I have established parameters for the work I do by trying to create beauty from materials that would normally be discarded  by more traditional woodworkers.  Working this way I can focus my designs on a limited selection of materials.  Why do this?  I suspect that my backgound has much to do with it.  My father was the best "jerry rigger" around, which irritated me to no end when  was young. Later, as an engineer who spent a lot of time in steel mills, I learned that his job as a steel mill maintenance supervisor required that he make do with what he had available at the time in order to keep the mill producing steel.  This "make-do" attitude was reinforced in me later when I joined the Seabees during the Vietnam war.  The Seabees do Naval and Marine Corp construction in a battle zone.  They are required more often than not to invent ways to do the required construction from materials that are not normally used for that job.  But they have a "can do" attitude. Simiarly with these boxes, I enjoy the challenge of seeing what I can do with what nature has to offer.

To  achieve this I must control my materials from standing timber to the finished product.  The materials I use cannot be found at the local lumber yard.  So to insure a continuing supply of materials I must buy standing trees and supervise their cutting at the saw mill.  I still remember the Amish miller asking that first time if I was sure I wanted the log cut "this way" which was the exact opposite of the way he would normally cut.  He would cut to eliminate knots and bark inclusions but I wanted them.  It took a while to train" him in my way! Besides some of the best figured wood in a tree is located around knots and bark inclusions.  And looking carefully at the grain patterns around a knot or cavity created by bark inclusions is much like cloud watching. Like cloud watching the patterns jog our memory of familiar shapes.  So many different things of  possible interest in the many features of the box - both natural and man-made - if one is inclined to notice them.