Pochade Box - Small Size

  The third box in this series is my newest, but also the box that I think will get used for plein air  the most.  For several years I have carried a sketch book and pencil around with me.  This  small box is just about all I need for an 'everyday carry' art box.   5 x 7 inch water colour paper is cut to fit inside the lid. Also this size is flexible to use.

  Here is the box supplied for water colour painting. It has everything needed expect paper towels, the water brushes work quite well for field sketching. There are a couple of pencils and erasers, as well as a sharp knife and a straight edge in the box too.

 

 All that is needed is to substitute  Prismacolor Art Stix  and the box is ready for dry field sketching. Art Stix are basically  wood less pencil crayon colours. Twenty Four colours in the small box. Better than pastels for this use because they don't smudge and can be sharpened to a fine point.  

 To hold the lid open I re-enforced the hinge with leather. This way it is strong and firm without me having to add locking style hinges as on most pochade boxes.

  It is a re-used chisel box, remember when tools came in wooden boxes with box jointed corners? The chisels are long gone but the box was too good to throw away. It wasn't much of a shop project but, it needed to be sanded and the spacer put inside and the hinge modified, all things made easy with a wood shop in the basement.

   

9 x 12 Water colour and ink on paper'

"Fall Colours"

  I am working on a Christmas present currently and so can't post about it with out giving away the surprise. 

  Be thoughtful and Be safe.

Pochade Box - Large

 A few years ago I started taking art lessons for several reasons. One is drawing is a small, light weight hobby to take with me when travelling. The other big reason was Grandchildren, they love to draw, colour and paint, They don't know that Opa has limited skills so they innocently asked me to draw things, cats, boats, cars trains, gerbils, flowers etc. This Opa does't want to disappoint the Grandchildren.  So....I began taking art lessons at our local seniors centre.  Progress was slow and I still have a lifetimes work ahead of me to become competent. 

  Art like everything 'Maker' related thing has its own special tools and equipment. An Artist's tool box is called a Pochade Box, a large scale Pochade Box is often called a French Easel. 

French Easel, opened and 

closed for travel.

  For a couple of classes I carried my stuff around in a school bag, or shopping bag or back pack or whatever.

  What I found with time, is that all those other artists who had gone on before me actually knew what they were doing and made my first art tool box. 

17.5 x 15.5 x 4.5 inches

Opened and set up like a desk easel.

  I used this box for an oil painting class.  The Baltic birch plywood has an oak frame and plenty of storage for all the gear a student needed including slots in the lid to hold canvases while they dried. 

  This was the first art box I made and from it I learned a couple of useful lessons.  

1. oak is not necessary, my box is bomb proof and its weight reflects that.

2. it is almost a portable studio not a portable sketch on site kit, so the next box was smaller.

3. the wooden latches might be cool but..they are over engineered and heavy like the entire          box. 

4 I really didn't enjoy oil painting at all.  I like pencil crayon, graphite and watercolour so many     of the tools are different and usually you paint on a smaller less vertical surface.  

    I don't use this large box for much other than storage now.  It does a good job of storing and protecting water colour papers and other less used supplies. 

  Next time the Mid sized box, the one most used and why.

The mid-sized box, in the large box. This box is 

actually a true Pochade box.

   

A Box, A Bed and A Rack

Last July I completed a Pochade Box for my water colour paints. Last evening I modified the box for this summer's painting course, in which I need pencil crayons and pastels instead of paint.

I

  The divisions inside the box were not suitable so...

I removed one of the dividers.  Also I decided that I wanted a handle on the box so 

 I added one.  Since the box is wood and I made it myself it was no big deal to make changes.  I know how the box is put together and what it is made from, all wood, no M.D.F. I made the handle by braiding three strands of heavy string together and then wrapping it with two more layers of string to make comfortable to hold yet totally squash-able.  Once I tied the strings together I sealed the knots with Super Glue and shazam a comfortable handle.

  Another project that was finished this week was a Bunnie Bed.  I carefully cut, from quality cedar a 10 by 18 bed for one of Clara's stuffed toys. On Monday we glued and clamped the bed together and on Wednesday day she admired the finished product, commented on how smooooooth the wood felt and then painted it multi-colours.  All that nice grain is gone.  I can't really expect a seven year old to have a love of wood and admiration of grain patterns.

  

The pink and yellow didn't show up very well in this picture.  However, the Bunny likes her new bed, and Opa hits another home run. 

  I still prefer cedar to 'pine'. The quality of the wood is higher for cedar, its grain is nicer and it is very light, perfect this sort of project.

  The last project is a rack for my pull cut saws.  A week ago I was given a very nice gift in the form of two high quality pull cut (Japanese Style) saws.  I made a rack to hold my two wonderful new saws and my old stand by plywood cutting saw.

 I made the rack from left overs in the shop.  The backing board is part of an old dresser I salvaged a while ago. It is veneer on real wood. The other pieces are soft wood that I glued onto the backing board and then embedded rare earth magnets to hold the saw blades.  Also I glued a small shelf onto the bottom of the rack, because I always over engineer my projects.  Also because I don't want my really nice saws to ever fall on the floor.

  The rack is screwed to the front of my tool cabinet.  On the inside are other small saws, so there is order coming into the chaos of my shop.  Those new saws ( red handled) are very fine tools, they cut with ease and grace and I promise to try and keep them away from hidden screws and nails.  

  If anyone is looking for a custom sized Pochade Box, contact me through the comments section and we can talk price.

cheers, ianw