It was a long November with lots of travel and family activities so no posts. From 1 – 21 Dec 2025 there is a special show for Christmas in the back room of the Jemez Spring Fine Arts Gallery, where I’m a member. In it, all the artist from the gallery have included items that are perfect gift ideas for friends and family. Stop by and check out our work.
In the display, I have several items including craft beverage cases, coaster, cutting boards, small boxes, and other small wooden gifts. Also I have two Japanese puzzle boxes. I saw this box in a magazine a few years ago, and I had been wanting to try to make it for awhile. I finally did. It is pretty simple as far as puzzle boxes go — it only has five moves, but absolute precision was required when building it to ensure it opens as it should. The sides are all exactly 3/8″ to allow for 1/8″ grooves for the parts to slide in. Putting it together was also an interesting challenge, as part of it has to be glued up in the blind. It was a difficult project to build, but one that stretched my skills and was extremely rewarding when it worked.
