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Pen box - Japanese style

My rotation pens rested in several boxes here and there on my book shelves. I always wanted them to be together in one box. So, I bought one at Yahoo Auctions.
It is a wooden box lacquered with urushi, unused, stored hidden for many years in some drawers.


 Nice, isn't it.
It is an old storage box for writing tools and paper.

But to use it as a pen box, there is some protection necessary - otherwise the lacquer will soon suffer.  But such an inset is probably not commercially available. So today, I decided to make one by myself - using Japanese paper "Washi".
I chose a paper in which gold and silver flakes are mixed into the fibres. It is quite thick and, additionally, the backside is coated with gold. (This gold and silver is certainly made from aluminium.)

I folded the paper that the valley is 15mm broad and the crests are 5mm high.

The backside then looks like this.
Some adhesive into the crests.
 A little bit of persuasion with some clips.
And more persuasion with some duct tape on the backside.




And it looks like this after inserting into the box
and the tray.
 Filled with the pens - mission completed.





Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 16, 2018 at 1:32 AM

    The box is gorgeous and I am extremely jealous. :-)

    I'd been thinking along the same lines as you, for the same reasons. There are some lovely old cutlery canteens on Yahoo UK, but the only pen box inserts I could find are made in the US, and shipping plus import duty would have made them more expensive than I could justify. I'd wondered if it would be practical to make my own inserts, but went with a zippered case solution instead. Your post will be very helpful if I do go the route of customising a wooden box for more storage, so thanks for the clear description and photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael EFebruary 16, 2018 at 3:28 AM

      It is good to hear that my post might be helpful in the future.

      If you don't have a wooden box available, why don't you make one from paper.
      Here is my explanation:
      https://japanlive-magazin.blogspot.jp/2016/05/origami-box.html

      :-)

      Delete
    2. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2018 at 7:11 AM

      Don't think that would be sturdy enough as a storage box, but it's very pretty and makes me want to find that pack of origami paper lying around here somewhere. :-) The rectangular box on another page looks like a really nice thing to put a pen in to give as a present - or to keep a pen in at work to make it clear that it is My Pen and not common property of the office.

      Delete
    3. Michael EFebruary 17, 2018 at 4:04 PM

      Here is the link to the rectangular box - for those we don't know about it:
      https://japanlive-magazin.blogspot.jp/2018/02/you-can-find-many-folding-instructions.html

      Delete

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