My usual method of construction is to use dovetail joints for the corners of the box but from there on you have a blank canvas.

You might have a specific item you need to house or a particular design you would like to incorporate in an appropriate place on a box. You can choose the format (such as size/drawers/trays etc) and which species of wood you prefer.

A recent commission involved a gentleman wanting a tea caddy made as a 25th wedding anniversary for his wife. He visited my workshop and gave me a design with his and his wife’s initials and some images of Celtic knots (which were on his narrow boat) that he wanted to incorporate on the box. He also wanted to hold a silver spoon on the underside of the lid to scoop out the loose tea with.

He wasn’t sure about the size so I showed him one of the jewellery boxes I have in stock and he liked the proportions of that one.

At this point I needed a few days thinking time to come up with some design ideas.

I decided that the lettering design would work well using a technique called sand shading. This is when the edges of a light coloured veneer are scorched by being dipped in hot sand. This creates the sense of a shadow, ideal for where one letter flows under another. I also thought that the lettering would look good set in a panel of burr walnut, set below the level of the top to give a "picture framed" affect.

I emailed the gentleman an image of some shaded letters and suggested that using a darker timber for the box carcase would contrast well with the sycamore lettering and the Celtic knots.

He liked this idea so the last thing to work out was how to hold a silver spoon on the underside of the lid.

After some thought I suggested using three pegs to hold the spoon, shaped so that the spoon stayed attached when the lid was closed but was easily lifted off the pegs (without having to move any catches) when the lid was open.

Again he was happy with this idea and finally I could start the enjoyable part which was making the box. More images of this box are on the gallery page.

For a relatively simple box there was a fair amount of thought that went into it from me and a lot of input from the client. Most of it was done by email so didn’t involve alot of travelling.

That is an example of the process of commissioning. It normally starts with a client having ideas that they put to me and I move those ideas forward and we come up with the final design together.

If you like the type of boxes that I make and are interested in having a box commissioned please contact me to talk about your ideas.