Cthulhu!

Yep, our latest design is now live and available, and this time's it's Cthulhu! Or rather a little chibi version of the awe inspiring and fearful god Cthulhu.

This box is a trading card game deck box, designed to fit 60 sleeved Magic the Gathering cards or 90 unsleeved MTG cards.  Each purchase allows you to customize the lid with text of your choosing!

This box is available for sale here!

da Vinci is now Live!

Well, the box we designed with his sketches and hand writing is now live and for sale, at least.

That's right! It's finally here!

You can check it out here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/224024498/da-vinci-drawing-sketches-keepsake-dic

It's also possible to customize the box in various ways.

Aside from that, we're still working on perfectly our other designs, and getting them ready to go live as well.

Wood Choices

 We use Cherry Wood for most of our products, but why? That reason is really simple! Of all the woods we've tested, cherry wood is the best all around.

First off, it's gorgeous. The wood has a natural red tint to it, with a subtle golden luster. Both the red and golden luster intensify when a clear lacquer is applied, while the red and gold will remain subtle and pale with just a polyurethane applied. We get the best of both options, depending on the application! We like using a polyurethane for jewelry, as to not darken it severely keeping it a neutral for all outfits. We use lacquer for decorative pieces like our boxes to make them really pop in their surroundings and give them a refined appearance.

It's burn color. This wood's burn color is a dark red/brown to brown, which contrasts perfectly with the luster and color of the wood. It has a high contrast, compared to other woods, resulting in a clearer engraving. Maple burns well, but the colors are too yellowed in appearance.

Hardness. It's far from the hardest wood out there, but it still takes a lot to break things made with this wood. You pretty much have to be trying to break it, to do so. It's medium hard wood, so it's still easy to work with, when engraving/cutting it, while still holding its durability as a finished product.

Smell. Smell of course plays a factor in what wood we've chosen. Some woods can be offensive to the nose, such as certain pines. Others are very appealing like Cedar. Cherry wood has a very neutral wood smell, that is not offensive nor particular odorous, as to not deter people who don't care for woody smells like cedar.

Grain. The grain in cherry wood does not carry high contrast, as other woods like walnut, cedar, or tigerwood. This allows for designs to be etched into it without the grain messing up with the contrast of the engraved image. This also means that most of our products are nearly identical. There will be some very minor grain striping, as occurs in almost all woods, but it will be minor.


Our current wood choice covered, we do plan on making some of our boxes from cedar! Cedar is one of my favorite woods aside from cherry. I love the smell, the color, and the burn color. The difficulty is finding workable cedar. A lot of cedars are brittle, soft, and lose a lot of moisture after being cut, causing them to bend in a way you didn't intend. This makes them particular difficult to actually work with, though we plan on having certain products available using this wood type.

Behind da Vinci

I've teased in my previous posts about the da Vinci box, but never posted any pictures. So to make up for it, this post will be all about the da Vinci box, some more teasers, and a bit of "Behind the scenes" for this box in particular.

Origin

This box was designed for my partner in crime, James Lacer, for whom the business is named, and my boyfriend. I wanted to make something special for him. He has a da Vinci picture hanging in our back room, which really looks fantastic, and that he likes a lot. Inspired by that, I designed and made him this box. He has the first iteration of this box, made especially for him with a personal message on the inside.

Design

The box's structural design was simple enough--it isn't an elaborate design like the steampunk box or the Hobbit box. But it's small and very sturdy.

I would like to take a moment to say that da Vinci's sketches are actually surprisingly difficult to come by in decent resolution. This made the creation of this box remarkably trying. There were many failed attempts at rendering images usable. This alone made this box's overall design more difficult to achieve than the other two boxes.

That aside, I'm very pleased with the final outcome, which I'll finally share a few teasers of!

Behind the scenes

If you've been wondering or curious about what goes on in designing these boxes, look no further! Here's a few images displaying what it looks like before it gets etched.

Here's an image showing a glimpse of one of our short sides, shown finished in one of the above images.

A quick little teaser of the lid image, and the side that you haven't gotten to see yet! (The text at the top that's cut of says "Leonardo da Vinci")

Each images shows a quick glimpse of the shape that our cutouts takes, making them fit together like puzzle pieces.

Did you know, that a single engraving can take up to 45 minutes? Depending on the speed that the machine is set to, and how much work the laser actually has to do.
Our most complicated box can take up to 4 hours to complete, from etching, cutting, sanding, assembling, and finishing with a varnish.



Like our work? Let us know! We always want to hear from you. Frequent updates on our products and methods are published to this blog, so be sure to follow us.


As always, these products will be available at in our Esty store not long from now!
Want to know when they're available? Be sure to follow this blog and like our Facebook page, both of which will announce them for sale immediately after they're made available.
Finally, you can get in touch with us directly at LacersEdge@stargladecrafts.com
We love hearing from you, and any suggestions you may have!