Boxes; Children's literature; Handicraft; Paper work; Toys
I made a tall bureau from eight empty match-boxes. The match-boxes were
safety match-boxes with tiny drawers that are made to slide in and out.
I saved till I had eight boxes. Then, I glued four, one on top of the
other, and four others I glued in the same way. When these were dry, I
pasted my two sets together. This made the upper part of the bureau. To
make legs, I cut a low bench from a small box cover and pasted the boxes
to its top. (For bench, see Diagram Six, _A_, page 175.) I sewed
shoe-buttons to each drawer to make a handle. The mirror is a piece of
cardboard cut oblong and pasted at the back of the bureau so that it is
upright. I painted a frame around the sides of the cardboard to make it
look like a mirror. The bureau cover is a strip of lace-paper. The
candle and candlestick came off a birthday cake.
The wash-stand is cut from the lower half of a box about five inches
long. It is cut almost as if it were a bench, only that its legs are
shorter. The “splasher” is a piece of cardboard pasted upright at the
back of the box.
[Illustration: Boxcraft Bedroom furniture.]
[Illustration: Boxcraft Table and Chairs.]
[Illustration: Mantel and Settle made from cardboard boxes.]
[Illustration: Piano and Grandfather’s Clock made from boxes.]
Almost all chairs I made were cut from narrow box covers and jewelers’
hat-pin boxes. One hat-pin box will make two chairs. Each half makes
one. (For chair, see Diagram Six, _C_, page 177.) Hat-pin boxes will
make high-backed chairs. Other box covers make other kinds. When you cut
an ordinary chair with a low back, begin to cut the rim from the side of
your box near the center on one long side. When you make a chair from a
hat-pin box, cut the rim off your box two thirds of the way around,
leaving one end only with the rim on. The part without rim is the back
of the chair. Press that upward, and cut the legs of the chair from the
end that has a rim left upon it.
I made a grandfather’s clock by standing a hat-pin box on end. I glued
to its upper front part the face of a penny watch. You do not need to
spend a penny. Just mark the face of a clock in pencil and glue it to
the front of your clock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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