Disguising the modern

Modern things can really kill the atmosphere in a camp or around a fighting field.  We've all seen someone (probably even me) in a beautifully made, wonderfully period outfit, ruin the whole thing by pulling our a cell phone or putting on a pair of sunglasses, or pairing it with glaring white sneakers.  Some of these things can't be avoided for one reason or another, but we can certainly make an attempt to cover them up as much as possible.

To whit, I present my latest woodworking project, the wax tablet kindle.  We got the idea for this at our local 12th Night, when my laurel's husband and I saw one of the other local laurel's running around with an iPad.  I'd seen several people with tablet computers at the last library, taking notes and whatnot, and suggested that it would be really cool if we could somehow disguise these really obviously modern, but ever so useful things as wax tablets.  Really, that is what they are standing in for after all.  Fast forward a little to a couple of weeks ago when we saw this very idea adapted to iPhone cases at the last event we were at.  

It turns out these are really quite easy to make, if you have even the most basic of wood working skills.  This particular case was cut using a scroll saw to cut out a kindle shaped hole from a piece of 1/2 inch wood which I then glued to 1/4 inch backing, but you could just as easily build up the sides like a small box.  Using the scroll saw method, unless you are really good with a table saw and stripping down lengths of wood (which I am not) you are a bit limited in case size by the widths of thin lumber you can get.  I was only able to get 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch wood up to 6 inches wide, perfect for the kindle fire but only just barely.  For those of you interested in such things, I made this case out of poplar, stained it with a light coat of English chestnut stain and then used paste wax to finish it.

For the next one (cuz why not?) I want to make a sewn leather hinge that wraps around and closes with a buckle.  I think this will work better, even it making it is a bit more fiddly.  The DH wants one for his phone too, which is promising.  At least he is on board with the minimizing the modern plan!