Beech Box Vcarve Opiniions

[gdon_2003 (Guy Donham)]

I am building a Beech Jewelry box with a mesquite top. I am considering carving on the lower half of the box in the front one of these 3 designs. The first picture is the 3 designs cut out in plywood. The next picture is two of the carvings painted yellow and green and the third just painted black.

What is your opinion for the best image and the best painting of t he object.

All 3 of the carvings have a halo around them which is dewaxed shellac to keep the color from soaking in to the pours of the wood. The piece with the R on it is the beech rear of the box which is just get a feel for the color of the box. That piece is 7.125" tall and 11" long. Once glued up I will cut off 2" for the top of the box leaving 5" X 11" for the bottom of the box.

Let me know what you think which is the best technique. I have not sanded the excess paint off but wanted to get some other eyes on my project. Also let me know if you think something different entirely would be better. I do like the primary colors but the black silhouette looks good as well. Mileage Varies.

Later tonight I will sand off t he excess paint and post those pictures. The plywood obviously has vertical grain and the box has horizontal grain but that is just some waste plywood I had laying around and is close in color to the beech.

[gdon_2003 (Guy Donham)]

Here are the tests with the excess paint sanded off. The Sunflower is likely a no go. The Daffodil and the Dandelion look good. So what do you think. I only waited 2 hours to sand off the paint so it was not completely dry but this is a test and not my final product.

The Dandelion looks good but I cannot find an older picture I had of a more delicate Dandelion. Of all the things I miss the most is my MIND.

[gdon_2003 (Guy Donham)]

Dooh…I guess I did not completely lose my mind. I searched the whole hard drive and found my simpler dandelion. Here is the CC simulation.

Should it be bigger. Likely painted black like the other one up higher. Advanced vcarve with 1/32" mill and 15 degree vee bit.

[Zman (MICHAEL ZEMANEK)]

Here is my opinion which will most certainly will be overruled by my other half, I like the Dandelion. To me they are simple and elegant.

So here is the hard part. Larger or a group of them. If you go larger… White for the top of the seed floaty thingy.

Good luck on the project

[MikeG]

For me the contrasting black and green really pop, but not so much the yellow in the sunflower and daffodil. Perhaps with darker wood the yellow would be more visible?

[gdon_2003 (Guy Donham)]

A Big Homer Doooooh.

I had planned to vcarve a Dandelion on the front of the box. It was late last night and I decided not to glue up the box last night and do it this morning. So I went to the shop this morning and glued up the box forgetting to do the vcarve. The box looks nice but sometimes you get in a hurry. Unfortunately the box is too tall to still do the carving. So I will do it on the next one.

Here is the box unfinished.

The Dandelion would have looked good.