The Walnut Jewelry Box
“A very little key will open a very heavy door” ~Charles Dickens
“Don’t give up. Normally it is the last key on the ring which opens the door” ~manuscript found in Accra Paulo Coelho
“Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
About the Jewelry Box
Walnut wood
completed 2014
This wooden jewelry box is again an original design, and features a locked upper compartment and two drawers. The edges of the lid, drawer faces, and base each feature an intricate router pattern (basically, a pretty and fancy-looking profile). I chose walnut for this project again (see the Wooden Safe for more on my previous large project) for its natural beauty and durability, and sealed the completed project with a layer of protective and glossy polyurethane.
The key to the locking mechanism
The locking mechanism for the upper compartment of the jewelry box is again simple, significantly more so than that of the wooden safe, but again, crafting the pieces, creating the key, and making sure everything fit and functioned smoothly was a challenge (though a very fun one). A hook-shaped piece of wood behind the keyhole hooks into a groove in the lid of the box when the box is in the locked position. A spring attached to the side of this unit of wood keeps the hook in the locked position by default. However, when the key is inserted into the keyhole and turned, the spring is compressed and the wooden hook is pulled out of the groove, allowing the lid to be lifted.
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