Australian Wood Review – September 2019

26 Australian Wood Review

PROJECT

Triptych Boxes

Designing, making and detailing some complex boxes became an exercise

in working safely with small parts. Story by Kelly Parker.

I

was recently commissioned by a long-time client

to make a box. He gave me beautiful slabs of some

redwood burl (photo 1) with the instruction to ‘go

be creative’. He rarely uses the boxes I make, instead

preferring them to be adornments in his home. Knowing

the piece didn’t really need to function gave me great

creative freedom with the form. In this article I will

discuss the design, construction and embellishment of the

piece I call Tr ipt ych.

Design

As I started my design process* the ideas I was sketching

felt more like vessels than boxes. Eventually I started

exploring my ideas in 3D using rigid foam insulation

(photo 2). I will often model smaller objects full-sized

using rigid foam as it’s a quick way to start to refine

shape and proportion. Additionally, I can cut it on my

bandsaw or tablesaw and shape it with rasps and other

tools. Ultimately I settled on a triptych, three small boxes

that would relate to each other based on their shape and

surface embellishments. The three mockups on the right

in photo 2 on p.28 show the final design.

Cutting the sides

The boxes are quite small at 75mm, 100mm and 125mm

tall. Because of the size of the parts, the construction

became an exercise in building jigs to safely hold

and machine the individual components. To begin,

I dimensioned the wood and cut the box sides

sequentially so the grain would flow around the box.

Kelly Parker’s Triptych redwood burl

boxes with pyrography and copper

leaf detailing. Photo: Kelly Parker