Boxes of Boxes

On one of my frequent visits to The Full Circle , I came home with a few illustrated children's books in order to make some paper boxes. On one level, it may feel wrong to tear up old hard cover books. And I did get a few that I probably won't end up boxifying. However, I found a 1970's rendering of Snow White that ends with Snow White's servants putting iron slippers over a fire of coals and making the wicked queen put them on to dance till she dropped down dead. Would I ever read this with a child? Though it could lead to an edifying discussion of morals, the scenario is a bit horrifying. I'm going to side with Disney here, and say death by hot feet is not an ending worth keeping. Beautiful illustrations, though! So tear it up I did.

Paper box making is the only skill I've kept honed of those acquired from a string of childhood piano teachers. I was eleven, taking piano lessons from a naval chaplain's wife on a base in Japan. After our usual lesson time at her house, she sat my mom and me down around a glass coffee table displaying an impressive collection of glossy cowry shells, and explained that what she would show me would be one of the most unexpectedly useful skills I may ever learn. She had us start with an old greeting card, cut it into two squares, one slightly smaller than the other, which was very crucial to the end product, she assured us. She made several folds to the larger one first, using a pencil and ruler to make her lines crisp and exact. I thought she was showing me how to do a piece of origami, which I am terrible at following along with, but instead she unfolded it completely and then started cutting into the sides of it. The shape that was left could practically fold itself into a little box without any human aid. I had followed her through the steps with the smaller square, which now fit snugly into the larger one. I never went far as a pianist, but I made paper boxes out of many a greeting card in the years to come, and more recently used discarded menus from work and old children's books to make favor boxes for our wedding.

Box making is such a mesmerizing task that I can easily sink hours into it without taking any breaks, even if my fingers start to hurt. As I was taking apart this Easter bunny book, the picture of the two bunnies washing clothes jostled my memory that I, too, needed to put in a load of laundry before continuing any further! They are as difficult to stop making as it is to stop watching them being made...

Though greeting cards are easier to come by for this project, I especially enjoy making boxes out of illustrations because I get to choose and frame what is most interesting to me in each picture.

What is something you learned at a time you had no idea how it would later come in handy?