let go of expectation and love what I am in the process of.