Making boxes…

You'll remember that I mentioned that I was working on developing a box making for the fiber artist class. Well I also want to create a paper and book board box making class as well. I am finding though that making boxes with paper and book board is not quite as easy or forgiving as it is when working with fabric and interfacing.

I'm working on perfecting the techniques for making basic box shapes first before I start fancying up the insides:

Now you may be wondering why making a box like this from paper and cardboard is more a challenge than making one from fabric and interfacing. Well,when you create a fabric based box if your measurements are off by say 1/16th or so of an inch it probably won't make much difference in the finished result:


The box above is made with Timtex as the stiffener. The Timtex has a bit of flex and give in the final assembly process so it's easy to accommodate for that small measurement fluctuation in the pieces. The panels flex a bit and the stitching can be tightened or loosened to force the pieces to work together. In the end the box looks great and you would never know that there was any difference at all in the panel sizes.

But…when working with book board or cardboard as the base for the box,that 1/16th of an inch means the difference between a box that goes together easily and perfectly or one that won't because the final wall of the box just won't fit between the two side pieces. 




as was the case with this box above. When I began the assembly process for this box one of the wall pieces I cut was just a smidge off probably due to a slight slip with the ruler. A bit more measuring and some sanding and the problem was solved but it did highlight the fact that absolute accuracy is key when it comes to making these types of boxes. Ah well,live and learn!