Remembering

I have wonderful neighbors, who among many kind acts, like to take care of my dog while I'm gone. They had Bella with them for the two weeks that I was at Penland, so an appropriate thank-you gift had to be found for them. Their daughter is keeper of the orangutans at Como Zoo and they've enjoyed being "grandparents" to the new baby born there recently. Coincidentally at Penland, one of my studio colleagues brought some Malaysian money for us to use in our boxes...and one bill features...yup, an orangutan. Perfect to feature on the outside of a box to store photos.


I didn't have time to make up their box until I got home, but it was good practice to see if I remembered all that I learned with Julie. Whew! I did. The box is a 3-sided tray, large enough to hold 4"x6" photos with a wrap case and a magnet closure.

Useful tools

One of the great benefits of a long workshop is seeing what tools your colleagues love and use. I made a short list of items to add to my toolbox when I came home from Penland:
* a small plastic jar for PVA. I have a large container of PVA, but it's much easier to use in small amounts. I often use a small dish to hold an hour or two's worth of PVA, but it's often either not enough or too much and I end up letting it dry up. A small jar with a lid is the perfect solution.
*a bead caliper. Julie Chen used the caliper to measure covering materials and book board for the fold gaps in our wrap cases, but I like it as well for measuring the depth of a book block to make a spine.
*a "magic" eraser. Ok, it's not really magic, but it is absolutely necessary to keep on hand when you're using book cloth and glue. There's always a tiny spot that shows up on the fabric, no matter how careful you are and a rubber cement pick-up eraser does a good job of taking care of it.
*more key stock. I have no idea what the original use of key stock is, but if you go into any hardware or hobby store, you'll find a display of brass stock in different widths. The flat pieces in 1/4", 1/2", 3/4" and 1" measures are invaluable for quick measurements. Generally the price is less than $5, though Michael's has now figured out the value and are selling a packaged 1/2" measure for $10! The hobby store display also offers stock that is "cubed" (my word for equal measurements on all four sides) and is great for measuring the gap in your case wrapped boxes.

We used magnets in many of our boxes and I really liked the supply I brought along with me from K&J magnets...so wonderfully tiny and powerful. Instead of trying to match up magnets and polarities on each side of a closure as I had tried previously, Julie suggested using tiny, flat pieces of steel on one side of a closure (covered by paper or cloth) and a magnet on the other side (also covered). That way the closure always works, even if your box measurements are off by a hair. The same company that provides brass stock also sells very thin steel sheets. I understand it can be difficult to cut...the clerk recommended a metal blade in a jig saw; Julie uses a slug cutter in her typesetting shop. Good old super glue is all that's needed to glue the metal or magnet to your book board.

Final Boxes

As I'm getting ready to ship boxes and we're all getting ready to clean the studio, I've had a few minutes to snap pictures of my final boxes. Next week when I'm home, I can post pictures of my colleagues' work on Flickr.

The black box is a cigar box...ostensibly a tray with a lid that is attached. But this one is done in the manner of a real cigar box, with a lid that fits inside the side walls (you can see it best in the photo of the box with the lid up).

The "fall apart" box was very fun to do. It looks like a simple box, but when you remove the lid, all four sides fall down. Terrific if you have an object to display inside!

The culmination of our work this week was a collaboration with the print studio. Our group made a portfolio box for ourselves and one for a print student. While each box was the same size, we all did our own interpretations of the theme. (The inside of my portfolio uses an off-cut from the print studio of a collograph.) In return they did a portfolio of prints to fit inside our boxes. The exchange was yesterday and the results were spectacular.

A Warren of Boxes

The finished boxes are beginning to line up now in a very satisfying way. We didn't have demonstrations this weekend but everyone had enough to do to keep us busy and still allow a few hours away from the studio for visits to other studios, reading or naps.

I did two versions of a puzzle box, or Jacob's Ladder. The one on the right (blue) is the more usual version. The black box on the left is actually made up of two trays...though I know it's difficult to see because of the monochromatic colors.

I came into the studio this morning with an idea in my head...something about trying to create a hidden page on the top of a box and using a magnet to be sure that the page stayed closed. I created a model out of mat board to see where problems might exist and then did a full box with a hidden "page" on top of the lid. A tiny magnet is embedded under the bird illustration so it snaps closed. So far, no one who has handled the box without knowing about the page has found it. The question we're talking about in the studio is whether to provide a clue on the box, or simply let it be.

The final box here has been our most challenging. It's 3 trays on a wrap case which wind up and close tight with a magnet. As each tray unrolls, it's covered by the top of another tray. I think each of us has had success in the end with the box, but there have been many stressful moments along the way.

Glass bugs and flocked wallpaper

I thought blogging from Penland would be pretty easy, but it turns out my brain is already too full to pull out just one or two thoughts, and it's only the morning of the third day.
I have a strong feeling of "senior year" this time here: I know where everything is, I'm familiar with my materials and techniques and I'm here to stretch myself as much as I can. There have been a few wonderful improvements in the school this summer. The process of returning dishes to the workstudents doing clean up has gotten much simpler: no more gridlock at the garbage pail. The rockers on the porch over our studio have lovely cushions now. And, in a nod to the inevitable, the whole campus has wireless access. Some might say that's too bad, but I don't think too many people are glued to their laptops instead of exploring materials. But you do see the glow of Apple logos (on laptops) around the campus at night.
Our studio has been approached about one collaboration (with the print studio) but we're not making any early decisions yet. There's too many interesting things going on in other studios to make a commitment now: one glass studio is only making bugs this session; the textile studio is screening wallpaper and there is a rumor that they may try flocking. You can imagine that the paper-hungry box artists would be lining up for their scraps.
Photos will come soon!

Magnetic attraction

Several years ago, a colleague in a book arts class showed me how she used magnets on the closures of her boxes. It was one of those things that I never followed up on but at the same time never forgot about either.
We'll be working with magnets at Penland in a few weeks, but I decided to get a jump on the technique a bit and work some things out myself. I ordered two sizes of disc magnets and two sizes of block magnets to try out from K&J Magnetics.
It's been fun to work with these little guys (and they are little). And then there are times when they are just fun to play with. It's like 3rd grade science class all over again. They spin across your work mat to attach to the most surprising things (like the camera). And because they are so incredibly thin, it's relatively hard to pry them off.

I used the 4.5 mm drill bit in my Japanese push drill to create a pair of holes that fit the 3/16" disc magnet. The disc is only 1/32" deep, so you don't need to drill very far into your book board. In order to keep the same measurements for the other piece of board and the pair of magnets it would need, I cut through a piece of scrap paper as well. Then I used the scrap paper jig for markings on the other board.
One of the things that came back to me from 3rd grade was the fact that magnets have poles and they only attract on the opposite sides. If I had embedded the magnets with the same pole facing each other, there would be no closure. So I marked the magnets with a Sharpie ink dot on the corresponding sides before I glued them in. With a tight fit and a little PVA, the magnets are virtually invisible when covered with paper or glue. And they hold incredibly well. I really only needed one magnet on each board, but it seemed more balanced to have two.


The magnets are so tiny that I've started thinking about other fun ways to use them. It will be great to have full days and a sharp board shear (for cutting book board) at Penland for two weeks to play!

The Bee Box

I started way too late on my preparations for Craftstravaganza (CG), so I pretty much stuck with the box patterns that I did well and that had sold at the MCBA sale last Christmas. But a few days before CG, I decided I wanted to do a box with a divider on the inside, a "bi-valve" box as a friend said.

One of the divided boxes used a paper printed with a bee for creativity. The paper is not actually Asian and is difficult to glue, but I really liked the design and wanted to build a box that used it really well. (It looks good on the front of this box, but I wasn't happy with the other 3 sides.) So I've spent the last few days measuring the pattern to down to 1/32 of an inch and cutting board that will show the pattern particularly well. Usually the paper I use is either solid in color or has a broad enough pattern that it doesn't matter where I cut.
When I get into production mode for boxes, I will often cut all my paper at once and do each step on 10-15 boxes before going onto the next. But the Bee Box is all about slowing down and doing each step with great attention. In fact it almost uses a new technique in covering the box, as I want the bee stamp to be centered on each side of the box.

I had assembled the boxes yesterday (one step that I could do in production mode), but this morning, I cut the paper for only one box and worked out all of the problems in covering it as if this one was the only one that would ever be made (I actually hope to make 10). It was a new way of working for me: no pressure of an upcoming sale; no Christmas or birthday gifts. It was truly a step into what I most want: working on a design that I'm intrigued with for no other purpose than that I want to see what it looks like. And because of that, and the bee's own value of creativity (it says so on the box!), I think I have to keep the first one for myself.

Board shears karma

I'm lucky enough to be just five miles away from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and not one but two full-size board shears. Cutting book board (the preferred material for boxes and most book covers) is incredibly hard by hand and nearly impossible to cut straight. (Right, Sarah?)
My teachers would all totally and completely disagree, but I think that there is a karma involved in cutting book board "square." Sometimes I almost want to burn some incense before I start. It's pretty simple to cut a few covers for books at the shears, but more complicated to cut, for example, 20 of the same boxes at one time. You do the best you can, pack up the cut pieces and take them home to see if you did it all right. If not, the best thing to do is sweep them into the trash can and call for some more time on the shears. (It would be great to assemble the boxes in the studio, but studio rental is a little pricey.)
I was lucky during the lead-up to Craftstravaganza...virtually everything I cut was usable. But the week after I booked an hour on the shears and came home to discover that everything was off just enough that my boxes looked like the homes in Ron's neighborhood in Harry Potter.
Yesterday I went back to do the boxes again. I took big deep breaths, and tried to pay attention to what I was doing. Clearly, though, my karma was having a coffee break: I came home with 2 sets of "Side A" and no sets at all of "Side B."

Working alone

I've read enough and know enough artists to know that working alone for long periods of time can make you crazy. But I don't think you really know what it's like until you actually experience it. In the course of one day I go from wildly optimistic to thinking that everything I'm making is junk. In between, there are moments of high-paced gluing and skipping over important steps with poor results just hours away. But there's also moments of being in "flow" that are marvelous: when the rice paste is flowing nicely and the chiyogami wraps just right around a new box.
I'm an experiential learner, which means I like to learn while I'm doing. That's great, as long as you give yourself time or mental room to make mistakes. With Craftstravagnza, I've done neither and it's beginning to take the fun out of it all. And I really don't want the fun drained out of this work! I often take notes about new projects as I work. Last night I wrote: Start earlier and you'll enjoy it more.

Art Distraction Disorder

Sometimes I think I have a new form of ADD, maybe something I'll call Art Distraction Disorder. It's Sunday and my day is pretty open to me. The perfect opportunity to work on some boxes or a book I have in mind, yes? No. Instead there are a whole new slew of techniques and ideas I want to try.
Embroidery has been on my mind a lot. I stumbled across this blog yesterday and it turned my interest up another notch. I went to my bookshelf and refound this incredible book: The Art of Embroidery by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne...over 300 pages of remarkable photos, ideas and techniques. It's published by Thames and Hudson, a company that publishes books that are just beautifully done...they are wonderful to hold in your hand.
But that's not all. My favorite way to organize papers to keep is by assembling a binder with sheet protectors inside that can hold my papers by topic. But I really hate the poly-vinyl binders that are ubiquitous and have been searching high and low for binders covered in cloth. In my online search I stumbled on instructions for purchasing a binder at a thrift store, cutting it apart and recovering it in material of your choice. So I have the 3 parts of a binder on my table waiting.....
What else? I've been using a roll of Kozo paper for a number of different tasks lately. I bought it first with the idea of using it to back fabrics for bookcloth. Then I found it was a great paper to back the pieces of a box that are hidden. (This is a technical thing. When you glue one side of bookboard, it can warp from the moisture. Backing the other side with paper and glue reverses the warp and makes sure it won't warp again in high humidity. Since it's not seen you don't want to waste "good" paper; you also want to use something thin. I should also add that not everyone does this. But I've learned through enough, um, failures that I can't skip this step.) Finally when I wanted to include some text in my boxes I cut the Kozo into pieces small enough to go through my ink jet printer. The quality of the paper compliments the rest of the materials used and is cheap enough that I can experiment with it easily. It also glues beautifully. So that leads to other ideas: goccoing some original designs on the paper? can it hold stitches? And I stumbled across a very cool way to melt designs into this paper using encaustic wax. As I said, "Art Distraction Disorder." I just can't settle down and work in one area very long.

A recent box with a poem by Mary Oliver inside the lid.

Finished projects

We've had snow and more snow and another dusting today. But here's what the world looked like at the leadership retreat I was at earlier this week.

The two "Belgians" that I was working on last week were thank you gifts for our facilitators. The book itself was fairly simple to put together, but I had collected quotes from my group and had to format and print them on rice paper to be tipped into the book. My printer was not terribly thrilled with the whole rice paper thing, but it cooperated in the end.

The other project I was working on was a series of boxes to hold some personal objects. I love sets of any sort and have thought about creating one for myself out of my beloved japanese paper. There are nine boxes here which nest in a tray with a favorite poem from Mary Oliver.

My Box making Pedagogy

As I start to have completed boxes ready for the sale this weekend, I've thought a lot about the teachers who helped me learn this craft. I'm an oldest child and am usually the person to read the directions on a box or the instructions with a new game...I usually like to have just one way to do things. But after working with 6 or 7 box making teachers, I now have a process of box making that's unique to me and uses little bits from all of them.
It's sort of amazing that I even like making boxes as my first teacher was so horrible. The class was a typical 2-day weekend class at MCBA but the teacher treated it like a final for a graduate course. She judged us on our detail work and told us that our boxes would earn a "C" if she was handing out grades. We were using book cloth to cover our boxes and being beginners, they were riddled with spots of glue everywhere so that our boxes looked slightly speckled. I left that class and thought "well, there's no way this can ever be fun."
A year or so later, MCBA brought in Mindy Dubansky to teach box construction. Mindy is a book conservator at the Metropolitan Museum in NY. Her class was a rare opportunity to meet her in MN so I signed up even though I was wary of the subject. And she changed everything. Mindy is that kind of wonderful teacher who, when a student has a problem, sees a teaching moment. I came away from that class feeling that any box problem could be solved with a little creativity. One of the boxes that she taught was a "magic box" or "Jacob's ladder box"... a box with a lid that can open from the front or back and reveals different sections in the body of the box. I was completely taken with the charm of this box and ended up making 5 or 6 as Christmas gifts that year. And nothing will teach you how to do something well as repetition.

Jacob's Ladder box with lid flipped both ways

In 2003, I spent a few days at PBI with Barbara Mauriello and made 4 different boxes in 4 days. Barbara is also a gifted teacher who has a delightful sense of humor. From her I learned two important lessons: The first is the wonder of rice paste. When she brewed a batch for us to use in class, I reacted silently: "Yeah, I'm never going to bother with cooking paste." But then I used it. Do you know the section in Harry Potter where Hagrid strokes the spine of the Monster Book and it behaves? That's what using rice paste is like. You spread it over your paper and it just does exactly what you want. (I should note that PVA is the best adhesive for gluing your book board.) The second lesson was the joy of mixing patterns and colors. Barbara's own work is a riot of color and pattern and she nudged us into that world on at least one of our boxes in that class. And I've been a convert ever since.

Sliding door box with Barbara Mauriello

I've studied with Julie Chen twice at MCBA and once at a wonderful 10-day session in Haystack. It is her technique of covering boxes that I use for most of my work. There is a bit of cutting and clipping that can be confusing at first, but once you get it, your boxes look beautiful at the end.

A box with drawer and magnetic lid from Julie Chen's class

Artist Jody Williams teaches regularly at MCBA and is famous for her "not empty boxes" (boxes with meaningful content) and working very, very small. At MCBA, she teaches "Little Boxes," "Box Making Made Easy," "Box Making Made Hard" and in one memorable class "Extreme Box Making" (we joked that that was making boxes while sky-diving). Her technique for covering boxes is one that I haven't found anywhere else. It's my opinion that it works best on small boxes and what I love about it is that it allows you to have an interior to your box that is different than your exterior (usually you use one piece of paper for your interior and exterior). Even an empty box has a surprise for you when you open it.

Small boxes from Jody Williams' class

I have a lot of gratitude to these teachers for their encouragement and generosity. I'm also reminded that there is not just one way to do things and that it's always useful to consider how else something can be done. Pretty useful lessons from a box class I believe.

New Treasure

Have I mentioned how much I love boxes and containers? Especially old ones, and especially old ones that have their paint worn off.
I'm missing the gene that allows you to wander for hours through flea markets and antique malls. I wish I had it...I love the treasures that my friends with the gene find. But I do have Brigid at Missouri Mouse in St. Paul who seems to have the exact same taste as me. I started a big project this morning (painting the garage) and after I got two sides done, I rewarded myself with a trip to see her. This red tin box has been in her booth for a few months, but I think I didn't grab it earlier because I had grabbed other treasures. Nonetheless, today was its day. It could be a new tool box, a cash box for a booth at an alt-craft sale or ??? They always find a use for themselves in my house.