Tag: Boxes

Box In Action

With a few pieces still falling in place for this week’s interview round of The 500 Hammers, I thought I’d throw up a few photos of one of Zac’s boxes in action. (If you love them like I do, buy your own here.)

Possibly my favorite out of every Clockstone Studios product, I am completely enamored of these boxes. Mine is about 1 1/4″ in diameter, in brass. It holds precious things:

Cameos found on the Fourth of July in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, nestled in with a pendant from an antique market in Paris and my first pair of grown-up earrings: gold hoops, a gift from my grandmother fifteen years ago.

As thrilled as I was by the craftsmanship of these boxes, I was also surprised by their utility. Jewelry for a weekend packs neatly into the tiny space, without rattling or risk of damage. The threads run perfectly and the lid screws on tight; I quite literally toss this box in my purse when I’m traveling without a second thought. When closed, the lid is almost invisible, yet the brass holds enough traction against my fingertips that it can spin open in only a few seconds.

While I know that these boxes are potentially more useful at this size or larger, I’d still like to eventually see Zac make even smaller versions; something to hold a single bead, a ring, a few pills, a serving of some rare spice. In many ways the boxes are almost jewel-like, perfectly captured objects of craft and interest.

Interview post up tomorrow…in the meantime, I’m curious. Where do you keep your precious things?

Author name:
Sara
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The Beginnings…

Zac, age 7 or so, at the lathe

When I was 4, I started turning wood.  We had a big lathe with a direct-drive motor, a handwheel to the left of the headstock, and a giant rotary switch that went “clunk” when you turned it on.  The direct-drive motor meant that the beast had incredible momentum, and the handwheel meant that you could get it up to turning speed with a few yanks and no electricity at all.  So, with the aid of a stepstool, I proceeded to learn the basics of woodturning.  Many simple candlesticks followed, and eventually I got old enough to use the lathe under power – and without a stepstool, though that took longer.

Turning is a great way to get started in woodworking if you’re the impatient or easily distracted type – like me – because of its immediacy.  You can take a piece of wood, chuck it in the lathe, turn for an hour or two, put on some wax, and you have a finished product.  Some people specialize in making bowls, or pens, or bottle stoppers – I eventually settled on making spinning tops.  They were easy to make, fun to play with, and took relatively little material.  Unfortunately, all of the tops I made I either gave away, sold, or left with my parents, and I haven’t been able to track down a single picture.  Hopefully I’ll be able to find & post one shortly.

After a while working on the wood lathe, I moved on to turning metal – the idea is the same, but instead of a hand-held tool, you turn a set of dials that move a cutting tool left-right and in-out. While this isn’t as good for creating free-form shapes, it’s great for making cylinders, tapers, and – with the right set of gears – threads.  After reading up on turned wood boxes, I decided to try making some out of turned brass.  The first attempts were fairly crude, but fun to make and to play with, so I went on to make more.  Many years and many boxes later, I still enjoy making them.  The brass boxes for sale here represent almost ten years of trial and error, learning how to make the thinnest walls and smoothest threads possible.  They’re still turned on a manual lathe and finished by hand.  The top and base threads are cut to match each other, rather than to an arbitrary size, so no two boxes are exactly alike.

Things have changed a lot since this picture was taken, but I still love working with the lathe, and still enjoy sharing the things I make.  I hope it makes you smile, too.

Author name:
Zac
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Mz Dorothy Darker’s Box

Object #4
Interview Subject: Dorothy Darker
Object in Question: Small, handy, purse-like box

Well, Clockstone readers, this post will be a brief one, I confess, because I’ve just spent sixteen hours at a Renaissance festival and am the color of a boiled lobster.

But it’s all right, because the pictures speak for themselves. Dorothy’s box turned out to be a unexpectedly complicated project, but one that we think looks beautiful, and which we hope she will love.

Without further ado from my sunburnt self, here’s Zac:

So the project brief was for a steampunk bento box, or something along those lines; a small box that’d fit a cell phone, keys, and other essentials.  Ms Darker suggested loops in the corners of the box that one could tie keys or a phone lanyard to, with perhaps external loops as well for a carrying strap. This evolved into the little slotted sections of tube that can be seen below – more on that later.  The aesthetic of the box ended up somewhere between steampunk & atomic age.  The material was salvaged from stainless steel pipette containers I’d found a couple years ago on the recycle shelf of my university’s chemistry lab.

The bench at the start of the project, container in the foreground:

A little work with a cutoff wheel gave me usable sections:

And some careful work with an air grinder and a tiny burr gave me nice slotted tube sections, perfect for joining corners and providing a place to tie keys and phones to:

With the two angles welded together, all that’s left is to add sides, corners, hinges, a latch… purses are complicated!

Here’s the bar left in the corner, ready to tie things down:

And the lid hinged up, ready to add sides and all the hardware:

Final assembly:

Welding the top together:

And I got impatient during the last stages of assembly and skipped the picture-taking.  Here’s the finished purse (Well, almost finished.  Still needs a latch.  How many parts can one purse have!?)

And done (finally!):

And open:

Remember that nice clean bench we started with?  Somehow, this tends to happen:

Thanks for joining us, Dorothy! And thank you for the lilies; they’ve bloomed and are gorgeous. We hope your purse serves you well for many years to come.

Next week we’re going to talk to a friend with a sculpture problem. Until then, thanks for reading!

Author name:
Sara
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The 500 Hammers Project: Interview with Mz Dorothy Darker

Interview #4
Interview Subject: Dorothy Darker
Object in Question: The Box Purse or Steampunk Bento Box (?)

I may not capture Mz. Darker completely in this interview…she is our first interview subject to come popping up from a rabbit hole completely unknown to either Zac or myself. But she has proven, in our brief aquaintance, to be consistently delightful.

This evening at a dinner with simply scads of people, I met Mz. Darker properly for the first time. She gave me a lily. The way she paints her lips reminds me of tiny rust-colored pansies with gold centers.

If this interview feels more poetic than most, you’ll understand when you read her answers to my questions.

Dorothy (may I call her Dorothy?) describes herself as a “painter, burlesque performer, muse and collector of pretty underthings.” Her artwork is full of graphic yet delicate representations of legs; legs in striped socks, in heels, in bare feet with toes curled in the air.

What I’ve found most delightful about speaking with Dorothy Darker is her rampant, unabashed use of the line break. I present to you our email interview, complete and preserved just as it appeared in my inbox; I have concluded that I can do her no better justice.

Tell me something about yourself. What would I notice first if I met you? What gets your motor going?

I’m excitable. I’m enthusiastic. chances are I’m wearing some interesting
accessory (that involves warm tones and or black)

I like making people feel good about themselves.
creating drives me.
and also the quest for beauty.
seeing it, showing it to others, capturing it.
1/2 consciously pulling lots of things together and waking up to what I’ve
created.

On Twitter you said your creative pursuits include oil paint, lust and letters. Say more? What’s your chosen aesthetic? What makes a piece of art good for you?

I love writing…email. I like seduction. I like setting the scene.
my chosen aesthetic. warm colors, never bright white.
I tea dye down everything. golds, and bronzes
intimate. cropped in. close. shhh.
handmade. but refined.

my aim is to prove that 2010 is as decadent and will be as memorable as
1920.
my want is to live a life that inspires others to live more grandly. more
deeply. more passionately. more beautiful.

A piece of art is good for me if it is just a bit garish to make me breath
heavy and then just beautiful enough to stroke the back of my neck
alternate. repeat. Frances Bacon, Dekooning , lucien Freud. Jenny saville

may I list my daily stuffs.

iphone, thoothbrush, bag
keys. too many of them.
ipad computer chair

lunch holder, some bag…or whatever it fits in
(hmm lunchbox, first idea…
….maybe somehow work on that idea.
to encourage me to eat better…
find joy in preparing better food for myself
the ritual of filling the thing up
but also, to encourage me to enjoy it.
savor it

I do love my food. simple exquisite bits.

with a little salt box, silverware. tiny butter dish. handkerchief as
napkin.
like a bento box but not of asian aesthetic.
hmmmmm)

Do you believe in ritualistic physical acts?

yes yes.

perfumes
lipstick
nails

meditation
breathing

making the bed.

What about physical objects?

I love my little collections
I like having the perfect one thing
not lots of options.
but then I fear wearing them out
if I could, I’d have a uniform
with lots of different accessories.

(in fact, at work, I have a uniform, sorta.
apron with two pockets over a slip
with short pants on underneath)

How do you like to treat your things?

10 percent of my objects I treat like priceless items, treasures, with
feelings and emotions.
personification.

90 percent of my objects I treat horribly.
then I feel sorry for them and treat them lovingly
but then I forget and drop them to the side of the bed in exhaustion.

It’s a bit embarrassing.

What do you think we could make for you? Or alternately, what’s a problem that you think a clever tool could solve?

I’m going to think more of this

I lose things a lot.
keys and phone especially.

Lately, I’ve been carrying this box purse around
and it’s been sorta awesome.
maybe I’d love to have a box purse that was seasonless.
that had places where things went and stayed till I needed them.
that was fetishy to use…addictive to use.
that becomes a tool I can’t do without.
and somehow inside where the phone holder is, the phone actually has a
little metal cage or harness with a chain on it
so I could wear it like a sash.

oh… now we are getting somewhere .

Is alliteration always acceptable?

Absolutely.

Do you see what I mean, folks? How could I edit this? May all of our guests be so lyrically engaged and interesting. (Or not – no pressure!)

My sense in meeting Mz. Dorothy Darker is that she understands why we want to do this project: why tools are so fascinating, how objects, when crafted well and used consistently in a loving manner, can take on small lives of their own. And perhaps also, how important it is to have tools that fit just right, like words or strokes of paint or the socks of Ms. Alice in Wonderland.

Looking forward to crafting for Mz. Darker her own small and clever space, for carrying both precious and cluttered daily things.

Author name:
Sara
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Brass Boxes

Turned from solid brass, these screw-top boxes have a uniquely satisfying feel in the hand.  Available in a variety of shapes and sizes, prices range from $50 to $80.

Author name:
Zac
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