Customer's Scrap Book  Mark II:

My customer's scrapbook keeps getting bigger'n bigger.  This is the second page.  Check out my ScrapBook Mk III for the latest, or my original Scrap-Book for the older stuff.

This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I designed my shadow-boxes for.  Bill's mother made this doll for him when he was a wee lad.  Notice the book above.  I had this exact Golden Book when I was little too and remember it fondly.  

Folks of a certain age might remember the story of the African child who had some difficulty with one or more tigers.  He climbed a tree and somehow got them to chase one another around and around the tree.  Doing so made them melt into butter.  (I also recall having some difficulty with this concept when I was little).  The story finishes with Sambo climbing down from the tree, collecting the butter and going home where his mother makes him pancakes out of it.  I also recall being concerned that the butter would be dirty.  

Strange what we remember from the wonder and confusion that was childhood, isn't it? Perhaps I wasn't a particularly bright child.  

Not sure what to say about the PC'ness of such a story and doll in this day and age. But I will say this -it is an important piece of Americana - if only to Bill- and I am glad to have helped him protect and display it.

I make the point in my article on Children & Collecting, that unless a child has the where-with-all to put something away, you can't hardly blame them if all-over-the-floor is where they choose to store things.  What choice to they have, after-all?   Here is the answer -or an answer anyway.  This is a corner of Bonnie's room made out of my architectural drawer cases -without the drawers.  I love the black and red kind'a Chinese thing she has going on.  This particular aesthetic is now replacing her earlier school -the purple phase, but you can still see the its influence if you look closely.  (Don't all girls go through a purple phase at some time?)

This Hepplewhite coffee-table is a Christmas gift from Linda to her daughter Alison.  (That's Alison in the picture.)  Linda actually sanded and finished the case -to save herself a few bucks- and Linda filled it with sand and seashells.  They tell me it completes the decor of a young woman's first apartment and its beach-theme living-room

Judy -of Virginia- collects those little souvenir models of important or famous buildings.  This case was built to match one she already has and that she has thoroughly filled up.  This is actually the second job I have done for Judy. She also collects brail tablets and had me make her two huge drawer chests for his particular collection

This is from Bernie of Pennsylvania. Some scary-ass looking knifes, but beautiful in their own way.  What we have here are 2 presentation boxes -one oak with walnut trim, and the other the reverse.  

I can't take the credit for any of this.  Michelle of TEXAS makes these...  um...  I'm not sure what genre they are -Gram'ma Moses comes to mind though.  I like it.  Sheri makes her own shadow boxes & dividers. Then she paints them and adds the items.  She was kind enough to send me a picture of her latest.

Lepidopterist Case:

I can't pronounce it either, 

but it has to do with butterfly 

collecting.  John, of Illinois, is 

pretty serious about collecting 

butterflies.  The case is just 

about 5 feet high and has 36 

drawers.  They are sized to fit 

the  Riker mounts John has used 

to hold his collection.  (Evidently 

he has used these wonderfully 

handy little boxes for more 

then a few years too!)

A BIG Jewelry Box. 

Stands just shy of 26 inches tall.  Gloss black lacquer, 17 graduated drawers, lock, black felt drawer linings. Simple -clean -vaguely oriental design overall.   It's for Mike's wife.  Mike evidently really loves his wife.

Seems a military and knives are the order of the day lately-and this one combines the two ideas.  Michelle here is giving her son-in-law this memorial USMC knife for Christmas.  She sez this might be the first time he really likes a gift she gives him!  Michelle was imaginative enough to notice that my doll cases were the right size and would serve admirably.  This is natural oak with a gray panel.  

Home for  a Knife Collection: 

I didn't build the cases, just the drawers for this elegant optician's office.  Can't take credit for the beautiful red velvet lining either.  Would kike to take credit, but I can't.  My customer lined 20 drawers like the one shown above.

This is another collaboration between this little-old sawdust-maker and a professional designer.  In this case, it will hold dried flowers from the young couple's wedding.  They actually freeze dry them!  Makes the flowers last forever.  

This oak w/ cherry stain sofa-table has both a black chamois upholstered panel for long-term collecting and display, and a white satin cover for immediate use -being as it is for wedding flowers an all.