My friend Mel is a Newfoundlander at heart even though he has lived in Saskatoon most of his life. On a recent trip home he went fishing with relatives and came back with  numerous Sea Urchins.  After the indelicate act of euthanasia by boiling (the urchin…not Mel:) he saved one of the Urchins and gave it to me.  I wanted to honour the life of the Urchin and Mel’s connection to Newfoundland so I spent some time with my collection of wood and picked out a piece of Yellow Cedar Burl that I felt complimented the textures of the urchin.  A lidded box seemed an appropriate way to incorporate the creature so recently plucked from the sea.  I imagined the box filled with sand from a Newfoundland beach but that has so far eluded me.
Thanks Mel for the inspiration for the box.