Box Art Is Art To Remember
Growing up as children we learned to place meaning into small things. Box Art allows us to hold these keepsakes that we hold dear.
When older, the special memories we like to hold onto are often memorialized in different ways. A memory box is special in that it is art to remember our past.
People may call these items by other names with variations of design. In the military it is common to call them a valet box, or a shadow box.
Each design is unique for display as wooden decor, but nonetheless its purpose remains the same.
Wood Art Box – Value to Cost and its Meaning
In terms of a memory box, or desiring a gift for someone to hold their keepsakes, there are many choices in the market. Certainly there are cheaper alternatives in the decor world.
The concept of modern art deco itself is a way to minimize cost while still adding an artsy appeal to the manufactured products. Not everything in life requires the best.
I will equate it this way by comparing cultures. In Japan swords are custom handmade for major stages of life and given as gifts to commemorate these events.
Clearly this cost and trouble is not something one goes through just for a 16th birthday, or for graduating high school. Yet there are those moments which last a lifetime and are never forgotten which should be commemorated with the best.
Never have I desired that my work be considered another run of the mill home decor item. I have my definition of wood art. I do not want to sell thousands of pieces.
Never will I send my work to someone like Joanna Gains with the hopes of being featured somewhere so I can fire up my studio in mass production.
I do not want a job. I want to create. Wood art in of itself is, in my humble opinion, one of the ultimate art mediums.
My Box Art Beginnings To Create Memory Boxes
It did not take me long to dive into this portion of wood art. I have been obsessed with boxes since childhood. If big enough I could even hide myself within one back then.
When I began down the path of fine woodworking I knew that box art was a must for cultivation in my work. I wanted to push the limits in beauty and design for the purpose of creating art to remember.
I will say that within the art market there are many which offer products of this nature. Most are manufactured, and some will offer custom engraving art.
Yet these fall short of what I would call box art. Often these manufactured pieces will feature metal hinges of some kind with clasp or catch. Additionally they will be of one wood species which offers little accent and beauty.
I might would venture to say these pieces would qualify as art deco, but certainly they are not made by a wood artist. Understand there is nothing wrong with them for the purpose they serve.
Where I wish to go is beyond the average and into real meaning and purpose to create value in art. In turn this will create real value for the one who holds the art box in their hands.
My first boxes were rather plain, thick, and heavy. It took a little time to cultivate my process. As time went by I began to use as a standard three different wood species to create them.
Some of my favorites to use would be Poplar, Maple, and Walnut but not of their garden variety. When it is spalted they are beautiful. Walnut creates a beautiful contrast, but so do other species of rare wood such as natural rainbow poplar.
After deciding to move forward with these ideas I knew the overall design had to be perfected. Naturally my preferred jointing methods must be seamless, yet also the art box features. I hated placing metal hinges or hardware onto such beautiful pieces.
If one is a hobbyist, the easiest way to begin box art is with Chip Carving. You can create amazing and beautiful designs within your shop having few tools.
Wood Hinges Vs Metal
Art boxes of a lesser value often would look good with the metal gold or silver accent. I noticed quickly that with my wood art these metal pieces would take away from its beauty rather than add to it.
It was here I began to explore with wood hinge making and application on my boxes. It can be a very tedious technique but well worth the outcome.
Making wooden hinges was a process of trial and error with some frustration. Despite the various tools offered for this process none were exact or perfect.
Needless to say wood hinge making is in of itself an art form of feel and experience. It took failures to achieve success in this process.
In solving the issue of replacing metal for wood hinges, I faced one additional challenge. How does one keep the box art closed?
Typically a metal clasp would be used on the front of any box to secure the lid. Yet if one has gone through the trouble of hand making wood hinges, then one does not want to ruin a piece by placing a metal clasp on the front.
Here enters the beauty of magnets being used for lid closure. A simple yet effective solution.
Wood Carving Art For The Box
First one must realize the function of design for a box of this nature. This function is more of a memory box, or like a shadow box than for holding tools.
It typically will not be carried or thrown around. It will rest on a shelf or dresser in memory of something to someone. Because of its function it does not require a locking style catch.
Secondly I wanted to use the front of the box for another purpose. Instead of engraving a word or design I desired that it would rather be a wood canvas.
The box itself needed to be a work of art. I wanted to use wood carving on the front to give a unique creation that would place it into a class of its own.
The wood carving would not only be on the front of the box but also on its lid. The lid would have carving from its front side, and also a unique carving on its top.
With this the problems to my design became compounded for there would be no place to use a catch or clasp of any kind. A solution was needed.
Magnets for the Clasp
It was at this point that I remembered a friend who had been in the jewelry business. He would keep magnets on hand for checking to see if a piece of jewelry was indeed gold, or if it was rather plated.
Then the idea came to me that these magnets can come quite small. In fact these button magnets are small enough to be placed into wood.
By taking the lip of the lid and box front, I could drill holes to the diameter of the button magnet. Once this is done it was as simple as installing the magnets and these would keep the lid closed.
Naturally these magnets are not as secure as a locking catch. Nevertheless for the function of what a memory box performs it is not needed.
The magnets kept the lids closed within expected reason of design while not making it difficult to open. In this way there is no visible metal anywhere in the wood art design.
In fact the only non wood parts are hidden when viewing the exterior. These parts are the magnets, and also the brass pin connecting the wood hinges through the hinge barrels.
This design allowed for me to maximize the beauty of the wood art box creating a unique canvass. Using three different species of wood, any side of choice could be used for wood carving.
This gave me the ultimate flexibility. While achieving this there were other choices that needed to be made in design which impacted the physical beauty and its structural strength.
Box Art – Cut for Beauty and Strength
When making wood boxes the parts must come together in some way. Often with manufactured pieces you will find the corners meet and have been glued together on a 45 degree cut.
In manufacturing this is all well and good. Yet with box art I am not painting, nor am I simply engraving my artwork. On the edges of the box where the parts meet the wood would become thinner than its center if a 45 degree joint were used.
Due to this, in order to use wood carving art I would need to stay away from the edges of the pieces where wood would meet joint to joint. Within a prototype, the box art did not have aesthetic appeal with this joint design.
There was a visual flaw to this design. Add to this there was also a flaw in the strength of the box. It was not durable to my liking.
Here I began to explore other methods of bringing the pieces together. The method I chose must add to the beauty and give added strength to its design.
Through the debate and testing it was finally decided to use the box joint. A box joint is a cut which leaves small fingers that interlock pieces securely to each other.
In terms of how secure the joints are, it will not be broken. Each finger has three points of contact to lock into its mating piece of wood.
When two sides of a box are brought together this is multiplied by the number of fingers there are to interlock. Thus if there are 7 fingers on one piece its mating piece will also have 7 fingers.
When the two pieces meet the math becomes simple. 7X2= 14 fingers. In addition to this each finger has three points of contact. 14X3= 42.
This becomes 42 points of contact where the piece locks into each other. By comparison a simple 45 degree cut where two pieces are brought together only has 2 points of contact.
This jointing method allows for more than interlocking wood pieces. Visually it gives an appeal adding to the beauty where the pieces meet.
This can be accentuated by alternating the species of the wood on the box art. While accenting the box it then also leaves a boundary for the wood carving to be placed. Visually the entire box comes together as a work of art.
A hidden challenge existed in the design that was unexpected. To create a top and bottom for a box often people will choose to cap it off.
In other words they simply place a piece of wood on the top and bottom. This to me was very tacky on an otherwise beautiful design.
An alternative method is to cut the top and bottom so that it will sit inside the lid and the base. While not a bad option it still leaves an undesirable appearance.
Often in manufactured pieces these methods can be used, yet the box has decorative trim placed on it to hide this. I wanted a way to maximize the artwork and allow the beauty of the wood to define the piece.
With some experimentation I found a balance between the worlds that offered strength, a secure fit, and minimized the footprint of where pieces join.
To accomplish this task I placed dado blades on my table saw set to the width of the side pieces. Then I remove half to 2/3rds of the thickness of the wood from the lid and the bottom around its edges.
Once this is completed the cut allows for the lid and the bottom to sit perfectly inside a space cut specifically for the side pieces to the specification of its width.
It provides almost an L shaped lip where the side pieces rest multiplying the points of contact while maintaining a very low profile.
This allows for a very tight and secure fit while offering the greatest visual appeal. Every part of the box interlocks and becomes supporting to its mating pieces.
Value in Art and in Personal Meaning
It has been my desire from the beginning to place into my box art this concept of creating art to remember. Each part of the process is thought out and purposefully chosen.
For example its finish holds a purpose. It is applied to the wood for the piece to still feel like wood in the hands rather than the slick lacquer plastic feeling of other products.
I wanted the work to communicate something in meaning. It needed to connect in meaning with the wood art carved into the piece.
It also must visually have beauty in contrast of the wood and its design. Then by touch, the feel of the box art in the hands must give the feel of wood in a natural way. It must appeal to the senses to speak a meaning.
Some people call themselves makers and an entire industry has been build around that idea. While it holds its place in modern art deco attempting to blend the decor world with the art, it falls short.
Certainly it can serve people in terms of general home decor. Nevertheless it will never be art.