Jewelry Boxes|Men's Valet-Jewelry Boxes|Tea Boxes|Keepsake Boxes|Exotic Woods and Burls
New England wood artisan Donald Boudreau started his life's dream in 1992 when he and his wife Carol sold everything and moved aboard their 49 foot sailboat "Domicile" and started an around the world cruise.
During their many adventures, one thing in particular captivated Don. It was the beauty and unique qualities of the tropical hardwoods, which he found in Central & South America and the South Pacific.
Six years and 25,000 miles later, they found themselves in New Zealand with an extensive wood collection and a yearning for shore life.
After settling in South Florida, Don started building boxes using some of the woods he encountered on their adventure.
 No dyes or stains are used, only the beauty of the wood is visible through the hand buffed oil and wax finish.
Many of Don's box designs were inspired by David M. Freedman's book "Box Making Basics".
Since box making has endless possibilities, Don is constantly creating new designs.
Some of Don's boxes have won Awards at  Art and Craft Shows.
See Arts and Craft Shows for our latest schedule.
 Don is a member and current president of the South Florida Woodworking Guild.
Read what some of our customers had to write in:





Welcome to my Shop
Book Matching.
Book matching is an important part of the design process. Nature provides us of many fine examples. One side of our body is a mirror image of the other and even simple plants and leaves have a sense of balance to them. If you look at Architecture and fine furniture, you will notice how one side is in balance and harmony with the other.
During the creation of each box, care is taken to present the natural color and grain or the woods and burls so that this balance is obtained. The following group of photos will show the steps taken to create a laminated lid panel of exotic woods as used in one of my boxes.

    All of the boxes you see displayed on these pages are created in my one man 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:Click for More Shop Photos
Delta 10" Unisaw cabinet saw
Rikon 18" band saw
Jet 14" band saw
Grizzly 6 X 89 oscillating edge sander
Performax 16-32 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.
In this photo, PVA glue is being rolled onto each hardwood strip.

Here the wood "sandwich " is clamped
until the glue sets up, usually about four
hours.
Clamping
This operation done on the Jet band saw  known as re-sawing, cuts the glued up block into two sections. One is the mirror image of the other.

Now I glue the two sections back together, this time with a filler block in the center to complete the lid .
Thickness planing.
The lid is now planed down to the final thickness on the Jet planer.


The Performax drum sander removes tool marks and blemishes in preparation for final sanding with an orbital sander using 320 grit.
Here the finished panel has a 1/8" hole drilled for the pin hinge.

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