I first bumped into Dave Cruz’s stuff online. Just some images, you know? But the detail, man, the detail was something else. He makes these… well, let’s just call them intricate little boxes. Wooden ones. And I thought, “Hey, I’ve got some tools, I’ve got some time. How hard can it be?” Famous last words, right?
So, I decided I’d try to make one. Not exactly like his, but something inspired by him.
Getting Started
First, I went out and got some decent wood. Nothing too fancy, didn’t want to break the bank on my first try. Found some nice maple. Then I spent a good while just looking at pictures of Dave Cruz’s work, trying to figure out how he even did some of those cuts, those tiny little inlays. It’s one thing to see a picture, another to actually think about the steps.
I cleared out a corner in my garage. Safety glasses on, of course. Started with the basic shape. Cutting the pieces, making sure they were square. That part went okay. I was feeling pretty good, actually. Thinking, “Yeah, I got this. Dave Cruz, watch out!”
The Hard Part
Then came the details. The stuff that makes it a “Dave Cruz” kind of thing. Trying to do these really fine decorative grooves. My first few attempts? Absolute garbage. Wood splitting, lines all wobbly. It was frustrating. I mean, really frustrating. I probably wasted a good chunk of that maple just practicing these tiny, fiddly bits.
- The tools I had weren’t quite right.
- My hands weren’t steady enough for that kind of precision, not at first.
- And patience? Man, you need a mountain of it.
It was way more demanding than I thought. You see the finished product, smooth and perfect, and you don’t really appreciate the sweat and the swearing that went into it, you know?
This whole thing, trying to copy Dave Cruz, it kinda reminded me of this one time, years ago. I was working this office job, right? Data entry, soul-crushing stuff. But the pay was okay, and it was stable. Or so I thought. One Friday, just like any other, boss calls me in. “We’re restructuring,” he says. Classic. Long story short, I was out. No warning, just “thanks for your service, here’s a box for your stuff.”
I was floored. Suddenly, all that stability, gone. And the worst part? I had just put a down payment on a new-to-me car. Nothing fancy, but it was mine. Now I’m thinking, how am I gonna make these payments? Rent’s due, got bills piling up. It was a real kick in the guts. For weeks, I was just sending out resumes, getting nothing back. Felt like I was shouting into a void. Every rejection, or worse, no response at all, just chipped away at me. It was like trying to carve those tiny grooves on that maple, only instead of wood, it was my confidence splitting.
I remember scrounging for freelance gigs, anything to keep the lights on. Fixed a neighbor’s computer, helped someone write a business plan – stuff I hadn’t done in years, but you do what you gotta do, right? It was humbling. Made me realize that what looks easy from the outside, like having a “stable job,” can vanish in a puff of smoke. And building something new, a new career path, a new source of income, it takes grit, just like trying to master a craft.
So, back to that wooden box. Did it end up looking like something Dave Cruz would proudly display? Absolutely not. Not even close. It’s a bit lopsided, the grooves are kinda shaky, and one corner doesn’t quite meet up right. But you know what? I finished it. And I learned a ton. Mostly about how much I still have to learn. And it sits on my shelf now, a reminder that things are usually harder than they look, and that sticking with it, even when you’re making a mess, that’s what counts. It’s not a Dave Cruz original, but it’s my original mess-up, and that’s something.
