Inspiring Boxes

All week I've been admiring these pencil boxes at Mushashi's Woodworking Diary. Each of them illustrates a traditional Japanese timber framing joint and makes a stunningly beautiful and intriguing work of art.

Each box is made from a different kind of wood, selected carefully for clear and beautiful grain, and each box lid has a different joint. This is part of what I find so admirable about far eastern woodworking: careful attention to material and execution; the appearance of simplicity and ease in complex work.

The joints and grains on these boxes match so carefully that they might almost be imagined as a single solid piece of wood, and the contrasting pins, which would have held the timbers of a house together, become a single striking irregularity that pins the box lid together. What we see of the slide promises a careful fit and silky smooth action.

I am inspired.

Photo courtesy of and copyright Musashi Kutsuwa