I received a couple of these beautiful, wooden Cigar Boxes. For whatever reason, perhaps call it inspired, I knew they needed repurposing, to become unique Edison lamps. The boxes themselves are of a nice, sturdy, wood construction. Inside, I added more wood for structural support as well as for mounting it to the base.

Healing Power of Copper?

Well, maybe not healing, but it sure looks great! I selected copper colored Cloth wound, vintage style cord with a vintage style plug. The lamp socket is a departure from the normal brass sockets. This lamp socket is clear polycarbonate showing off more beautiful copper within.

Inviting Unbalance

An on/off, dimmer switch was added off-set near the top left corner for an asymmetrical, perfectly unbalanced design. The dimmer switch has a distinctive, solid “click” on and off, and smooth dimmer functions, easily setting the mood from a soft, warm glow to bright. Quite literally and for some inexplicable attraction, this thing is fun to turn and bring the bulb to glowing life.

Solid and Strong

The solid Cast Iron wheel topping the dimmer control is big, bold and significant. Beautifully Industrial with weighty heft and strength. The blackened patina strikes a perfect contrast against the colors of the Punch cigar box.

Stately Style

Not to be over-shadowed by all above, the base was also designed to balance the lamp with stately style. More cast iron is found in the corner feet noting the same, beautifully industrial and blackened patina as the dimmer wheel.

Glow of a Bygone Era

Edison bulbs have become quite the rage in lighting style. I for one am exceedingly glad this style has come back. No blisteringly hot and blinding light, this style of bulb is warm and inviting. To the touch, it is warm, not hot like standard bulbs that sizzle your skin at the slightest touch. The light it gives off is inviting, not offensive. Much like the glow of a candle, you’ll find yourself easily captivated by the golden glow of the intricate spiral filament.

Let me walk you through an AWESOME custom Bluetooth, wooden speaker build that kept Santa’s workshop on overdrive for two solid weeks prior to Christmas. The result is a truly unique, functional and beautiful Bluetooth speaker that is wonderful to look at and listen to.

The order came in just 2 weeks prior to Christmas and of course, were to be gifts for Christmas. The project was wrought with late nights, all-nighters, shipping issues, challenges with proper fitting miter joints and more, but even with that, the 14 speakers were completed before Christmas!

You’re certainly less interested in the drama of the order and the craziness I had to endure, so we’ll skip all that and take you into some of the build and the source for the internal electronic components.

Speaker Kits were supplied by the awesome Kirby at KMAKits.com

The specific kit we used is the version 2 Fawn Bluetooth Speaker Kit as seen below.

Click Here for the Fawn Kit

Now It should be said, I am not an electronic engineer, nor a speaker builder or designer, not even much of an audiophile. What I am is a resourceful woodworker with an extreme dedication to the highest quality I can produce. This kit requires some degree of woodworking skill, depending on the type of box/enclosure you choose to build. I of course went for a more complex, mitered box construction with solid Maple sides and hand-selected Zebrawood, Purpleheart, and Padauk for the faces. I chose these hardwoods for the natural beauty and contrast in colors.

You can follow Kirby’s instructions that guide you through building what I’d call a simplified wooden speaker box, no fancy miter joints required. Like I mentioned, my build was more complex and roughly followed Kirby’s earlier, Fawn v1 plans, design for the enclosure.

Miters From Hell!

One Hundred and Twelve 45-degree miters!

If you’re not a woodworker, a miter joint (in this instance) is formed by cutting a 45-degree angle on two joining pieces of wood. Like what you’d find in most picture frames. You can accomplish this in a number of ways, one of the most common is with a miter saw or “Chop” saw. Two things I needed for this build is: To insure a perfect 45-degree cut, and accurately duplicate the length for all the sides. Fourteen speaker boxes meant I’m cutting 28 long sides and 28 short sides. I know that’s simple math, but in case you wonder, 2 short sides and 2 long sides equals 4 sides for a rectangle-shaped speaker box enclosure. 56 sides total, with each side requiring a 45-degree cut at each end. How many miter cuts is that? One Hundred and Twelve stinking 45-degree miter cuts! Spoiler alert! I did not get them correct in the first cut. I had to redo all of them to correct variances in the cut. Rather than spell it all out here, take a look at the video below for a walk-thru on the issue and solution I incorporated.

Assembly of the miter cut sides is pretty simple. I used a packing tape method to hold the glued sides together, no clamps required as long as you have proper fitting joints like these.

Maple is used for the sides.

The faces are from hand-selected Zebrawood, Purpleheart, and Paduak woods. In this step, I’ve roughed out the faces on my miter saw. You can also see, in the background, all the box sides are finished. The next step is to cut the faces to the precise size to fit within the rabbited recess on the face of the box.

The faces were cut to final size, holes drilled for the speakers and knob, then routed.

Final Assembly

This can be daunting with the many electronic components and wires and solder etc. Following the steps in the instructions helped make the complexity easier to handle.

I laid out all the electronic components and my finished (empty) speaker boxes, then methodically began to assemble each speaker one-at-a-time. It was easier for me to keep everything straight and without confusion to focus on one speaker at a time.

How much time did it take?

Glad you asked. Here’s a run-down on the final assembly.

For ONE speaker, it’s really not bad if you lay everything out in order including your tools like soldering iron, hot glue gun etc.. I’d say you could complete the assembly of all the electronic components in a couple hours time.

Once I got into a rhythm, it took me about forty five minutes to one hour for each speaker. Multiply that out by fourteen speakers; that will give you an idea how long I spent on just one of my all-nighters to get these all done and delivered!

Finished Product

I was quite pleased with the final result (and of course getting them all done). A pain in the back-side? Difficult project to finish? Absolutely on all counts. End result though is what really counts. You see, these were built for a customer I consider a friend, part of the family. The recipients of his ‘gifts’ are all also parts of my work/professional family. These are all folks I personally know and is the primary reason I said yes to such a time-crunch project. Each speaker built with tons of heart and soul. I poured out everything I could for the best quality I could produce, knowing it would ultimately bless someone.

My wish for each is:

Be inspired, crank it up and play whatever your heart desires!

A mix of Steampunk, Vintage Edison Lamps, and Sci-Fi Nostalgia:

Features:

Vintage Edison Globe style bulb
Wireframe lamp shade
Custom Handcrafted STARSHIP rocket in glimmering silver and copper
Ready-for-Launch Indicator LED lights
On-Off Dimmer with solid Brass dimmer wheel
Massive ‘Launch” base
Cast Iron feet
Vintage Cloth-Wrapped wire

The Build:

This thing has been rattling around in my head for quite some time, so I was thrilled to finally bring it into reality.

I began with the rocket body; turning it into shape on my vintage Shopsmith in lathe mode. No templates or measurements, just all by eye and feel.

Shaping and fine sanding of the Starship body complete, its time to attach the rocket fins. Fins are epoxied into a freehand routed groove. Since this is to be painted, a flawless fit between the fin and body were not important. Any gaps etc. were filled in and smoothed out with the epoxy.

All the fins attached.

Standing tall and looking pretty good.

Masking for paint

Notes – Sanding sealer was used prior to paint. the Silver/Aluminum paint required many coats. The Copper seamed to be a bit less transparent than the silver and took less to cover the fins. The tail of the rocket was originally going to be flat black, but I ended up giving it a faded paint job with red fading into the black to mimic the glow of rocket engines firing up.

A story of enchanting imagination, inspiration, sawdust, books, and a magical secret!

Harry Potter’s Wand?

Let me give you a super short summary first. This build was ignited by a simple request; can you make him a “Harry Potter’s Wand?” OH YES! This is the stuff I really live for. An eight year old boy that want’s a Harry Potter’s Wand? Not the latest electronic toy etc? Without a doubt Heck Yes!!!

Again, for summary’s sake, what I came up with was a hand-carved wand and a secret-bookshelf-slash-crate-of-books. It was the perfect place to hide his dangerous and powerful  wizard’s wand.

The Build:

Perhaps a little backwards from the original request, I first began the quest to build the box… Build the “Crate of Books” that would hold his magic wand and whatever other wonderful imaginative things he’d like to secretly store. The outside is to be of a weathered and almost insignificant look. The face is in appearance nothing more than a collection of various books.

Opening the secret doors reveals the secret self and the Hogwarts Train Station to transport his imagination any place he wishes.

Here’s a quick walk-through:

As you can see below, the secret bookshelf “Crate-Of-Books”, has a wonderful weathered and aged look. Each of the books you see have been sliced, leaving about an inch thick part of only the book binding. These were permanently attached to two swing open doors. The opening of these secret doors is done by pressing in on the Harry Potter book near the middle of the book set. Swinging open the doors reveals the single secret shelf, and the magical Hogwarts Station in the background.

Now back to Harry Potter’s Wand – It began as nothing more than about 18 inches of 1 inch diameter Maple Dowel I had in shop. Something I’ve never created before; which is also part of the fun – taking on a new challenge. The wand was shaped and carved through turning on the Shopsmith lathe and hand carving the details with both a Dremel tool and bits, and hand sanding. The wand was given an aged look using 3 different wood stains, and protected with gloss polyurethane finish.

Ps.

Like it, have questions, or want to know more… Please let me know in the comments below!

Hand cut, hand shaped, and every nook and cranny hand sanded, then hand rubbed and buffed with Danish wood oil.

So Why would I put so much work into something so small and perhaps “insignificant”? Take a moment and think about other woodworkers. What might they be making? Maybe a beautiful Armoire, or mid-century dining set, and yet I’ve made thousands of these little, captivating guitar picks with a perfect fit thumb grip set at just the right attack angle.

Well there’s two parts to the story or History. First off, they weren’t my original idea. OMG! You copied the idea?! No. Not many would be crazy enough, and far less would put the amount of work I do into each pick. The original idea came from a question a very good, old friend asked. The second part of the History is why do I continue to make a pick with so much work involved on each and every pick?

“A spark of inspiration from unexpected places”

Let me take you back and paint you a bit of history. Go back with me over 30 years to a small, not very well lit shop on the back of our garage. Oh it’s also where my Mom and Dad had our extra fridge and a freezer – wait till the end and I’ll tell you about cookies. In this little shop was a plywood work bench, metal vice, hand tools on the wall, and a number of power tools, all very tightly arranged. It was in this shop I was working on a birthday gift for my little sister. She’s a keyboard/piano player. I was sculpting a tiny 16th music note from some walnut wood. This 16th note was for a necklace (which by the way turned out great!). There I was sanding and shaping when my good buddy walked into the shop. Chatting and checking out what I was doing, he asked “can you make a guitar pick?” to which I said SURE! Now see, I told you it wasn’t my original idea right? It was his question that sparked the whole thing off. Just like many other creations, they start with a spark of inspiration often times from unexpected places, or in this case person. His question sparked that creative process. We were both guitar players, or perhaps better said playing at guitar, but none the less very familiar with how to use a pick. My answer was sure, BUT why make just a flat pick. Instead I created a cradling concave section to fit your thumb and help control the pick from rotating when in use. This very first pick was crafted from Black Walnut wood, selected from a very dense, tight-grained section of the board to be the strongest and hopefully hold up to use. It worked out perfectly. Only one small but important improvement was made from that first pick to all that followed, that was to angle the thumb grip and provide a perfect attack angle.

I still have that very first pick. All these years and still looks great.

♪♪ Be inspired and play something beautiful! ♪♫

Inspiration is the reason I still make these today. I’ve had the pleasure to inspire guitar players and musicians young and old to play something beautiful. I limit making only a few at a time and each one with heart and soul poured into it.

Dylan was so surprised when I gave him his guitar picks. He was literally speechless. He was completely amazed and touched at how much love went into thinking about his gift and the precious time that went into carving such beautiful work! I had to convince him it was okay to actually use them, he was so concerned about messing them up! He then spent the next half hour just playing different songs and enjoying his new favorite pick.

Lisa

PS. Remember that fridge and freezer in our small shop? That’s where my siblings and I would sneak some of the goodies our Mom would bake and store in the freezer. Did you know frozen Chocolate Chip Cookies are really good!!!?

Bean Spoon

Wonderfully Whimsical and Humorous Bean Spoon is a welcome and fun feature for any kitchen!

These began for me about 25 years ago when a friend and coworker asked if I could make some bean spoons for her Brother’s Restaurant. I had toyed with making a few here and there mostly for family gifts until this restaurant request came in. We fine-tuned the design and of course HAD to include the info card. On the back of each card, we printed the restaurant’s name and details. The restaurant was the Oak Oven Beanery. A very fitting item indeed.

The Info card explains the Bean Spoon Novelty and it’s humorous use in ridding your beans of gas! Place spoon in pot while cooking any kind of beans. DO NOT REMOVE! Spoon will get the gas out of the beans. The little farts will climb up the ladder and jump over the side. 🙂

These make a great gift for all kitchens, cooks, and foodies!

The little “Farts” climb up the ladder and over the side.

The Quad Candle Set is four individual candle holders when grouped together, create a beautiful multi-level glow. Or each can be separated and arranged to your own fancy.

The thought was how or what could I build that would provide some sort of grouping of candles, but each at it’s own height or level.  What I ended up with was square columns with four different heights.

Creates a beautiful affect with easy change, no mess tea light candles.

Each set is built and repurposed from recycled lumber, carefully milled down to size, hand sanded smooth, and finished off with hand-applied traditional Tung Oil finish. Using Tung Oil really brings out the grain and charming colors of the repurposed wood.

The challenge on this one is to match an existing Rustic style table. I only have a couple mobile phone pics emailed to me of the table, and I want as always to bring my friends and customers something really special.

On the list to do:

• Big 28 inch diameter.
• Rustic Saw marks
• Match the color(s) of the existing table
• Oh, and build it heavy duty.

Created a large 32 inch square of 1 inch pine. Marked and rough cut out the circle. To clean up the circle to a precise 28 inch diameter, a jig was created to hold and rotate it against a 12 inch disk sander. Edge sanded, smooth and perfectly precise, a small round-over was routed top and bottom of the edge.

After the pretty, new and smooth 28 inch circle was finished, it’s time to rough it up and make it rustic. Two different saw marks – what you’d see from a Band saw, and those you’d see from a Circular saw blade. All handcrafted.

Finally matching the colors. A mix of 3 different stains were applied to match the table. Finished off with polyurethane, then hand-buffed with beeswax to a soft, beautiful glow.

For this project, I tossed the existing frame, keeping all the rest. It came with perfect mat board, glass of course, and a very nice back with built in stand so it can be hung on a wall or placed with it’s stand.

Construction. I used a simple lap joint technique, no miters for the corners and routed the rabbit groove recess in the back.
Material is common pine with Weathered Grey stain finished off in satin clear. Lady bug design is Bloodwood body (natural red), maple died black for head and spots. Lady bug finished in high gloss, then epoxied to the frame.

You can see Various stages below beginning with the original frame and pine board.

In all honestly, it took me about 2 years from wanting to design some to actually making them. I had to research what to use, where to source the quality of hardware I wanted, and then decide how I wanted them to look. The first ones I built to look like a solid cube of hardwood using a woodworking technique called an endless grain box. What looks like a solid block of wood is actually a hollow box with each side’s edge matching the grain of the next side. Pretty complicated to get all the side miter joints and the top miter joints matching precisely. From a workshop perspective, these are really tough to get right. Since I’m such a stickler for absolute quality, I was not happy with anything less than perfect corners and miter joints. The look was totally appealing and very pleased.

Further designs related to the original cube include brass columns supporting solid hardwood top and bottom with an open space in the middle. Other styles have included a beautiful hand-blown glass Dome covering a complimenting style Edison bulb, and some more free-form lathe turned bases. Very exciting genre of lighting to work with.

Features can include any number of the following:

• On/Off with Dimmer switch
• Solid brass lamp socket
• Brass hardware
• Edison bulbs (of course :-))
• Vintage Cloth Wrapped Power Cord in various awesome colors
• Hardwood
• Standard On/Off switch

Pair of Robot Lamps

Industrial Lamp animated GIF

Street Lamp

Light Beer? Corona Lights

Shoji Style Lamp

Space Lamp and Industrial Lamp

Cigar Box Lamp

Book Lamp done right

Industrial Lamp

Jar Light

Shoji Style Lamps

Totally open to questions and special designs.