Rebecca Edition Run Part Six: The Clamshell Boxes

I’m feeling a similar fatigue in writing up this six-part blog post as to when I was actually working on the edition run! But being at the stage of writing up about how I made the boxes gives me the same feeling of knowing I am almost finished…

A clamshell box, also known as a Solander box or drop-spine box, is a protective box with a hinged lid connected to its base. Both the lid and bottom sections of the box have three fixed side sections (although in the case of the boxes made for the Rebeccas, the bottom sections had four fixed sides). The lid is slightly larger than the base so that the lid and base ‘nest’ when the box is closed, offering protection from dust, light, and physical damage. They resemble a clam when closed, hence the name! 

The colours for the clamshell box had been chosen earlier in the process (above left image):  Dubletta cloth in the colour ‘Sage’ used to cover the clamshell box trays and Windsor bookcloth in the colour ‘Flint’ used for the case of the clamshell boxes – both from Ratchford Limited. The box was to be lined in 1mm thick wool felt of a colour named, ‘Enchanted Forest’ from the Wool Felt Company.

I won’t be going into detail about the exact sizes I cut everything for the boxes, just running through the steps of how they were made. The very first thing to do was to measure the size of the completed books as the base trays needed to be made slightly bigger than this to allow room for easy insertion and removal of the bindings from the boxes. As the boxes were large due to the scale of the book, I opted to have a double wall thickness all around. So each panel cut for the different elements of the box construction had two pieces of 2mm greyboard laminated together with PVA glue forming nice stable walls.

I cut base pieces slightly bigger that the height and the width of the box, laminated the two pieces of greyboard together and stuck them to an oversized piece of Kraft paper on one side before pressing them in the nipping press. As my base was to have four walls, I cut two ends and two side pieces (the side pieces were slightly longer that the length of the base piece to allow enough material to match that of the base piece plus the thicknesses of the end pieces), and all these were cut to the correct width so that they would come up slightly higher that the level of the book when in the box, to allow for the cloth and the lining materials within the box once covered.

All the pieces for the boxes were cut on my board chopper, I don’t own a powered guillotine so I had to do them this way. Once the base pieces were cut to size, it was time to stick them together to start to create a three dimensional form. It was important to keep them all at right angles to one another, so I utilised some wooden drawers from in my studio to act as a support.

The drawers were a good height match for the walls of the clamshell boxes, so butted up two of these drawers to one another and positioned the base piece with the overhanging Kraft paper layer underneath them. I then applied PVA glue to the relevant edges of one end and one side piece and positioned them in place. They were clipped at the top with bulldog clips onto the drawer, a corner clamp was applied and it was all left to dry (above image). Corner clamps are often 3D-printed or made from metal and are designed to hold two pieces of material together at a 90-degree angle, the ones I have are supplied by iBookbinding. 

I cut a trapezoid shape from the centre point of the other side wall, not quite to the bottom, to allow for the books to be pulled out of the boxes. I made up a template and drew the shape onto the board before cutting these out with a Stanley knife. I was then able to attach the two remaining walls in the same way I had done so with the first two.

My board chopper sometimes produces a slightly jagged cut when slicing through 2mm greyboard as it is quite a soft board. Therefore on some of the trays there was a little discrepancy in levels at the joining of the boards at the corners, so where this happened I added a thin strip of watercolour paper and sanded it once dry (you can just see in the below left image some thin white strips at some of the box corners which is where I am referring to here).

I then lined all four outer walls of the bottom tray with a long strip of Kraft paper. This strip of paper had two jobs: the first was to consolidate the walls of the base tray by anchoring them all together, meaning the corners were more solid at the joints; and also this gave an additional lining layer which I could use to sand out any imperfections.

I lined a piece of plywood with some strips of green sandpaper creating a large flat surface to use for sanding the trays. The sandpaper was supplied on a long roll and is made from aluminium oxide, it is known for its durability and ability to resist clogging. I gripped the sandpaper board to the side of a bench with G-clamps to hold it firm, and I took the trays in turn and sanded flush all the sides and edges of the boxes. This did produce quite a bit of dust so I wore a mask and vacuumed regularly.

This step was important so that once covered with the bookcloth, the trays would be crisp and clean across all the surfaces. Any underlying bumps would otherwise have been visible under the bookcloth once it was stuck down which I didn’t want!

I cut long strips of the pale green bookcloth to width and length and drew a reference line on the back side of the cloth, which is where I would pitch the base of the box to when sticking it down. I marked the halfway point on the bookcloth strips, and the same on the base of the bare box (below top left image), in order to position them correctly when joined. I first stuck down the long edge without the trapezoid cut into it, applying glue to the box wall with a roller (below bottom right image) before rubbing it down well with my Teflon folder to ensure good adhesion (below right image).

The cloth strip was then glued around onto the side panels and then onto the side with the trapezoid. With each turn of the box corner I cut the cloth so that is formed separate flaps (below left image). The side flaps were stuck down internally into the box first, with the length of the turn-ins into the inner box measured and mitres cut so that they would meet neatly on the bottom inner panel of the box (below right image).

To deal with the neat covering of the trapezoid required a bit of planning. I used a small metal set square to trim small flaps at a right angle to the trapezoid sides, as you can see in the below images. These flaps would be folded over first, with the cut end of the flap being concealed by the rest of the cloth once it was turned onto the inside of wall of the box.

This piece that was going to be turned in on top of the trapezoid flap needed to be cut to the correct angle before gluing it down. To do this, I folded it round into the correct position and marked the back of a cloth with a pencil line. I then cut this to shape. A small triangle was also added in to conceal any greyboard that might have otherwise been visible at the join of the two pieces of cloth (below right image).

The below left image shows the resulting shape from all these cuts, before I applied the glue. First the upper strip with the little triangle was glued down, then the small flap was turned in at the trapezoid edge, and finally the longer strip with the angles cut was glued into position.

A strip of dark green bookcloth was then stuck in position along the bare bottom edge of the trapezoid, and the underside of the trays were levelled up by sticking a pieces of the same bookcloth inside the central area of the box bottom (below right image).

This resulted in all the completed base trays, which were left to stand with the books in them for safekeeping.

And so the process was repeated for the top trays, the only difference being that they were slightly larger (in order for the base trays to nest inside them snugly) and they were just made with three walls. This meant I didn’t have the same complicated pattern on the fourth side wall of the box to contend with which sped up the process slightly.

The “missing” fourth wall had the edges of the side walls dealt with by turning in flaps of cloth around them, as seen in the below images.

The final exposed edge of the base had a panel of the dark green bookcloth stuck on to it, cut to the correct size and shape so that it would glue down to meet the mitres of the pale green cloth (below centre image). Again, the underside of the trays was levelled up by sticking a piece of the same bookcloth inside the central area of the box bottom (below right image).

Once all the trays were completed it was time to move on and make the cases that would hold them all together and complete the boxes. The greyboard was cut and prepped, with the spine of the box having a layer with a rectangular hole cut into it for the label to nestle into once covered (below left image). The cloth was cut and stacked with the prepped boards ready to start the next stage of the production line.

Glue was rollered onto the greyboard pieces and pitched against a long ruler to make sure that it lined up with the side pieces once they were glued down. I had also made a spacer which I used to ensure the joint line between the side and the spine pieces were the same each time.

The sides were then turned in around all the edges of the case, and mitred at the corners so they met in the right place.

The outer case cloth was pressed into the recess on the spine, whist the glue was wet to make sure that it stuck well here (below left image). A bridging piece of cloth was stuck onto the inside of the case, and to make sure that the cloth pushed down properly into the grooves in between the spine and side pieces I used a piece of laminated book board (which was built up to the correct thickness with a paper layer) to push the bridging cloth down in position whilst drying. The flapped ends were then stuck down onto the side panels (below right image).

Out of all the steps taken during this edition run project, this is when my workshop felt most at capacity. I had boxes in various stages of completion on every available surface in my studio, and I was constantly moving piles of books, boards, trays, covering materials and glue trays around the room!

Once the cases were all made it was finally time to join the trays onto them. I applied PVA glue onto the inside of the cases, as well as onto the bottoms of the trays, and positioned them in place. I used every conceivable board and weight available to me to hold the trays in position whilst drying: from paring stones, to cast iron vices, to old vintage irons – no heavy object was left unused! I left each one for a number of hours so I knew that the glue would be completely dry before attempting to move them.

The boxes were lined with wool felt. I stuck some of the ‘Ocean Green’ Canson Mi-Teintes paper to the reverse of the wool felt panels to stabilise the felt. They were cut oversize and trimmed once dry and then glued down into the insides of the trays and weighted whilst they dried.

It was really satisfying to see the boxes come together: it was a real relief that I had ordered enough materials to make them all plus that I had made them to the correct size!

The very final thing to do was check that they were going to close properly. The joints of the case needed to be pushed into position and rubbed out the outer face of the box with a Teflon folder to establish them.

The VERY final thing (can you hear me shouting out, “HOORAY!” here?!), was to stick the labels to the spines. Using PVA glue on the reverse of the labels, they were positioned into the recesses and weighted whilst the glue dried (above centre and right images).

The books and boxes were individually wrapped up and packaged six to a large box before being shipped over to Suntup Editions in the USA. Thankfully they all got there safely and were well received. Since completing the project, it is interesting to note that the two questions I have been asked the most are:

1. “How long did it take you from beginning to end?”
Answer: About 6 months full-time work

2. “Would you do it again?”
Answer: Never say never (but I am definitely looking forward to a rest!)

The one obvious connection between most of the photographs I have worked through and edited for this series of blog posts is repetition and scale. There are multiples of everything in most of the photographs, unsurprisingly, but it is mad how quickly you forget that you weren’t able to see your studio benches for months on end. If you have made it this far I hope you have enjoyed reading about the process.

To see more images of the completed book splease visit the SPECIAL PROJECTS section of my website here.