Another small salt cellar for a friend.  The curves forming feet on the top and area for your fingers on the top were fun to make.  The box if from the last bits of roasted poplar and the top is walnut.  

I recently read an article about roasting wood in Pop Wood and was fascinated.  I tried an oven-full of scraps/shorts and this box was the first project result.  The slides of this box are in maple, that I roasted at 360 for four hours.  It takes on a rich brown color, but the depth really increases as well.  

For the top and little insert that holds and lifts the top, I went with cherry.  I wanted complement, not contrast and I think that does it.  As the cherry darkened a bit, I like it even more.  The straight grain calms the maple that was on the verge of too wild; and the little pin knot with the streak of extra color is my favorite part.

I'm a little disappointed with the grain match around the box and from top to bottom.  I did resaw and bookmatch one piece, which should have given a good match.  Normally I would also flip the board inside out, but the roasted color was better on the outside, so I went with that - maybe that was my downfall.  

  

I wanted to experiment with some different shaping designs/techniques, so I made this pair of toothpick dispensers/salt shakers.  One has chamfers that increase in size and also alternate direction.

The other is more fluid.  It is square at the bottom and more of a diamond at top, but in a flowing transition.  Pictures don't do these justice with the light colored maple.  

My assistant is retiring at the end of the year, so I made this serving tray as a thank you gift.  It is similar to a design from a year or so ago, but a bit narrower, has more splay to the ends, and is in red oak with a book-matched solid bottom.

I shaped the edges similarly, with a roundover that increases towards the middle, but this time I left the outside edge as a sharp corner.  I like the contrast between hard and soft edges and I think it makes the inside edge design pop more.

For Christmas, my parents wanted me to make a second rolling cabinet for their camper, matching one I made two years ago.  

It was interesting to go through a process again with so much time - and hopefully more skill - in between.  Many parts of the build went more smoothly than I remember.  In particular, building and attaching the face frame and rear panels was much easier with Dominos.  Last time I did it with splines and brads.

I do still get frustrated working in plywood.  It just seems too easy to plane or sand through the veneer.  Also, I made the same mistake I made two years ago with the hinges.  The description on Lee Valley does not make the overlap measurement obvious and my design different from the hinges.  I ended up buying some adapters - a waste of money if I would have taken better notes or had better memory.