Custom Wood Inlay Boxes
Custom Executive Gift Box
This is one of a pair of boxes made as retirement gifts for
executives from a major American telecommunications firm.
Initially they were considering having an etched glass top made
to deal with all the logo work and text requirements, but time
was tight, and I convinced them I was up to the task of inlaying
the logos. The boxes are veneered on all sides and edges with
thick shop-sawn maple burl, all taken from the same burl block.
The ebony banding is inlaid with satinwood logos, down to minute
scale. The interior text (with recipient's name blotted out for
privacy) is carved and pigmented black, creating sharp text in the soft porous maple burl.
Custom Executive Gift Box
This is the second of a pair of custom made boxes for outgoing board members of a large US corporation. Built from from birds-eye maple and ebony, this one for a woman recipient, designed to be able to be used as a jewelry box. A custom box of comparable complexity can be built starting at about $1000. Custom work is always going to be more costly than similar sized and complexity work done in multiples.
Inlaid Symbol
Here's an ebony inlay customizing one of my koa dovetailed jewelry boxes with the inscription on the poet Rumi's tomb, or so the client explained. Inside I engraved a poem of his.
Monogram Jewelry Box
This custom wood box features a bookmatched koa top with sapwood at the edges, and in inlaid ebony monogram. I can make you a box like this, (this one is about 7" x 11") with beautiful wood and an inlaid monogram, starting at about $300.
Silver and Ebony Inlay Box
This is one of a small production run I did for graduation gifts for a small school, housing pendants for the women, and cufflinks for the men, with appropriate inserts for each. It was my first time inlaying silver, and the lines of the logo are demanding, requiring the use of very small cutters to get the clean , crisp look we were after. My photo doesn't really do the box justice --the combination of silver in ebony is very rich, and the dense wood is up to the task of containing the precious metal. There's also an inlaid silver banding at the hinge line.
This has become a project I repeat yearly.
Click here for enlargement
Ebony Inlaid and Engraved Box
This was a commission for a costly piece of Cartier jewelry, and the client wanted a nicer box than that supplied by the jewelers. The inside of the custom ebony box is engraved with his wife's name, with Cartier inlaid in satinwood inside. Not to be outdone, the wife's monogram is inlaid into the top.
Inlaid Watch box Box
This is a custom watch box made for a woman whose boyfriend collects watches. It's built from macassar ebony veneer with solid gabon ebony detailing and banding, and cherry inlay, and hold 10 watches.
Celtic Inlay Jewelry Box
Here's a koa jewelry box with an intricate celtic knotwork type inlay done in ebony and holly. The custom inlay added about $100 to the cost of this box.
Inlaid Zodiac box
This box features inlay and/or engraving on every surface: top, front, sides, back, bottom, and inside the top of the lid. The text design work was done by the client, with clear requests for color and font.
I had about a 48 hour window to make the box to get it shipped in time for his daughter's birthday, and luckily all went flawlessly.
One of the challenges was making the front and side inlays to align properly at the hinge line.
Inlaid zodiac Tiger Box
Here's the right side front of the zodaic inlay box. The highlight here is the tiger, inlaid from satine, an orange variant of bloodwood, ebony, and holly. Tigers are great subjects for inlay. The triangular fractal design on the side is the inverse of that on the left side. The bottom line of text on the top of the box is v-carved, and painted. There are inlaid brass details above -the middle of the "X", and the quotation marks at the end.
Custom Inlaid Zodiac Box
This view shows the front, left side, and bottom. The box is veneered with a thick veneer of curly maple. Maple burl and holly are used in the ram, koa, holly and ebony for the bull, and satine, holly and ebony for the tiger. The box is about 13" long.
Inlaid Zodaic Box
Inside of top view shows the quadrant hinges I've been using more lately. The inside of the box has a detailed astrological chart engraved and painted gold.
