Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Marta's book 'n box

I have been experimenting with some lovely chiyogami paper that I bought at my all time favorite shop here in Berlin: Modulor! It's probably the best craft supply store in Europe (though it is always dangerous to use big words). Because chiyogami paper is completely handmade, it's rather expensive so I only bought A4 size sheets to try out some ideas I had for creating boxes in Japanese style (not Japanese boxes, that is something quite different). Last year, I bought a large board cutter from the widow of a deceased bookbinder in Dordrecht (alas, bookbinding is a dying craft). Along with the cutter came a considerable amount of cut board, enough for at least 10 small boxes. There was no work description for these boxes, but they did not look too complicated. The best way to make the box was too include a hinged lid - only, I had never made such a box before. It took a while before I produced an acceptable box, but the result (below) was promising (there is always room for improvement...). 


The most difficult thing proved to be the cover: I wanted to use the chiyogami paper, but it was a bit too small. I had to cover the short sides separately, whereas it is custom to use a single sheet to cover the whole box. The advantage of covering the box with separate sheets is that you can adjust the pattern to match. And since I was busy matching everything, I decided to make a matching book with pockets.
I love this paper! More items will probably follow shortly, I will show you when they are finished...

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