Secure Hiding Place
I am an old dad. When my twins were born, a co-worker, who had two young children, told me it just keeps getting better & better. I found that to be true until our twins turned 14, a year into being – “teenagers.” One of the first significant changes I noticed in my son and daughter was their need for privacy and personal space. It is sometimes challenging to give them the space they demand until I remember how I felt as a teen. The Christmas they became teenagers, I decided to build each of them a ‘stash box’. A container they could lock up things they needed to keep private.
When I was in Graduate School, one of our teachers, Merlin Szasz, would make unique objects for each of his children. An elaborate sculpted and lettered bowl for his daughter and a painted and gilded sled with bent steel runners for his son was just a few of his unique creations. The idea of making objects dedicated to the spirit and whims of each child stuck with me. Being twins, I chose to make the same box but detail it very differently for each child. I made two 7″ x 7″ x 7″ dovetailed boxes with two interior trays that lifted out. Of course, the boxes needed to have unique locks with Pink Ivory keyhole escutcheons.
I made my son a Walnut and Carpathian elm burl box because the elm burl reminded me of his teenage energy. He presents calm on the outside with a lot going on in his secret inside world.
My daughter is sometimes quite precise in her manner, so I made her box from fine-grain figured Swiss Pearwood and Birdseye Maple interior panels and tray bottoms.
I was disappointed with their Christmas morning responses when they opened their presents. Their reaction upon seeing their boxes seemed very restrained. I learned later that I was wrong. Each was elated and a bit jealous of what the other had received, as twins sometimes do.
Another misperception on my part was when my daughter asked about lining the trays. I had gone to great lengths to veneer the box’s interior tray bottoms with birdseye maple. I interpreted her question about new tray bottoms as disappointment with the box and trays. It was not until she came back from the fabric store with a piece of red velvet that I understood that she wanted a “lined” tray. Her satisfaction became apparent once I completed lining the trays, and she could fill her box with jewelry and other personal artifacts.