This is rather a personal project, a gift for my older brother.

Overview

When he told me he was getting married, I knew that I wanted to make something for him. It had to be special, meaningful and yet, simple so that people wouldn't think that I was competing to get the best gift.

After brainstorming for about two weeks, I came to a conclusion; custom, handmade coasters. I knew how much my brother loved drinking tea and that he still didn't get any coasters after moving to New York City. I also knew that he loved the dark wood color and would fit the apartment that they are staying so, I built a nice 4-coaster set out of wood. Let me walk you through it!

Woodworking

I had some scrap mahogany and hard maple at my disposal, and I wanted to build some color contrast so I used the mahogany for the coasters and the maple for the coaster holder (is that even a word?). In order to visually connect these components, I added little maple circular cuts and glued them an inlay located at one corner of each coaster. I also added a mahogany corner piece for the coaster holder for the same reason. I wanted to do most of them by hand but ended up cutting the maple circles using a laser cutter to be the exact cut I made on the coasters.

Assembly

I wanted to see if I needed to do any changes before proceeding with the next steps, so I "assembled" them. I really like how mahogany grains looked and wanted them to pop once oil coated.

Collaboration

To personalize it, Erica Cusnariov, a very special friend of mine, joined me on this journey and added their initials and with hearts on the felt that I was going to adhere under each piece.