Boxed again

A re-post of "Ode to the simple box"

Happy Friday - and Happy New Year’s Eve! For this Christmas, I made several boxes of various sorts as gifts and this story came to mind. I’m sharing this formerly subscriber-only essay here as a re-post for all. Please enjoy. And have a safe and delightful end to the year. I’ll greet you back here next week with fresh content for 2022! ~JRC

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Ode to the simple box

First published February 15th, 2021 as a subscriber-only story.

A box - the common name for most any six-sided polyhedron that we put stuff in. Boxes come in all shapes and sizes. And many things we make begin with a box.

Boxes protect items we ship. They form the fundamental structures of most buildings. Autos, planes, and trains are all basically boxes too. And the computer I am typing on right now is, you guessed it, a box.

Boxes are everywhere. From toys to diamonds, boxes hold the objects - and even people - we cherish.

I love boxes.

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I have a box of boxes in my shop. In it, I keep all kinds of small cardboard ones that I come across. I like the ones that easily collapse and do not have any markings on them. They're great for repurposing as gift boxes or for storing small tools and hardware.

I appreciate good package boxes. So much so that I judge a product by its cover, despite the old adage (that warns us otherwise). If a thing has a simple box, free of excess and waste, I'm sold.

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Making one's own boxes is magical. I'm not sure what it is that makes it so enjoyable, but it is. Maybe it's the act of compartmentalizing things. Boxes are fundamental to order, which helps us think. Or perhaps it's the shape itself; boxes are so common they feel a genuine part of our lives. To make one is to make one's existence.

Whatever it is, I relish the chance to make a good box.

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I remember making my first few boxes out of construction paper when I was very young. These were pretty simple, modeled after the department store boxes clothes came in. These early fabrications required an ungodly amount of tape.

As a pre-teen, I used scrap wood in my dad's shop to make what I considered my first "real" box. It was walnut, and I used a thin piece of wood veneer as a sliding top. The grooves for it I cut into the sides by hand.

Over the years, I've made dozens, if not hundreds, of boxes. They've varied dramatically in construction and material. Some were simple paper, while others complicated wood, metal, or plastic creations. But each one, I am confident, was fun to make.

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Not too long ago, I made a couple of boxes for my shop. I needed a way to store some electronics components, so I decided to go at it myself. The result: a twin pair of birch plywood containers with sliding acrylic tops. I used blued-steel hardware to make them feel even more special.

Why all the attention for a couple of storage boxes?

As I said, I love boxes.

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Until next time.

JRC