I’ve wanted to put the colorful birchwood and the inks on metal together in boxes for a while–I did one prototype, learned a lot and moved on to other smaller wood and metal projects. But the other day at Tinkermill with time booked on the laser cutter, it all started to come together for some lovely little boxes.

I took all the whole sheets of 10×10 inch wood that I had left from the last batch, and built a template for a box that is 4″x4″x2″.

Then I cut out thirteen sets of pieces. As soon as the colorful piles started to build up, I wanted to mix and match them–which I will do next time! This time I wanted to see one color, a simple side design and a place for the metal in the lid would look. I glued them all up this morning. Then I got to pick which metal pieces went with which box.

That part was a lot of fun, and quick work, too. There were more than 50 from which to choose, but we did not have to look that far before finding great partners for the wood.

 I like the results and already have ideas for more and different kinds of boxes and framed pieces!