Pen Boxes
I made a pair of boxes to hold pens recently. They're made with local wood, though I used some citrus from Arizona for accents. Both will be given away by a local non-profit at their anniversary celebration in October.
The first box is Russian olive from La Capilla Hops Farm in La Cienega, New Mexico. We buy greens from Shawn and Kevin nearly every week, and when Kevin learned that I did woodworking, he offered me some Russian olive. It tends to crack a lot as it dries, but I milled one log into small lumber, and then filled the cracks with epoxy with a blue pigment in it.
The box is dovetailed together and has a top of citrus wood from Arizona. The bottom is more Russian olive. There are ash inserts inside the box which serve to align the top and hold it in place. The box is finished with seven to ten coats of Tried and True Varnish Oil, and then a coating of carnauba wax to give it a nice shine.
The pen within the box is a pen made from cholla from our yard in Eldorado at Santa Fe filled with a resin with purple pigment in it. The metal on the pen has a gunmetal finish, which I thought worked nicely with the purple resin.
The second box is made from Rocky Mountain Juniper, harvested near Taos, NM. A fairly large knot and bark inclusion have been filled with resin with a blue pigment, which really stands out against the almost purple reddish-brown juniper. Again, the box is dovetailed, but this time with a juniper lid which is hinged. The corners of the box are covered with citrus feet, and the lift for the lid is also made from citrus.
The bottom of this box is granadillo, which has a nice brown color that worked well with the juniper. The lid is held shut by a magnet in the lid which engages with two small magnets embedded in the front of the box. The box is finished with seven to ten coats of Tried and True Varnish Oil and a coat of carnauba wax.
The pen within the box is also made with juniper, though this time from our yard in Eldorado. The metal hardware is gold and chrome, which work well with the reddish juniper.
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