Leather

Once i had played around with laser cutting the leather for the test of my lid, and looking at bento boxes and how they are all kept together i wanted to look at making something out of leather sewn then it could hold a couple of boxes together if i decided i wanted to boxes to stack like that.

To test the easiest way to sew the leather i tried two different types of stitches.

i tried stitching like this but it took forever to do just do around 5 or 6 stitches so i decided that i would just make the holes and do a blanket stitch

Blanket stitch was so much quicker and looked i thought nicer then the back stitching.

after i got the hang of doing the sewing through leather i started making up parts to make a carry bag for one of the boxes this was a long process especially with hand sewing the entire thing. it came out nicer then i was expecting even thought it took so long to do. this means the bag wouldn’t be viable for me to actually make hand sewn but i could very easily do them on a over locker or on a sewing machine, they needle would just have to be really though.

Even More Boxes

Bento Boxes

Bento is a single portion or home packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. The Bento containers range from mass-produced disposable trays to hand crafted lacquerware. These boxes often are decorative but they are typically decorated to look like popular characters in Japanese cartoons, comic books or video games. Another popular bento style is “oekakiben” or “picture bento”, these are decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments or items such as flowers and plants.

These are an interesting spin off from my shaker boxes easy way to move and develop them further. The sectioning is a interesting idea similar to jewelry boxes with the separate compartments, this could also be another interesting thing to think about for my boxes.

I like the idea of the stacked boxes, this is another way of displaying my boxes that I hadn’t thought about. The holders for the stacked boxes are really nice and it could be interesting to look at making one of them to be able to carry a stack of the boxes.

Tiffin Boxes

After looking at the Bento boxes I thought about other boxes that stack and came to Tiffin boxes.

These are metal tiffin boxes but the one on the left i think is the most interesting that it is decorative all the way around, which is something I want to try with my boxes. These are the Indian version of Bento boxes stacked and would often have hot foods in them.

From these I want to develop my boxes further and see how my decoration on the sides of them can be changed and developed, it could also be interesting to layer my boxes and create something for the boxes to sit in to be easily moved around.

The Mushiki Modular Storage Cabinet

I really like the look of this piece. This could be my way of moving away from boxes and into a little bit of furniture to make something that uses the boxes I’ve made into a different type of storage. I think if I was to do something like this then I would make my decorative elements go up the sides of the storage.

Coloured Lid

After Creating the layered lid out of 4 mm ply, I thought it could look interesting with the colors from elements of the inspiration.

I like how it came out in the end I don’t think that I would use the colour for a final box lid. I don’t think it would look as good on a black walnut veneered box, the lid with the colored windows makes it look a little like it should be a design for a garden rather then a lid for a box.

I like the way the 3d has effected the lid and the design its an interesting thing to maybe try with other designs I’ve done and see how they come out in this layered fashion.

Layered Lid

A idea I’ve had for a while was to layer the wood to create a different effect and a more 3D look to the tops of the boxes. Using my design for the Gaudi’s house lid and I laser cut each section like I would for the veneer.

I used the smaller bits from the center of the design and glued them down in the spaces and it created a really nice relief look to it.

What I think I could do is add colour to the 3D one to see how the colors from the actual building and the things I took inspiration from within the building.

Leather Lid

I wanted to try out making one of my lid designs out of leather. Did a trip to the scrap store and climbed into a crate of lots of scraps of leather got a got few different colours and thought that they would be interesting to laser cut and try see if it was possible to create a lid out of the leather.

I decided that I would do the Gaudi’s house design I worked on last term for my lids.

The different thicknesses of the leather I didn’t think about especially on the laser cutter and when it was going to be put together. I had to sit and cut the cream pieces apart with scissors which was a very tedious and took longer then I wanted to spend on this one lid. I then had grey elements that I had cut out on the laser cutter but they had done the same thing as the cream and decided I didn’t want to spend even more time on cutting them out too.

I really like the idea of doing one of my box lids in leather properly but I will need better leather to be able to do this, and I will also need to make sure that the leather is all completely cut out before taking it off the laser cutter.

Veneering

From the past boxes I’ve made the inside isn’t the nicest looking if I want to sell this is a high end product I would need to line the inside with final again.

I wanted to test to see if I could speed this process up. I wanted to see if it would work if I veneered both sides of the flexi ply to see if it would still bend as easily but it didn’t. The inside piece of veneer made lumps and cracked a little while it was bent.

This then means that my idea of trying to speed up the finishing process by veneering both sides can’t be done, which means when I make my boxes I will need to take the time to finish them by hand by veneering the insides after the box has been formed rather then speeding the process up and creating a product that isn’t as nicely finished as it could be.

Different boxes

I found this box back before Christmas when I originally looked at boxes. I thought I would come back to it and think about how I can make this using the flexi ply and how I could decorate the lid with the laser cut marquetry.

If I wanted to do a repeat pattern on the lid like I have done on the other boxes then I will need to figure out complete dimensions of the lid and try to design something to fit it properly. I could make the lid around the base the same way I’ve done the shaker boxes instead of this makers way of making the box.

Instead of doing this box I could look at making oval shaped shaker boxes just means I would need to make different forms to be able to make them.