Turning of the Week for August 26, 2024

[Emiliano Achaval]

It is my turn once again to choose the TOTW. The honor for the week of August 26, 2024, goes to John Shannon and his beautiful "Turtle Box." African Blackwood is one of my favorite woods; I have done lots of boxes with it, so I can appreciate the work John did here. I have also attempted to do an inlay. Let's just say my efforts were not as good as John's. His inlay is perfect. Whatever method he used, old-fashioned or laser-cut, the result is impressive. I'm also going to guess that the blank was a clarinet blank. Extra points for giving a second life to a blank that was destined to live in a rejects barrel.
Congratulations John, I love your box. Aloha.

 

[Pat Wisniewski]

Beautiful box! The inlay is impressive.

 

[Gabriel Hoff]

Congrats John! Your work continues to impress on all levels, and this one is the best one yet!

 

[David Wyke]

Congrats John, beautiful piece! I would love to see the inlay process.

 

[Russ Braun]

Congratulations John and nice choice Emiliano (couldn’t pass up the sea turtle, lol). That inlay is quite impressive. I like the added white to the Mother of Pearl.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Congratulations John and nice choice Emiliano (couldn’t pass up the sea turtle, lol). That inlay is quite impressive. I like the added white to the Mother of Pearl.

The box would fit nicely in Hawaii, lol

 

[Ted Pelfrey]

As soon as I saw this I knew it would be the turning of the week. Beautiful!

 

[Donna Banfield]

Great choice, Emiliano! This is a stunning box, and the turtle inlay is about as perfect as it can get. Congratulations, John.

 

[John Shannon]

Thank you, Emiliano, for naming my Turtle Box TOTW. Your guess about using a clarinet bell as the blank was spot on, as was your comment about productively using "rejects" of an increasingly scarce resource. The rebate for the inlay was cut by hand using a Dremel tool equipped with a 1/32" downcut bit and a specialized router base from Stewart Macdonald. Blackwood dust and glue absolved all cutting sins. I'm very fond of sea turtles, having first seen them in the wild snorkeling off your beautiful Kohala coast (in between bouts of chasing a small white ball around the lava of the Big Island). Again, thanks so much for the honor.

 

[Bruno Kudrecki]

Congratulations, very impressive inlay, beautiful piece .