The Hope Chest

In December I was hired to make boxes. Seventeen leather boxes. Two proofs before the holiday and fifteen more by February. If you have read previous posts you know how much I love boxes and how much I love edition work. Combined = heaven. I got to work in a assembly line style cutting all the board, paring all the leather, applying all the cloth, etc. The boxes are now home to photographs by Cig Harvey. See them featured http://cigharvey.com/pages/books.html and view the rest of her brilliant work at cigharvey.com.

The boxes appear to be full leather but I used a technique that not only saves material and money but gives the right balance of strength and seamlessness. I constructed the trays normally, with Davey board and Brillianta book cloth. I then covered the B tray (which hides the A tray when closed) with a thin layer of leather. The covers are assembled separately and were covered with leather fully then attached to the trays. Voila. When the boxes are closed they look completely covered in leather.

I used Alran leather, which while stretchy if not handled delicately, is buttery soft and smooth and takes gold tooling beautifully.

I want to specially thank Cynthia Belanger for giving my name and information to Cig Harvey. As a proclaimed lover of box-making, this project really was a dream come true. Thank you again.