Pin cushion box ... ...

For a while now I've been thinking about adding extra things to the wood I turn, things like metal inlays and perhaps down the line I might even experiment with stones and rocks, like Malachite as an example (still doing research) but for now I've gone with something a little easier, and as with most of the wood I turn I wanted this piece to be useful.


This is how it turned out -

Turned out good, well I think it did anyway.

I've written about how I made it below, well how I made the pin cushion part.

Here's the pin cushion box (without the cushion) -

There's a reason for the gap in the top.

The box itself is simple design wise, it's made from Pear wood, and I've left a little of the bark on for a more natural look and feel, I like leaving bark on the pieces I turn, it some how gives them a more pleasing look, and makes them more tactile when you touch them.

Here's the box with the lid off - 

I didn't worry about sanding and polishing the inside of the lid.

As you can see from the picture above I turned out a small recess to hold the actual pin cushion part, this I thought would give it a better look overall.

Now the pin cushion part was easy to make, well I say easy, I did have to ask my lovely wife for some help, I can sew as long as it involves a really basic stitch.

I cut out a circle of red velvet, which was left over from the excellent Christmas sacks my wife made for the kids (which you can find here - opens in new window) the circle of velvet needed to be a bit larger than the hole I was putting it in.

The velvet ready for sewing - 

I drew round a small bowl for the size.

Making it into a cushion wasn't as hard as I thought, I used some fuzzy stuff from an old cushion to pad the felt out, so basically all I did was to sew round the circle of velvet and then pull it together.

The fuzzy padding stuff - 

Don't know the technical term for this, padding I guess ?

The velvet ready for stuffing - 

Very neat isn't it ?

The cushion already to be fixed to the lid - 

Perfect for pins.

Then all that needed to be done was to glue the cushion into the lid, I used hot glue for this, and that was about it really, pretty simple for a first attempt at using different materials together to make something useful.

It works ! - 

Holds pins, jobs a goodun.

The pot part will hold plenty of pins, and as it's quite heavy it shouldn't move about too much, I made the lid a tight fit, you don't want pins spilling out all over the place.

Plenty of pin storage - 

Loads a pins.

Here's the finished item, I'm quite pleased with it - 

I think the red velvet goes well with the darkness of the wood.

And there you have it, a nice (well I think so) functional piece, simple but effective.

Thanks for reading.