Crimson

I have kept these boxe’s secret for a number of years but, This is my favorite box /creation that i have. I have made several of sorts much like this one. Im a symmetry nut.
I started by digging up a reasonably large root ball. Made from a root ball of a Manzanita aout the size of a beach ball and rolled it home. Took bout 4 hours.
Next i took that root ball and then took a chisel, wedge and hatchet to it. That was at least another 4 hours of breaking my back for the love of " handmade ". After that i then built a box to put the pieces in and interlocked them…….. Mostly.
Then the " pouring " commenced. All in all i probably used over a half gallon of resin " pour ". After that expensive endevor i then cut the rough box block from the cast box. I may have at least 20 hours into this box thus far.
I then began the saw, and router work. A 12 Delta table saw was just big enough to seperate the lid from the box. I then took the rough box to the router table, to shape the lid and face router shape. This was an inportant step as it brings the final shape to the box. The plunge routing then began so that the pre formed beveled glass could be fit. Keeping in mind that the hole for the glass must be bigger because the pour takes between 3/16 and a quarter inch in addition to the final size box.
Hooray !!! The box is poured, with addition to another 5 hours of pouring. The sanding is a nightmare in its self. That is the addition of at least 4 hours of vicious sanding. As many of you may or may not know manzanita is a particularly hard wood. Then began the brass/trophy metal. The ladies are cut from .05 inch polished brass, with a hand jewelrs saw. These girls are singularly cut. Which means every one is cut seperately. Contrary to the star and vines which are cut using a stack method so all the lines are perfectly lined up. The star is cut from trophy metal. Silver and black.
Maybe around 50, or 60 hours involved.
The polished brass " ladies " are four hours a piece. Then there are 4 of them.