boxes, boxes, boxes

Quandaries of a box.

Here's my first box. You've probably already read about it. This is the box I want to take with me. This is the box I heavily researched and worked hard on. This box is my baby. This box has highly inappropriate steel snipe hinges that I made myself from cotter pins from Tractor Supply but also has hand forged handles and a hasp. I have yet to put them on, but I've been a little busy.

The plus side of the jolly green giant is that it
a. quite possibly could have held everything, clothing wise at least, except for the cloak which would have been spread on my bed
b. was period appropriate

Alas, the JGG does not fit easily into my current vehicle. I drive a coupé, which for the purposes of this hobby, or really, anything else except being youthful and free, is useless.

So. Smaller boxes. After building JGG I decided against trying to go from scratch again. It was just to much of a pain. There's not time, no space, and I don't have the proper tools. Not to mention the right amount of clamps. Not to mention my income. And migraines. We won't talk about that. Let's just say rock and hard place.

At my first event, of which I have no pictures because I brought only my phone and we were in the middle of a National Forest [and guess what! There is no cell reception in the middle of a National Forest! And iPhones don't have super power save mode like 'droids! :D >:( ] someone had a painted dome top box with canvas over the dome. This, I thought, had distinct potential. No muss, no fuss, no why is there an EXIT sign in pieces on my bench [I wish I was making this up...].

To the craft store with the coupons et voilà.

you can't actually find a picture of the chest I bought online for some strange reason... you can only go to A.C. Moore, in person, and buy it, but if you search at Home Depot, they have a fair approximation for $40.

the home depot chest, not to be confused with the one I bought, which you can't find a picture of online. it's like it doesn't exist. weird. Also mine retails for $10 less. And I had a coupon for 25% off. Um, yay.

I can see why that person chose to cover the top with canvas. Mine probably didn't need it but hey. Better safe than sorry. The huge perks of being a person that sews include having scrap canvas laying around, so I had a piece of navy blue canvas that I coated with polycrylic and more or less trimmed to size, allowing a little for tucking under. A trip to the small local hardware store and I got slightly more appropriate brass hinges and some 'soldier blue' milk paint. Milk paint is VOC free, so with the migraines, its fabulous. No fumes, I don't get sick.

After the monsoon reenactment of 2015 the first event of the year, I decided adding skids to the bottom might not be a bad idea. My mother and I were at the Carnegie Museum of Art and took especial interest in the bottoms of trunks and chests so I know it wasn't totally out of the ordinary for a trunk to have feet or runners of some kind. And seriously, this sucker has a bottom made of 3/16ths ply if it's lucky so no way I'm setting it directly in wet grass or mud. And yes, I know the bottom skids aren't blue. It's been raining here to beat the band- I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the tung oil and polycrylic took. Some things are best left to wait until it is a bit dryer.

It just doesn't have a hasp - okay, it did have a hasp, a very Asian style hasp which would have been cool if it had been stamped with Asian symbols instead of a bald eagle... guys? The lack of hasp bothers me for travelling purposes but meh. One less thing taking up space in the tent.