Housing Odd Collections

Remember the little guy from my last post? Well I finished a display and storage box for him to live in which allows for easy viewing without having to touch him, which could transmit damaging oils and residue from our hands.

First I constructed a simple four-walled box for the base. My vision was to have him standing on a piece of thick ethafoam, so my measurement for the inner base box was the thickness of the ethafoam by the width and depth of the figurine. I covered the top edge of the box with some red tissue and to this inner base I attached four flaps covered in black cloth.

Here is the covering of the flaps.

The long side will be used as the hinge to attach to the box base.

To cover up the interior edge and to add strength to the hinge, I covered the inside edge of the board, making sure the cloth was pressed firmly against the thickness of the board edge. The flaps were then attached to the inner base box.

Inner box with all four flaps attached.

I then made an outer base box covered in black.

 This will be the outside of the base.

Here is the inner base box with the flanges nestled into the black outer base box.

Then I made a nice foam base to hold him in an elevated position.

Using a jewelers saw I cut a piece of ethafoam to fit into the box.

Perfectly-fitted ethafoam base nestled in the box.

Next came the telescoping top. The measurement was the same as the base box for the area and the height was measured from the top edge of the base to a bit above the height of the figurine.

In order to facilitate lifting I cut out two semi-circles on opposite sides. These need special care for covering.

The top almost covered.

Since my little figurine was hollow inside, I made a cushion of polyfill and soft Tyvek which was fitted up inside the hollow area. Then I was able to inset two wooden dowels which were used to anchor him into the ethafoam.

The little guy sitting on his custom support.

The black cloth looks nice but it can collect dust. One quick method of getting rid of the specks is to use a piece of the same cloth and wipe down the surface, cloth side to cloth side.

Removing dust.

Here is the lid of the box being lifted.

And voilà, here is the little guy all ready for display.

These types of projects are a fun way to develop innovative solutions and are creative challenges that keep the job interesting.

Written by Deborah Howe.