The walnut used for this project came from my friends at Horizon Lumber in Pennsylvania. There is nothing quite like starting a project with such such an inspiring piece of wood in front of you...

The box is a actually a set of four boxes: the outer box (in walnut), and the three inner boxes (in pear.) The inner boxes all have removable inserts to maximize storage options.

Part of the design criteria was that you be able to both charge and play an iPod without removing it from the box. A set of removable, shop-made plywood inserts allows the player to either be stored flat of plugged into the Dock. Cutouts in the back of the box allow wires to run where they need to.

Detail. Dovetailed construction for the boxes, frame-and-panel for the lid.

The door frame is made from bent-laminated teak with three panes of glass, while the cabinet itself is made from teak and Alaskan yellow cedar veneers over a Baltic-Birch plywood core.

I built the cabinet from a plank of teak that my friend Andrew was kind enough to let go of, and the last few bits of yellow cedar my friend Greg had after finishing a cabinet of his own. I couldn't have made this piece without the help of fellow wood-nerds...

All parts, including the glass stops and mullions, are carefully shaped and finished before final assembly.

The shelves are held up by adjustable, carved consoles.

The top for this piece came from one magnificent board of cherry, which was then resawn and bookmatched.

Detail of the drawer. All dovetails are cut by hand, and the Texas Ebony Knob mortised, not screwed, into the drawer front. Native Olive is used for the drawer bottom to give it a nice scent when opened.

Stretchers are held in place with socketed tenons, and protrude slightly through the cross-rail.

After several mockups, the client and I agreed that the best way to avoid a large overhang for the tabletop would be for the legs to actually come through the top itself. The "notches" are softened slightly, and a gap around the legs allows the solid wood top to move as it needs to.

In order to maintain a low profile, drop-in poplar slats are used to support the mattress in lieu of a heavy boxspring.

As with all my pieces, each part of this bed is shaped, planed, scraped, sanded, polished, and finished by hand. This process, while extremely labor intensive, imparts a "feel" to the wood that simply cannot be matched by machine.

Detail of the Texas Ebony pegs used in the headboard. See how they are installed here

Detail of the Rail/Footboard joint, with one support slat removed for clarity. From left to right: the milled, brass locating pin used to secure each support slat; the hidden bed bolt, which bolts into a hidden nut integrated into the footboard; and a support slat, which simply drops down onto the locating pin.

Although consisting of relatively few parts, the table's six-legged design requires about a half dozen different jigs and over two months of work to complete. The top was resawn entirely from one large, 10' board to ensure consistent grain and color.

Detail of lower stretcher assembly. Both the upper and lower stretchers and joined with a "triple-lap joint," which - I am told - was originally found in classic Chinese furniture.

Each individual piece is shaped by hand before final assembly. This is the sort of work that cannot be done by machine. (Plus, I like doing it.)

Detail of Apron/Leg Assembly. As the curved aprons are meeting each leg at 60 degrees (instead of the usual 45 or 90), this joint alone requires the use of four separate jigs, and constitutes most of the work that goes into this piece.

The box itself is joined with internally-splined miters, and edged with silver. Lined inserts hold the ring in place. The silver inlay in the lid is drilled all the way through the top.

Box with lid closed. All four sides come from one small piece of Macassar Ebony.

The top is inlaid with various gauges of silver wire. The pattern itself represents the map of the sky on the evening of January 18, 2007

The silver banding around the edges are mitered and "riveted" into place with silver wire.

The sides, lid, and bottom of the box are made from one piece of 150 year-old Longleaf Pine, a species once found throughout the southeastern United States and Gulf Coast and historically used for ships, spars, bridges, flooring, and railroad carriages. The wood is hard, durable, and has a nice...well, pine scent.

The pegs, which lock the lid into place, are made from Texas Ebony, a species native to southwestern Texas. The inside of the box is lined with a velvet pad, making it ideal for jewelry storage. The lid itself is reversible, and the pins are interchangeable. The original salvaged floor joist is shown below the box.

The idea behind this piece was to make a small jewelry box whose decorative elements all derive from a particular function: the notched keys are left extended to facilitate their removal; the shaped top serves as finger-grips when opening and closing the lid; the exposed box joints on the corners provide an extremely strong and long-lasting connection.

The design of the box was completely driven by the wood itself. Rather than using an exotic (and most likely endangered) species, I thought it would be nice to use local, reclaimed wood, in this case, longleaf pine. The heavy grain pattern of the pine lent itself to a sort of Japanese aesthetic, which in turn informed the joinery and details I used. Plus, I was excited to make something out of wood that literally came from Houston.