Locking lid box with Stoat

turned from a huge beech tree that fell near a friend's smallholding.

Over the past few months the wood has mellowed and begun to spalt, the beautiful patterns you can see running through it.

Locking lid boxes are complex to make requiring some specialist tools and plenty of experience and fine control to get things right. To open the lid simply turn the lid until the two dots line up then lift the lid. To lock it tuck the tab at the opposite end to the dot under the rim, drop the lid into place and turn gently clockwise until it stops turning.

It was turned on my Bowl Lathe, the traditional way of making cups, bowls and boxes for thousands of years. This wonderful lathe is powered by nothing more than my legs.

I have been adding animals to the lids of these boxes over the past years as they remind me of the creatures who also live around me in Northumberland, who I see most days, and who I share this space with.

The stoats live in and around the many hedgerows near my home. Usually we only catch a fleeting glimpse as they dash across a road, or nip quickly into the cover of the bushes. Sometimes though we are very lucky, and it doesn't hear our approach and we get the sheer joy of watching them bound and dance over stones and logs hunting their prey.

This box is 7" in diameter and 5" high.

finished with walnut oil and beeswax

Northern Wood Monkey is now resident in the Republic of Ireland.

Since Brexit is has become unviable to send any items to the UK from Ireland as I am just a small business and the admin and costs are prohibitive. I am occasionally in the UK and it may be possible to send from the UK when I am there, please contact me to discuss.

Courses will be running from my home in Ireland from Spring 2025. We are in beautiful and gentle countryside here in Co Mayo and a day on a course would make a great addition to a holiday.