Boxed In

Today I spent some time in the studio working on a hinged lid box.

To show you an example, the Bridal Suite at right includes a large hinged lid box that fits all of the contents shown.

The one that I was working on tonight is much smaller – just the right size for papers that you have hanging around, but don’t know what to do with.

The hardest part about making a box cutting out the pieces. It is really difficult to get the pieces square. I do all of my cutting by hand, so there’s always a chance for a small error. Usually these can be corrected with some sandpaper after gluing the pieces together.

Lucky for me, the box I was working on was from a kit so the pieces were already cut.

What a joy!

Today I glued the sides to the base of the box. I’m letting this dry overnight before I proceed to the next step.

You can catch a glimpse of my very green cutting mat that I have on my work table. I love the color, but it quickly gets grungy. I hope to kill this one off soon so I can replace it with a darker version.

My customer, who is my web designer Heather Boissoneau, picked out a lovely blue patterned Japanese paper from Paper Source.

I worked at the Paper Source in Cambridge, MA while I was in graduate school. Back then, they only had 2 stores – they have over 20 now.

Paper Source is the reason for both my paper addiction and my love of bookbinding. They have so many drool-worthy papers…in case you can’t tell, I’m desperately in need of a paper fix.