Our younger daughter, Moira, lives in J'burg South Africa and was unable to take the pieces I have made for her. The bed and tables are too large to ship. So, I have made her a piece that she should be able to carry back with her after her visit here in a couple months. This is a serving tray/condiment holder/storage box. I made it from maple and found that maple is hard .... a very hard wood, and hard for me to hand cut dovetails. It is unforgiving and doesn't let you "persuade" the wood with a mallet the way softer woods do. I finished it with three coats of lacquer and am once again amazed at how interesting maple can be in the light.

Rita and Tony Trenga from Alexandria VA are long, long time friends. They have supported this hobby of mine with gifts of beautiful tools and encouragement. And as a special gift, Rita was the person who challenged me to build my first kayak - something that has brought me much satisfaction in the building and the paddling. So it was a joy to build this table for them to display an inlaid marble bowl that they purchased near the Taj Mahal. I hope to post a picture of the table and the bowl when it arrives at their house. For now, here are a couple pictures taken in our living room before shipment. It is made of walnut with mortise and tenon joinery and six coats of tung oil/varnish.

Today (Aug 9) I am posting two pix of the table with the bowl in the Trenga's house.