Paradise Jewelry Box

A year or two back, my father suggested I should make a jewelry box for my mother. It took me a while to find a design I liked and work up the courage to put it all together. The box is made from solid maple, cut on the CNC machine, and finished with oil and polyurethane.

The box top (the lid) was too wide for anything I could find at the lumber yard, so I glued together a couple pieces.


The sides and top of the box have a beautiful V-carved pattern. This is a cornerstone feature of the software that came with my CNC machine. It's easy to design using only an image and a lot of fun to watch. I took a video of the top being carved and sped it up. It's mesmerizing.

When the cutting is complete, you can't tell the lid was once separate pieces of wood.


The font and back are similarly patterned, then glued together.


I finished the box with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and polyurethane, thinned down with mineral spirits. On the bottom, I engraved the date and a hand-written message, which I'd scanned into the computer and converted to a CNC path.


After adding a short piano hinge and rubber feet, the box is complete! It turned out well. Merry Christmas, Mom!