Since I have no new pictures this week I thought I would talk about the boxes I have made. Not all of them. Certainly not the boxes made from the countries I have traveled to (I showed them not too long ago on this blog). But just a variety of them filled with interesting things to complete their stories.
First is The Green Tea House that I still own. It was inspired by an early teaching job at Arrowmont School in Tennessee. I was totally taken by a young clay student’s celadon tea bowl. So once home I built this house for it, a shifu rolled up rug, drawer for green tea, etc. One could have their own private tea ceremony using this box/house.
The rug fits in the attic. A strainer I made from small cane sits sideways in the shaped space. Green tea is in the drawer. A votive candle in a frosted holder sits on its own shelf. A spare candle is in another drawer with matches. The light’s shade folds into a space made for it. The book for writing a meditation fits next to the tea bowl on the bottom floor. The roof is a shaped and hammered copper. And the door closes with a bamboo latch. I loved making a house-shaped box to hold all the parts.
And then this one…The Traveler’s Box. It sold at an exhibition. Finding and making just the right pieces to fit in their spaces was an adventure. I put myself in the traveler’s head and simply collected.
Only the lower half unlatches to drop down and show the interior…a journal and his collected bits.
Here is what it says behind the mica in the upper right.
From the Traveler’s Box
By S. Webster
Once he returned from his travels,
there was so much to sort through.
So many memories.
Which ones to keep and which to let go.
Who to remember and who to forget.
This next one was for a miniature book challenge of a book making group I belonged to in Asheville, NC. I made my miniature book and then made a house to hold all the books made.
And the house-shaped box that all the pieces fit into.
It was auctioned off to raise funds, won by a friend’s husband, kept for several years and then given to their grand daughter.
And these that I had such a good time making. All but the one I kept had sold of The Curiosity Boxes.
This one titled, The Witches Daughter (named after a poem in the tall book I made to house it, now hangs over my bed as part of a collection of “things that matter”.
A friend sent me a post card from a museum shop that showed this Chinese puzzle box. I just had to figure out how it was assembled to make a couple for myself. I only had the one view and no instructions of how to make it work. The center section must be removed or the doors will not open.
Here is The Chinese Box.
And what is hidden in two of the doors. And old man’s shop and the sewing room.
The Chinese one has a harmony ball in its center and the Japanese one below has something I forgot behind the mica windows.
There are copies of wood cut prints behind this door. A Japanese garden with sand and rake behind another, lotus pods, etc. behind the others.
This box/book I made while receiving instructions from Gian Frontini on how to use my kangaroo hide to shape over the book/box. I used a disassembled traveler’s compass to embed in the cover and use as a latch to keep it closed. Inside is a collection of things from down under and a reproduction of an Australian painting titled, The Traveler.
And another box with collapsing sides housing an old padlock. The key is on the cover.
And one of the last series of boxes I made…Self Portrait from the Shelters Series. Evidently I have used up all the space for today. So til later….This post was fun to do.
