This week I hung out with Short Mountain craftsman Ed Wooten as he showed me how he makes Shaker oval boxes. Ed learned to make them at one of John Wilson’s last classes at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.

Ed uses copper nails and wooden pegs to hold these sturdy boxes together. He varies the look of his box tops using different wood veneers: Maple burl, quarter sawn Sapele, Sapele pommele, Cherry and Cyprus to name a few. The sides are either Maple of Cherry.

Ed also uses a milk paints to add color to some Cherry boxes like pumpkin, Salem red, tavern green and soldier blue.

Check in later as we explore some of Ed’s fused and faceted glass projects.