Small Decorated Tote / DECOR-TOTE Small Decorated Tote Box $ 28.00      This little handy tote has a modern graphic design by James Stegner. It is sure to find a spot and some use around the house. This small tote box, (16" long x 11" high x 6" deep) has a nice, bright graphic printed and applied to both sides. A great little conversation piece that also makes a great gift. Garden tools, knitting, or just a cute little carry all for doing little chores around the house. You'll find it to be very handy.  more
		Side Table / PS-TBL Personal Side Table $ 55.00      Not too big, not too small. Just the right size to not get in the way, but functions perfectly as that little table you've always been looking for. Just big enough to hold a cup of coffee, it has lower storage for a book and current newspaper or magazine. Just below the table top is a pocket for the television remote you're always looking for. The table top is 5.5" wide x 18" deep, and the table is 18" tall.  more
		Mango Tote Box / MANGO-TOTE Mango Tote Box $ 69.95      This Mango wood tote box has box corners and a solid Mango wood bottom that is rabbeted into the side walls. A great tool / tote box. Beautiful wood.  more
		Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer / REINDEER Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer $ 50.00      Spice up your holiday decor with your very own Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Handcrafted from northern Michigan Pine this piece is perfect under the tree and will hold several small gifts. Size: 8" wide x 22" long x 24" tall.  more
		Mahagony Tote Box / MAHAG-TOTE Mahagony Tote Box $ 79.95      This Mahagony tote has box corners and a solid Mahagony bottom that is rabbeted into the side walls. A great tool / tote box. Beautiful wood.  more

At Wolverine Woodart we're always looking for new and unusual wood items that we can make for our customers. After all, it is our customers that we try to serve as best we can. That was the inspiration for the small little end table you see here. For the longest time I had a carton that some rolls of hook and loop (velcro) material had come in. I use the velcro in my other business, Exhibitware. Exhibitware specializes in providing small, portable booths to companies attending trade shows. I'm sure you're all familiar with velcro. Anyway, this box which was about 16" x 16" x 4-1/2" wide sat next to a loveseat for the longest time and I used it as a small table.

Well, as you might imagine over time the box tended to warp and get dirty from the occasional coffee spill. I decided that what I needed was a table to replace the box, and so the little end table came to be. Now, it's not the most stable thing ever built for sure, but it's small, light, cheap, and pretty much just stays out of view. It will last longer than the cardboard box, I'm sure. A couple people have ordered one, but it's not like I've just created the next huge retail success story. It just does exactly what it was intended to do.

Now the tote boxes you see here have a little different story, but there is a story behind them as well. Years ago, probably 15 or 20, my father-in-law, James Grafentine built a little tool box. He just built it out of some scrap plywood, and made a handle out of a short piece of PVC tube that he had laying around. Very simple, small, and he used to use it on what I would describe as "repair missions" around the house. He would just throw in what few tools he needed for a particular job. Changing a light switch, screwdrivers, electrical tape, wire caps, etc. So, depending on the job, that's what got loaded up in the little box and off he went. His friends used to call him Jimmy, and he was a very, very intelligent man. Jimmy worked for Ford Motor as an engineer and retired quite a few years ago. He brought the first robots into the engine foundry and got them up to speed doing the dirty work that no person would want to do.

Jimmy was always moving, doing something, that was just his nature. Eventually he and my mother-in-law, Corinne, or Connie, as her friends called her, retired to Palm Harbor Florida where they had a few relaxing years until Jimmy died. Somehow, I ended up with Jimmy's little tool box. I would have to imagine that my wife Susie got the toolbox from her mother Connie. Anyway, it sat around for a time, and one day I just decided to "upgrade" the little devil a bit. I've built a few of them now, and frankly they do come in handy. Having a big ol' toolbox is great but sometimes stuff just seems to get lost in there. I use a few of these small toteboxes to keep like items separated, but at the ready so to speak. One has a good selection of all types of wrenches, one has chisels, one has screwdrivers. Just seems easier for me to find what I'm looking for when I need it.

The other tote or tool boxes here have a slightly different story all their own. After playing around with several different versions and sizes of the tote box, I decided that it might be nice to offer it as a new product. I was visiting a good friend of the family one day, and we started discussing just how we might do that. I'm speaking of Dick Fryer, an engineer and friend that I worked with for many years in a different family business. Dick is a fine woodworker as well as an engineer, tinkerer, and basic solver of problems large and small. I was showing him the idea of the tote box and he suggested we might be able to contract out the building of some boxes and get them made with some really nice wood. I told Dick that I had some brief contact with a gentleman in Indonesia named Bambang, that owned a woodworking company specializing in furniture and other wood items mostly for the export market.

Over several months, I was in contact with Bambang and we developed the specifications for the tote box. He is quite capable, and made finished drawings and eventually shipped me three prototypes. One each made out of Teak, Mahogony, and one out of Mango wood. Our plan was to have Bambang produce the finished parts, and we would do the final assembly here in the United States. All was well and on track until we went to assemble the three knockdown prototypes. Basically, the wood had "moved" and the box joints were causing much trouble in assembly. Some twisting of the parts that we did not anticipate foiled the entire idea of doing the assembly here. Not wanting to just import finished boxes, and the cost of shipping assembled boxes a problem, the project just went dormant. We may revisit this whole issue at some future point in time, but for now, what you see here are the remaining two prototype boxes. The price asked wouldn't even buy the raw wood in either of these boxes, let alone the finishing or assembly. The box joints aren't perfect, but I don't know where else you're going to find a small custom tote box made out of solid Mahogony, or Mango. Some smart customer already bought the Teak box, so you're out of luck on that one.