Mini Cabinet

vsur Jan 28, 2016

This was a small cabinet that I ended up making basically to practice wood carving. I had seen a similar but larger and more detailed piece at a friend's house and I wanted to imitate it, while simplifying it enough for a beginner's level.

In terms of the carving patterns, I got some inspiration from patterns online, but I had to draw all of it myself, as most of the patterns online were very complicated, and some did not appeal to me. I mainly drew inspiration from Thai wood carving patterns.

Since I made this to practice carving, I did not really think ahead about the joinery, which is why I ended up joining things very simply with brad nails and butt joints. As I have experienced before, carving often exposes a lot of end grain, so with the finish, I would either have to use only a clear coat, or go very dark with the stain, and I decided to go with the latter. The stain is a mix between minwax Sedona Red, and Walnut. I did not like either separately so I decided to blend them together.

Pattern from google image search

Cutting out waste with coping saw

This picture shows my carving process. I draw lines straddling the centre of each flowing shape, and carve either side leaving the line as the high ridge between them.

Decorating the panels a bit more

designing a small panel to fit underneath the cabinet doors

Lot of coping saw work

Designing the panel to go above the cabinet doors

(overly ambitious) design of top panel

lots of coping saw work on the top panel

Cabinet body coming together

Cabinet body assembled, now just need to stain and fit the hinges

As you can see a bit of the carving broke out and unfortunately there was not enough glue surface area to stick it back on. In the future I need to make sure all the remaining timber has enough material anchoring it to keep it strong.