GRACE’S BEADS OF COURAGE BOX

Every beads of courage box or bowl, I make completely different. For this one I wanted to play around with my Lichtenberg Burner.

For the lid, I used solid oak. I soaked the top with a baking soda / water mix for about 15 minutes. Unfortunately this mixture darkens the wood, so the lid ended up being a darker wood than the rest of the box. I wasn’t too concerned with that since I planned on putting an epoxy coat over the lid anyway. To burn the wood without darkening it, you need to use a salt / water solution.

This worked excellent for this piece of wood.

I was going for a heavy duty look for this box. So I made a deep top section, with 45° cuts for the lid to lay into the top section.

I wanted to experiment with a thin epoxy covering over the etched lid. Here I’m showing how I built a dam with tape, for containing the epoxy pour.

I personalized this box for Grace using a dremmel tool to engrave her name. Then I filled it in with purple epoxy. After the epoxy set up I used a planer to knock down the epoxy, and then sanded it smooth.

Grace was very appreciative for this box.