Making a Marquetry Photo Box

Marquetry Accents Make the Box

Seen one hand made box and you've seen them all right?  What better way to personalize it than with a bit of marquetry.  The marquetry photo box was built to commemorate a few great road trips.  The map of the US highlights our visits and the state flags designate which photos go with which trip.  It seemed like a good way to go and would be a lot of fun to make those flags.  I definitely took a bit of artistic license with the Michigan flag so I hope those residents won't be offended by a few missing details.  Colorado and Tennessee certainly made things easier.  Though fitting those uniquely shaped stars in place was a challenge.  Plus I got to play with my growing stash of veneer and my Chevalet d'marquetrie.  Dyed veneers, I discovered are a lot of fun to play with too.

The box itself is a simple Cherry mitered box with Walnut splines in the corners and a Walnut raised panel for the bottom.  The lid floats in grooves for the top (though with a plywood substrate that probably wasn't necessary).  Lots of challenges but nothing that can't be solved with a sharp hand saw.