Not many people know that only wood can produce handmade wooden jewelry boxes? Each handmade jewelry box exhibits its own unique markings and traits. Each box resembles a miniature model of intricately carved furniture and is at times customized to blend with a room’s decor.

Different art forms like Elizabethan, Art Deco, Victorian, Classic, and Contemporary, are followed in the making of jewelry boxes. Close attention is paid to the making of some jewelry boxes to matching all the sides of the box so as to achieve aesthetic balance. This is called book matching.

The band saw, a power tool, is used to carve single blocks of wood to produce band saw jewelry boxes. This tool has a metal blade with teeth along one side and is usually used to carve irregular shapes in wood. The lids are usually carved by hand and the box has no joints or seams. To get a good finish, the inner section of the box is sanded after it is cut out. The unusual shape of these band saw boxes has resulted in these boxes being given unusual names.

Then there are the small trinket boxes for storing dainty necklaces, earrings, etc, which are handcrafted with feet and accents.. Then there are the ‘watch boxes’ originally called ‘men’s jewelery boxes’, which are made exclusively for storing watches and each drawer is fitted with small watch pillows.

Almost all jewelry boxes come with dividers used to partition the box to whatever size is required. The bigger jewelry boxes come with different levels and several drawers and the smallest jewelry box has just one drawer and is usually used as a snuff box! .

There was a time when carpenters used only hand tools and their own hands to carve ornate ornate jewelry boxes. Many types of exotic and rare wood were used lik the sassafras, wenge, cocobolo. Kauki is a very expensive, exotic, and rare wood and jewelry boxes made of this wood are considered family heirlooms and handed down over several generations.

Maple is favored in the manufacture of handmade wooden jewelry boxes. Of the more than 100 species of maple, the sugar maple, the European sycamore, hornbeam maple, and the red maple are generally preferred.

Each piece of wood is unique because of its markings caused by the elements, fungus, insects, and even genetic factors. This is how we get the unique burls in any piece of wood that cannot be replicated. The various types of wood markings have different names: curly, birds-eye, spalted, bean claw, quilted, or fiddleback flamed.

The absolutely unique jewelry box is one that is not stained or dyed with chemicals and is allowed to reveal its natural ‘defects’, which in fact serves to enhance, rather than mar, its beauty. Each box is given a lining made of velvet or satin cloth or some fabric that is just as soft and smooth. Hinges are usually made of brass and gold-plated or sometimes made of silver.

As such, handmade wooden jewelry boxes do not follow any set pattern. A truly skilled carpenter can bring to life any dull piece of wood and carve out a beautiful and yet unique piece of art.

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