a display cabinet for a Holocaust torah

we have been working on a display cabinet for a Holocaust Torah for the
Congregation Beth El, the oldest synagogue in vermont, founded in 1909.
it was a complicated but rewarding project.

the above photo was just a test set up on installation day.
the parchment will be rewound and level when the wiring is done
and the torah is finally placed in the cabinet ..
the lights will be dimmer too ..


trevor drew and carved the letters on the cnc and added a little gold paint

there will be a dedication ceremony sometime in the near future ...
tough lighting on installation day .. i hope to get a better picture later ..

when i made the original drawing, we had planned to move a memorial plaque and

 hang the cabinet in the back of the synagogue, but as we progressed, 

the current location across from the entrance became more appealing 

since we didn't have to move anything

fun with photoshop

the wood bars holding the scrolls were different lengths 

so we had to mock it up and take careful measurements so we

could return the torah to its home in bennington while we worked ...

once we had the bones of the case built, we brought the torah

back for a test fitting to be sure we had it right.

it was pretty good after one minor adjustment of 

the size of one of the holes on the top of the cabinet

i originally saw it with green velvet,

but i had some fabric from another project that 

seemed to me to be more suitable ..

we took a vote and the beautiful orangey fabric won out

two choices for the layout of the lettering

and we went with the curved letters you see 

on the finished case

A Display Cabinet for a Dawn Wallace Belt

Update 11 30 08

Well, the Wallace Family Show is officially open. The case and belt are on display and all the items available are listed on the Long Ago website at the link below. Beautiful stuff ... Check it out if you have a minute ...

Close up of the completed case with the belt

On view at Long Ago & Far Away

Above, a section of Dawn's new belt
Every year, Betsy and Grant Turner of Long Ago & Far Away in Manchester, Vermont, host a show for their long time friends Denise and Samuel, Dawn and David Wallace. I always enjoy catching up with the Wallace family and seeing their invariably exciting new work. This year, I have the special treat of making a display cabinet for Dawn Wallace's new belt. This is a complex and wonderful piece designed so that some of it's individual parts can be removed and worn as pins or pendants seperately from the belt. We've been working on the case for a couple days now and I think we'll wrap it up this week. We tried to create a design that would enhance the belt's display but not compete with it. Since the belt has a sea theme, we took a shell design from a table I made several years ago, placed pairs of them in the corners of the door of the case and added a 1/16th inch line of abalone to complement the blue/green theme of the belt. We have still to complete the final sanding, finishing and polishing but we have worked out the particulars and are in the home stretch ....

Click the pictures to enlarge the images ...

This is the cabinet as of Friday, hanging on the wall with it's first coat of finish and the belt "Photoshopped" in to give us an idea of the completed concept..

Where we got the shell design

The vertical pieces of the door frame, with paua abalone lines from Stewart MacDonald (guitar supply) in a 1/16th " saw kerf. The shell inlays by Trevor are a mix of redwood and big leaf maple burl.

The case on the wall Friday. We used the closed version of this photo to Photoshop the picture below the text above.