I’ve been thinking for a while about making some other types of boxes, but I haven’t settled on any one style. Here are some of the ones I’ve been considering.
These are some of the styles of boxes and portfolios I’ve made in the past. I’ve probably made at least a hundred calmshell boxes in various styles over the years. Most were made to fit specific books, papers or other objects and I’ve created many different variations. I enjoy making them, but they are nothing new for me. Another negative is that they use a lot of purchased materials. The brown and blue boxes on the top row are clamshells.
The first photo on the second row shows a few of the origami boxes I have made. They are cute and easy to make. On the pro side, the only material they use is my marbled paper. They are also great for using the perfect parts of an imperfect sheet. When I marble, I still catch air pockets or stray hairs which ruin parts of the paper. On the con side, they don’t require any creativity, just good dexterity. To counter-balance this, I rarely make the top and bottom from the same paper. Drives the folks where I sell the boxes crazy!
The next two photos show lidded boxes. These can be made in any size and shape as well as being able to be lined or partitioned. I’m leaning toward these for my next project, but I’m still pondering.
The matchboxes with the book inside are cute but rather useless. I tend to put sayings, quotes or lines from poems or songs in the books, but once you’ve read them, what do you do with it? I much prefer structures that have some useful function.
The miniature books are neat, but again, not really functional. I have seen them made into jewelry as pins or hung from necklaces and earrings, very nice but not me. I rarely wear any jewelry anymore.
The last photos are the portfolios. They can be made any size or shape and are very useful. Carrying a hand crafted custom portfolio is neat. The major drawback is that they use large quantities of bookcloth, especially the 9×12 one. The outside needs to be cloth rather than paper if the portfolio is expected to be used. Paper would be prettier, but it wouldn’t wear well. Unless I could do the hinges and edges in cloth and the center in paper, like a half-cloth book.
So there’s my dilemma. What to do? What to do?