Box Portfolio

This is something I've been meaning to upload for a while, but I hadn't gotten around to photographing it until now. Last Spring I made a box portfolio that was designed to take with me on interviews, etc. and hold my art samples, business cards, postcards, and DVD portfolio. I based the design/structure after a japanese style bookbinding method that I learned in a class a while back.

It's made out of some thin sheets of wood for the top and bottom, the sides are pieces of plywood that I stacked and glued on top of each other. I lightly painted the plywood so the lines in it could show through and resemble pages. I made the cover by cutting out some windows with a drimmel and covering the wood with paper. The paper is actually only glued on the edges because it kept getting bubbles in it every time I tried to glue the whole thing down. I went through about 2 extra papers before I got it right. The windows are some plastic overhead projector paper. I added a ribbon in the book so the contents of the could be easily removed.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. There are a few little issues with it though. The inside could be bigger, I've had to trim down papers to make them fit. The only other thing is the hinge were the top opens. There isn't enough space between the spine and the cover part of the book, so the top can't be fully opened. I've been thinking about making a second one to go with my Art Education Portfolio that will be made so it won't have these issues. I'll definitely be hanging on to this one though, for my illustration portfolio. I learned a lot by making this box portfolio and actually used power tools on my own for the first time in the wood shop :D. It was challenging and a lot of fun to work though the problems I had while making this and now that I have a better idea of how to approach it I feel like I could make another one easily.

That's all for now! Enjoy!