Additional February Show

In addition to the 2 later weekends in February in which I am participating in juried art shows, listed HERE, I have added a show for this weekend: 

February 9-10

Boca Museum Art Festival
Mizner Park
Boca Raton, Florida
Saturday & Sunday 10am-5pm
Adults $15, Seniors $12, Students $8, Children under 12 and members free

Booth 314

February Shows

February 15-17, Presidents' Day Weekend
50th Annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival
South of downtown Miami, adjacent to beautiful Biscayne Bay. It runs for 1 mile along the streets of McFarlane Road, South Bayshore Drive and Pan American Drive.

Miami, Florida
Saturday, Sunday & Monday 10am-6pm

$10, $5 residents of Coconut Grove Buy Online
Free for: Children 12 and under, Metrorail Golden Passport and Patriot Passport holders.

February 23-24
Naples National
The Von Liebig Art Center, Cambier Park & 8th Street South

Naples, Florida
Saturday & Sunday 10am-5pm
Suggested $5 donation
Free parking, free shuttle

Heirloom Recipes

This year, in place of purchased gifts, ask your closest friends and family members to write down their favorite recipe on one or more 4"x6" index cards, add their name and the year, and mail them to you.

Collect them all and store them in one of our beautiful outrigger boxes.

During the year, jot down any recipes that were particularly good and worthwhile.

Next year, repeat the process.

Soon, you'll have an amazing collection that will be the treasure of your family and a wonderful gift to pass on  for a family member's wedding or other big occasion. You could even reproduce the cards and present newlyweds with their very own box to continue the tradition!

Capture Those Memories

We are all familiar with the concept of capturing your family's memories on film, be it still images or video footage. But what about all those cute things your kids say? Or those sweet things your spouse does for you? These are memories to treasure, but they've been difficult to keep until now.

With Facebook and Twitter, it's easier than ever to share your little moments with friends and family, but in a month or two, do you remember what phrase your child used or where you were when you heard it? It's best to capture these things as they happen, just like you would with your camera. That way they stay fresh forever.

Here is your project:

• Buy a small notepad
• Get a pen
• When those little moments happen, jot them down
• Remember to add the date
• Store them in one of our beautiful boxes, sure to compliment your decor
• At the end of the year, or as you remember, slip them all into an envelope 
• Store in your family photo album

Now you can keep and treasure all those little moments forever.

Want to give this as a gift? Sort through your friend's Facebook or Twitter posts and pull down things from their life and give them a box full of memories to start with. Tuck in a notebook and a pen to let them continue a new family tradition!

Special Gifts

As you can see, I have been busy with all my helpers building boxes to meet all your gift giving needs this season. Most of my boxes have been bought by someone wishing to purchase a special gift.

They liked the fact that all my pieces were signed, dated and all the different exotic woods used were listed on the bottom. This extra bit of detail shows the recipient, you went out of your way to get them something really unique.

Visit the galleries below to see this seasons gift offerings.

 Jewelry Box

Tea Box/Caddy 

Valet Box

Keepsake Box

Humidor

Watch Box

Contrasting Woods

I just finished a new series using contrasting ebonies from Africa and Laos. Gabon ebony and black and white ebony create a visual impact as seen below. A great gift to give or keep.

See these wonderful boxes HERE and some samples below.

Wood of the Month - Ebony

There are two main types of ebony and a very small number of others. The main two are:

"Gabon ebony", which is the common name I use for what is also called "Nigerian ebony", "East African ebony", and many other names depending on country of origin. This is what people normally mean when they say "ebony". It's the black kind, although it actually frequently has lighter streaks. It is generally VERY expensive and requires some care in working as it is slightly brittle and prone to cracking.

"Macassar ebony", which is usually a very striped wood with widely varying amounts of light and dark wood. This name is to be distinguished from "Madagascar ebony" which is just another common name equivalent to "Gabon ebony". Macassar ebony is also expensive (all the ebony's are) but is somewhat less delicate to work than Gabon ebony.

Some of the other specialty woods that are occasionally available in the USA, are "pale moon ebony" (aka "black and white ebony"), "mun ebony", and persimmon, which is not normally thought of as an ebony, but which does belong to the same genus.

Some of the wood-producing species that are sold under the names discussed above. All of these have more than one common name (most of them MANY more than one), but I list only one, sometimes two, for simplicity. Many of these are not black. Persimmon, for example, is almost all light colored with a tiny pith area of black. Some of these have no black at all.

NOTE: the names "black ebony", "African ebony", and "streaked (or striped) ebony" are so widely applied to many of the species in this genus that they are almost meaningless.

October Shows

Enjoy live jazz and chat with fine artists in various mediums in Winter Springs this month. Stop by and see us.

October 21-21, 2012
Winter Springs Festival of the Arts
Winter Springs, Florida
10am-5pm
Booth 429

The photo at top is from last year's festival.

Uses for Valet Boxes

Our Valet Boxes make a beautiful keepsake gift for anyone (including yourself). Here are some of the many uses:

Adults
End of the day watch, keys, and wallet
Next to the bed for your glasses and ring
Stationery, stamps, pen
Remote controls
Bills, stamps, checkbook, pen
Delicate hair combs
Today's mail
Next to the phone, a pad, pen, and address book
Essential oils
Guitar pics
Extra copies of important paperwork like your will and passports
Love notes/cards to one another
Wedding mementos
A bundle of old letters from a lover or loved one
A list of wishes or goals
Small craft project like embroidery
Keepsakes from a recent vacation
Sunglasses

Kids
Pokemon/Yugioh cards
Baseball/football cards
Marbles
Stamps
Shells or stones
Friendship bracelets/Silly Bands
Report cards/achievements

Did we fail to list a way you use your Valet Box? Let us know!

August Shows

After a long summer of replenishing our stock and getting in beautiful new woods, we are ready to resume the juried art show circuit and will be traveling in August!

August 10-12
Berkshire Crafts Fair
Monument Mountain Regional High School, Great Barrington, MA
10am-5pm each day
$7 for ages 13 and up, kids 12 and under are free
Booth 63

August 24-26
Berkshire Arts Festival
Ski Butternut, Great Barrington, MA
10am-6pm Friday & Saturday, 10am-4:30pm Sunday
$9 adults, $8 seniors, $5 students, kids under 10 are free, $11 for a weekend pass, coupon in the link above
Booth not yet assigned

August 31-September 3
Long's Park Art and Craft Festival
Long's Park, Lancaster, PA
10am-5pm each day
$8 adults, $10 multi-day ticket, kids 10 and under free, coupon in the link above
Booth 227

Jewelry Boxes

If you are looking for a totally unique Jewelry Box to own or give, check out one of my handcrafted creations. Each box is a one of a kind heirloom quality piece constructed using traditional joinery and modern adhesives. The miter joints are reinforced with dovetail splines, chevron splines or internal "butterfly" splines running top to bottom.

The veneered lids are glued up in a vacuum bag exerting 1750 pounds of force per square foot assuring a permanent bond. Each box is lined with suede cloth and the trays have removable dividers for added space.

Since I never create two boxes exactly the same, I am constantly searching for new and exciting woods to incorporate into my designs.

See more detail on the box pictured above Here.

Find all my current designs at My Website.

Beautiful Snakewood

Snakewood is an incredibly beautiful wood which originates mostly in Suriname, South America. The specific gravity is around 1.2, making it one of the worlds hardest woods. The part sold as snakewood is really the heartwood of the larger tree. This wood is usually felled with axes and carried on the backs of hard working natives over streams and through snake infested jungle areas. Each tree felled is monitored, and the government has developed a strict permit process to control harvesting. Much of the wood has inferior or no figure, but the small amount that has attractive figure is exported. We use only figured pieces that have high density of figure. All snakewood has at least minute hairline cracks. We take the extra step of soaking some pieces in cyanoacrylate to minimize or eliminate any cracking. Fortunately, if cracks do occur, they can be hidden completely if caught early. We do not recommend attempting to dry snakewood, as this almost always leads to cracking. Being dense, the water content is already very low. To be successful, always have superglue and hardener on hand, cover the piece with plastic completely when not working on it, and seal it completely with a finish that does not allow moisture transmission. Needless to say, the wood should never be allowed to get overly heated or left in direct sunlight.

Texas Woods

This April, we have 2 shows in Texas. That got us to thinking about the kinds of woods that come from Texas. Since all of our boxes feature wood that is not stained or dyed, the beauty of natural wood shows through, and we think the types of wood that goes into each box is essential.

We use the following types of wood from the continental US:

• Ash
• Cedar
• Cherry
• Maple
• Olive
• Rosewood
• Mahogany
• Hack Berry
• Holly
• Walnut
• Walnut Burl
• Madrone Burl
• Ambrosia Maple
• Birds Eye Maple
• Curly Maple
• Curly Ash
• Curly Cherry

The following types of trees grow in Texas:

• Oak
• Pecan
• Ash
• Mesquite
• Palm

Only Ash is grown in Texas that we also use in our boxes. In fact, most of our hardwoods come from Asia, Africa, and South America!

Juried Shows

In order to show my work in the best possible venue, I apply only to juried shows .

A juried show is where a panel of qualified jurors sit in a darkened room viewing digital images presented by the show applicants.

The jurors have approximately 7 seconds to view and score four images of the work and the display. The scores are then tallied and the spaces are awarded to the high scorers.

I have been fortunate to participate in over 200 shows.

I prefer to sell my work in this manner because I get a chance to explain the design process as it relates to my love of the medium.

Hopefully I will have a chance to see you walk into my booth someday so check my schedule frequently. My next show is the only one I will be doing in Dade County this year, the 61st Annual Beaux Arts' Festival of Art will take place January 7th & 8th, 2012 on the beautiful grounds of University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The festival is open each day from 10 AM to 5 PM, and it's free!

Workshop

You know that Santa's workshop is filled with elves making toys. But Boudreau's workshop is a one-man establishment. All of the boxes you see displayed on these pages are created by me in my shop in Hollywood Florida.

It's a quiet area overlooking the inter costal waterway which gives me lots of solitude and serenity when I have to work out the details of that new design.

I have been creating boxes from this location since 1999 and have amassed quite a collection of power and hand tools. I presently own and use the following:

• Delta 10" Unisaw cabinet saw with Wixey digital readout
• Rikon 18" band saw
• Jet 14" band saw
• Grizzly 6 X 89 oscillating edge sander
• Jet 22-44 oscillating Drum sander
• Jet 15" planer with/Byrd Shelix cutterhead
• Delta 6" Jointer with/Byrd Shelix cutterhead
• Jet Floor Model Drill Press
• Delta Bench model drill press
• Norm Abrams design router table
• Hawk Routershop Table
• Dewalt scroll saw
• Paasch spray booth
• Beall wood buff system
• Porter Cable Orbital sanders
• Joe Woodworker Vacuum press system

Plus lots of other small tools too numerous to list.

Leave milk and cookies for Santa, if you want toys. And place your order for a hand-made box with me if you want quality boxes for all your collectibles, jewelry, and gifts. 

Children in Distress

In October 2011, Carol, myself and other members of the Kwan Um School of Zenvisited the Linh Son Vietnamese-Chinese Temple in Kushinagar, Northern India. There we met Rev. Thích Nữ Trí Thuận, a Vietnamese Buddhist Nun who came to the temple in 1989 and founded the school there. The current enrollment is 335 but over 6000 children have gone through the school saving them from a life of disease, poverty, and exploitation. The school is funded through donations and by renting rooms to travelers making thier pilgrimage along the "Buddha Trail" from Varinasi to Lumbini, Nepal.

We were so impressed with the school and the staff there, we decided to pledge10% of all our internet box sales to help support the school. This was not our first trip to India and we observed the povery in the North to be worse than other areas we had visited before.

As the Holiday season approaches, this would be a good time to select a gift for a loved one that will help one of these children.

Help us spread the word by Liking us on Facebook. --Donald Boudreau