Recently the hubby has become obsessed with meteorites. He especially likes the small slices that can be mounted in jewelry etc. He recently bought a couple of pallasite type slices that are just too delicate to be used in jewelry, and would not look good used that way anyway, because they really only look interesting when light is shining through them. So I offered to make a display light box.
This was made from Proofgrade maple plywood, with a shelf engraved to hold the piece, then covered with finished maple veneer to hold it in place.
You guys know me–I’m all about the votive lights. This box has a false bottom made of white acrylic, and underneath it is an LED votive light. Switched on it looks like this:
I would have liked to decorate the box but the client requested plain.
I originally designed the box with a slit along both long sides of the bottom, to hold the business-sized ID card that came with the meteorite specimen. After the box was done the client decided it would be better to have the details on the box itself (!). So I made some nameplates from maple veneer and stuck them on the bottom:
Well that’s just unbelievably cool! (Makes me want a slice of meteorite for display as well…I do a lot of geodes and ammonites and stuff.) Didn’t know they were available for purchase.
I also have an affinity for extra-terrestrial minerals. It’s the formation of them that I find fascinating.
The olivine crystals embedded in the nickle-iron matrix tell a story of planetesimal formation. It takes a large body to differentiate the metal from other minerals.
Very nice display for an ancient specimen dating to the formation of our star system!
I measured the bottom of the tea light and cut the hole in the plywood the exact size of the light. It’s held there by pressure, I don’t think it needed glue.
