Monday, June 20, 2011

Now lets work on books for a bit

After finishing the last of those 7"x7" panels, I'm returning to books for a while.

Here's one that I thought would be a fun, quick project, but I sunk 40+ hours into it, most of that time was spent on researching the various packing materials that are commonly found in mail ordered products. I tried contacting materials scientists, I looked on the web, and I called a foam/plastic manufacturer.

Now I know the difference between polyurethane, polyethylene, polystyrene, expanded polyethylene and expanded polystyrene. Phew! I wonder how long that information will keep in my head...as opposed to how long the actual materials will keep, which is basically forever.

The book is made from mostly repurposed materials that had previously arrived to me via mail — an amazon box, various packing materials, mail-order catalogs (indirectly through a neighbor); and then there's also recycled printer paper, mylar rescued from the JWSC trash bin and packing tape.

I wanted to make a sampler box of packing materials. So here I'm putting together the tray.



Here's the completed clamshell box made from the amazon shipping carton. On the left is the index to the samples, and the samples in their little cubbyholes on the right.



The clamshell box will be shipped, packed in shredded mail-order catalogs.

3 comments:

alice simpson said...

Shu-Ju,
This is a terrific solution to the quest!
It's amazing when you start something simple and then spend 40+ hours. But then, that's what we're here for.
Alice

Sondra said...

They're so pretty and varied!

gl. said...

oh, i like it, i like it! i'm a total sucker for making the ordinary extraordinary.