Embellished Boxes

**kcam** · 15th April 2011, 10:49 AM

This thread has been inspired by Robson Valley's entry on Bent Wood boxes and my limited research on their Canadian Indian heritage. I have been experimenting for some time now with embellished boxes, either carved (drifting sand) pyrographed, airbrushed, textured and veneered. The embellishment , other than the drifting sands series have generally been met with mixed reception.
Woodturners have been extending their creations with embellishments for quite some time now and I would like to hear from other box makers as to their views and see other examples of embellished boxes.
Here are some examples of my experiments for critical comment.

**artme** · 15th April 2011, 11:28 AM

They are really great boxes!! Well done sire!!!

A variety of clever embellisments, and they all get my attention!

**Robson Valley** · 15th April 2011, 11:45 AM

Excellent! They are "finished." I have such dreadful trouble (in my head) getting projects to the "finished" state (as opposed to "well, it's done.")
My personal bias is in favor of stylized animals/wildlife. But don't let that be a bug-splat on the windscreen of your life. So, the painted boxes are the more appealing to me.

The paintings and carvings on the sides of bentwood boxes from my PacNWest coast usually represented images of creatures which were ancestral totems of heritage for the owner. The tops were not commonly decorated (people sat on them.)

The Museum of Anthropology/University of British Columbia has an online collection of 30,000 items that you can sort and examine.

**watson** · 15th April 2011, 11:46 AM

The sun-dial box is my favourite............I really like that idea.

**kcam** · 15th April 2011, 12:50 PM

I never thought to call it a sun-dial box Watson, thanks for the name

Hopefully I will get around to extending the concept further incorporating free flow sculpture with contrasting timber and veneer....Kerry

**Robson Valley** · 15th April 2011, 01:22 PM

The Sun-Dial Box? That's what I thought it was! I couldn't see the top end of the gnomon but I figured I was supposed to assume it was there.
I think that decorated/embellished works have a different artistic statement that those which are unadorned. Both work for me.

**Ruddy** · 15th April 2011, 02:05 PM

Hi Kerry,
Thanks for posting your examples of embellished boxes. I particularly like the Sun Dial box with the distressed veneer side panels. Your work is different, has flair and lets you express your ideas.
The air brushed Tea Caddy is unique and to me, appealing. Do you have any more pictures of this item showing the decoration on the adjoining panels?

**kcam** · 15th April 2011, 02:40 PM

Thanks for your comments everyone, Ruddy here is another view of the tea caddy plus a few more. The document box was a gift for a friends 60th not hard to guess his star sign and he enjoys Oz poetry so the first verse of "A Man from Snowy River" is pyro'd on the flip side of lid.

**AlexS** · 15th April 2011, 07:40 PM

I like the sundial, the 'fish' and the airbrushed tea caddy. Three different treatments, and all very effective. I'm less keen on the pyrographed pictures, but thats just me.

**artme** · 16th April 2011, 06:26 PM

THE Man from Snowy River.

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