It’s that time again
Coming up fast on MADE Brighton next weekend. Hundreds of vendors selling their handmade wares. I will be there, overflowing with journals and notebooks and boxes. In addition to making, you know, books, I have been working hard to create a reasonable display. Last year I hauled every heavy piece of oak furniture we have over to the Corn Exchange here in Brighton. It left me broken and exhausted. This year: plywood.
Branching out into making things out of wood has not been as difficult as I expected. Turns out if you can make a box out of binders board and book cloth, it isn’t much of a leap to plywood and primer.
Empty wooden boxes won’t help in the long run, so I am still making books to fill them. Last year I noticed how many of my sales were small bits and pieces, cards, postcards and little booklets. This year I thought I’d have a few more small things for sale. I made use of some offcuts and scraps to make dozens of adorable little books.
In fact, they are so adorable that I almost resent them. Almost. They are adorable like kittens jumping into and out of boxes on the internet. I love them and hate them but mostly love them. And because I can’t stop making displays I whipped up a couple of adorable ones to match.
These little books are for sale online, should you wish to get a jump on things. Otherwise, please swing by the corn exchange in Brighton this Friday-Sunday, November 21-23. There are all kinds of craftspeople to be found. Last year in my little corner of the building there were people selling woven scarves, shaker boxes, jewelry of all kinds, ceramics and prints. Tickets can be found here.
I’ve got a few other new things on the table. I had a lovely private student all last week who was interested in working on some box structures. Our lessons forced me to try some new solutions to old problems, a slightly different type of magnet closure and a couple of other small tricks. I had such a good time that after she left I put some of those techniques into practice and made this large jewellery box:
And there is even a secret compartment.
God, I love making boxes. Ok back to work! Making a card display today. (I’ll print the cards tomorrow.)
4 comments on “It’s that time again”
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Big Jump Press 
Always love seeing your boxes, would be great to see a post going into detail of using magnets to keep boxes closed and how different set ups offer different strengths (like if they keep the lid closed if you turn it upside down).
Hi Jon, thanks so much! That’s a good idea for a post and I might try to get one together for xmas. I briefly touch on the magnet issue in this post: https://bigjumppress.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/inset-label-anyone/ but don’t get into specifics. Thanks for the reading! Best wishes,
Sarah
Very good solution for display. Everything looks well sorted and neat. Very nice. – I might steal the idea of using plywood cubes one day…
Thanks so much! In the end I was very pleased with my plywood cubes. Steal them!
Best wishes,
Sarah