making a memorial urn

I was a potter when my father died in 1976, and I made a raku fired box to hold his ashes for burial. Now that I am a woodworker instead, I am making a simple cherry box for my mother's ashes to be buried alongside my father's ashes in Ft. Dodge Iowa.

I published an article on the subject of making boxes to house crematory remains in Woodwork magazine several years ago, but I rarely look back. This cherry box is being made with over-lapping log-cabin corners in a style influenced by Greene and Greene. The use of wider pieces of wood at the base, transitioning to narrower stock at the top will give the box a sense of "uplift," which I believe you will be able to see in the first loosely assembled mock-up in the photo at top. As you can see in the photos that follow, parts were cut in offsetting lengths to form the log cabin joint. Then spacers were used to position parts while they were taped together using package sealing tape. To glue the parts, I opened each joint on the side opposite the tape, spread glue and then clamped the parts together. Now, I am doin gother things while the glue sets.