Bottomless Box Construction Notes

Let’s take a quick walk through the construction of the Bottomless Box.  To emphasize the nature of openness and exposure I opted to forgo the front panel of this box.  Perhaps another exercise could be to completely skin all but bottom and allow the exposure to be experienced in an object’s form behind the paper skin, or in shadow from a light behind or within the box…hmmm, better sketch that one out.

Being inspired by a stick-form design and box kites, I decided to use a small collection of Cherry “sticks” I had milled up for a previous project several years ago.

The chosen joinery is the half lap.  I used my crosscut sled to index all the measurements and cut the joints with a 1/8 inch flat grind rip blade.

I really like this Freud blade!  Nice clean, flat cut surfaces that fit together very well.

I began by assembling the top and bottom structures…10” X 16”

Once the top and bottom frames were glued and cured I set up the sled to cut the next series of half-laps.

Then it was back into the clamps with the 10” long vertical members in place.

I then opted to place a double stretcher across the top and back sides.  The point at which the top and back pieces meet makes for an interesting joint.

That small opening between the two stretchers will serve as a “glimpse” into the box when viewed from the back of the side.  (Perhaps I could add these to the front panel as well, making the box and its contents a little more mysterious but not completely hidden.)  Once all of the parts had been glued together I got to sanding.

I decided to skin the surfaces of the box sides with a semi-transparent, almost frosted paper.  I found this Elmer’s Glue Tape that ended up working out brilliantly for fastening the paper to the stick frame.

Here we have the final product, ready to contain, yet reveal.

I really enjoyed this exercise of stretching the design and purpose of an object.  With another 49 boxes on the docket for 2014 I can see myself taking this journey again…soon!

Pete