Final Post

Over the years a number of the blogs I've followed have run their course and in some cases they just stop, nearly in mid-sentence, without warning or explanation. I didn't want to do that here.

 Just about two years ago I started two different blogs. My intention was to separate my travel posts, my journeys, from everything else going on around here. Back then I was thinking my travel blog, Travels of a Rambling Van, would be a logbook of miles covered and places seen, in the literal sense, and this blog, Random Rants, would cover everything else.

Well it turns out that maintaining two blogs, and deciding which entries belong where, has proven to be a pain. Besides, I have since come to realize that a binary view of things, either this or that, was far too ridged. That every day is a journey of some sort and trying to slot my experiences and activities into neat little boxes (blogs) has become problematic.

So, after two years, 108 posts, 12 comments (Pathetically, nearly half of those are me replying to comments.) and a whopping 2788 page hits (That's even worse than it sounds since a single post on replacing the front hub seals in my tractor accounts for 353 hits and 7 comments!) I'm packing it in and the Jewelry Box 2.0 post will be the last for this blog. (OK, technically this is the last post but you get the idea.) From now on all posts will be combined into the Travels blog because; and like all cliches, it's a cliche because it's true; all life is a journey.

So if you are masochistic enough to want to keep up with what I'm doing, from now on you can find me here.

Peace out!

Jewelry Box 2.0

I'd barely gotten the sawdust from the first jewelry box swept up when a request for a second one came in.

Two people in the house; give just one of them a fancy box; silly me; what did I expect?!!

No problem, the request was for a second box just like the first, and I'd already built one of those so I had all the drawings done and techniques worked out.

So it wasn't long before I had the basic parts milled up and ready for assembly.

With the trays assembled it was time to take my assortment of rings and start laying out and fitting the rails

Then I put a finish on all the bits and pieces.

Once that had cured well I spent a few days gluing, first the felt, then the rails, into place

And it was ready for shipping.

Though the two jewelry boxes are clearly related (see finished photos of the first one here) I wanted each to have it's own personality so I changed up some of the details, such as the color of the felt, the pattern of the inlay in the sides of the two upper trays and the lamination pattern in the rails of the bottom tray.

I also added a thin band of inlay to the inside of the lower tray's sides, just because.

Another request was that a chunk of raw Cedar accompany the new jewelry box because - well - somebody apparently likes the smell. . . I threw the carving in on my own so the block wouldn't look

so - well - yeah - so blockey.

After finishing that first jewelry box there were two aspects of it that I wasn't thrilled with.

One was the quality of the felt I used, so this time I used a different felt that I think is of better quality.

The second was the way I 'keyed' the upper trays to the lower trays. This time I milled two of the sides of each of the upper trays oversize so that there was enough extra material to cut notches into the ends for the key-ways. 

All in all, I'm happier with this jewelry box than I was with the first,

but if I had just . . . . Nope! not going to go there. . .