| box #1 | curly sycamore, thuya burl, black palm, holly | 13"x8"x3-1/4" | $795 |
| box #2 | curly sycamore, spalted maple, purpleheart, boxwood, holly | 13"x8"x3-1/4" | $795 |
| box #3 | satinwood, verawood, ebony, chatke viga | 13"x8"x3-1/4" | $795 |
| box #4 | boxwood, spalted maple, panga-panga, chatke viga | 13"x8"x2-5/8" | $750 |
| box #5 | european pear, spalted apple, curly maple, african blackwood | 13"x8"x3-1/4" | $795 |
| box #6 | boxwood, spalted maple, curly maple, black palm | 13"x8"x2-5/8" | $750 |
Six of One
We're going to do a show in Boston in March so I thought making a few more boxes to sell would be a good idea...
These are all pretty much the same, in that they're dovetailed, have knife hinged lids, have the same handle and similar interiors. But they're different, too, as you can see. Kind of an interesting project. Lots of choices to be made. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Hope I made the right ones.
I finished them at about the same time as
CJWA's Christmas meeting.
One
of the segments at these meetings is a member leading a discussion of
one of his completed projects. I thought I might report on these boxes. Maybe
it would be entertaining.
Maybe not.
So, off I went, Powerpoint slides in tow. Photos of techniques: How to cut
veneers on the bandsaw - the top panels on each box are arrangements of
bandsawn veneers. How to duplicate pieces on the tablesaw without
measuring anything - when you're doing a lot of cuts that are similar sizes (as
the pieces in this project are) - it helps to be able to duplicate things
without too much fuss.
And a few personal opinions about matching and laying veneers. Stuff like that.
It
seemed to go very well and I was proud of my performance. I've done lots of
presentations in my life (probably more than a thousand - but not about
woodworking) so I'm pretty sure of myself in front of small audiences like
that. I know how to be natural, and when to be serious and how to tell a funny
anecdote or two. It's all part of the game.
A few days later I received an email from one of the members, a guy who's quite
experienced in woodworking, thanking me for doing a good job. But he also
mentioned that he felt that I had "lost" the audience, somewhat, when I tried
to explain the duplication technique. He didn't mean it as a criticism, just an
observation, but I was pained by his remark.
One
of the key elements - maybe the key element - when you're presenting
information is not to lose anybody . There's really no excuse for
that. You 
should
be able to sense when people are no longer following your words. You can tell
by the expression on their faces, their posture, the way their body moves while
they're sitting there, listening.
And I'm supposed to pretty good at sensing these things. At least I thought I was.
I
wanted to make sure about this, so I mentioned it to another one of the
members, a guy who's opinion I value. He corroborated the first guy's
impression.
So now I have this wonderful vision of myself, blabbing away, blissfully unaware of the fact that many people in the audience didn't understand what I was talking about at all.
Great. Just great.
Might be better if I stick to doing it, and not talking about it.