This year both Mary Lou and I are both contributing to the creation of our Christmas presents to our family and close friends. Mary Lou created a lined draw-string bag to use as the wrapping for the Shaker box that I made. The bag will be functional after Christmas to store items or keep related items together. The Shaker boxes are cherry or maple bent into an oval shape. They are held together with copper tacks and wood pins.
I attended a class by John Wilson of Charlotte, Michigan, in Shaker box making. His company, The Home Shop, offers the class as well as the supplies necessary to make Shaker boxes. I made one set of #00 to #4 cherry boxes while at the two day class. I bought supplies to then make two more sets and 11 of the #4 boxes to be family/friend presents.
The 33 boxes that I made are from cherry sides and top, maple sides and bird's eye maple top, or cherry sides and bird's eye maple top. The cherry wood will naturally darken as it is exposed to light. The finish is a shellac or Danish oil base, urethane top coats, and buffed Bri-wax final coating. The copper tacks are produced in Michigan on one of only 3 remaining tack machines, circa 1880’s, left in the world. Merry Christmas.
I attended a class by John Wilson of Charlotte, Michigan, in Shaker box making. His company, The Home Shop, offers the class as well as the supplies necessary to make Shaker boxes. I made one set of #00 to #4 cherry boxes while at the two day class. I bought supplies to then make two more sets and 11 of the #4 boxes to be family/friend presents.
Here's a little history of the boxes. Most of the text and pictures are from John Wilson's web site.
Shaker Oval Boxes
Shaker oval boxes have become recognizable artifacts of Shaker life and work. First made over two hundred years ago, these containers were made for community use and for sale to the “world’s people” until well into the 20th century. Before the age of canisters and Tupperware, the Shaker craftsmen made and marketed their oval boxes. They were used to hold food stuffs in the pantry, buttons for the seamstress and tacks in the shop. Basics such as matches, glue powders and paint pigments, and sugar, coffee, tea, and spices needed containers.
These beautiful boxes were first made from hard maple and white pine. In an age before machines, thin wood strips were split from a straight billet of wood and made ready for bending by hand planes and scrapers. Hot water soaking makes this sturdy wood pliable, and bending gives a complete oval shape in a single motion. Tacked and made secure by shapers, the basic oval box side is formed.
Historically, boxes were painted before the mid-1800s, and clear finished after that. Paint was made locally from lime, clay, milk and pigments. Recipes for finishes were a shop tradition. Interestingly, craftsmen of old did not remove the lid when painting the box, so that original boxes show a narrow band of plain wood around the top edge. This may be due to the possibility of a lid sticking to the home made paint.
The "fingers," sometimes called swallowtails, or lappers were not added for beauty but for
function. The design allows the wood to move during temperature and humidity changes without causing the wood to split.
The place for boxes in the home has changed throughout time. Today they are more often seen on the coffee table in a more decorative setting.
Along with the change in use has come a change in finish so that varnish rather than paint is preferred. Cherry is more common for bands than plain maple. Yet this is still a box for all occasions, utilitarian as well as decorative. Its charm and grace make a difference whatever role it plays.
Graceful, well made and of widespread utility, Shaker boxes represent virtues of the Shaker order itself.
The Shakers
The original and proper name of the Shakers is the United Society of Believers In Christ’s Second Appearing. The name Shakers, and the variant, Shaking Quakers, were originally used to mock the trembling, shouting, dancing, and shaking that occurred during Shaker worship.
It was at the Shaker community at Sabbath Day Lake, Maine, that Brother Delmer Wilson made
boxes and carriers in large numbers beginning in 1896. It is there that a dedicated group of individuals live out the Shaker ideals begun by Mother Ann in this country in 1774.
The Shakers were known for their unusual living arrangement where men occupied one side of the house and women the other. Called "family dwellings," strict laws of chastity kept the two sexes apart. With this belief in total celibacy, the Shakers continued their population by legally taking in orphans and by converting others.
At the height of the Shaker movement between 1830 and 1840, there were 6,000 Shakers. Today, the last remaining Shakers reside at Sabbath Day Lake, Maine.
Whoever joins the Shakers with the expectation of relaxation from toil, will be greatly mistaken, since they deem it an indispensable duty to have every moment of time profitably employed. The little portions of leisure which the women have are spent in knitting—each one having a basket of knitting-work for a constant companion.
Further information about the community may be found at http://www.maineshakers.com/ . Visitors are invited to visit and join Sunday worship when traveling in that direction.
Shaker oval boxes have become recognizable artifacts of Shaker life and work. First made over two hundred years ago, these containers were made for community use and for sale to the “world’s people” until well into the 20th century. Before the age of canisters and Tupperware, the Shaker craftsmen made and marketed their oval boxes. They were used to hold food stuffs in the pantry, buttons for the seamstress and tacks in the shop. Basics such as matches, glue powders and paint pigments, and sugar, coffee, tea, and spices needed containers.
These beautiful boxes were first made from hard maple and white pine. In an age before machines, thin wood strips were split from a straight billet of wood and made ready for bending by hand planes and scrapers. Hot water soaking makes this sturdy wood pliable, and bending gives a complete oval shape in a single motion. Tacked and made secure by shapers, the basic oval box side is formed.Historically, boxes were painted before the mid-1800s, and clear finished after that. Paint was made locally from lime, clay, milk and pigments. Recipes for finishes were a shop tradition. Interestingly, craftsmen of old did not remove the lid when painting the box, so that original boxes show a narrow band of plain wood around the top edge. This may be due to the possibility of a lid sticking to the home made paint.
The "fingers," sometimes called swallowtails, or lappers were not added for beauty but for
function. The design allows the wood to move during temperature and humidity changes without causing the wood to split.The place for boxes in the home has changed throughout time. Today they are more often seen on the coffee table in a more decorative setting.
Along with the change in use has come a change in finish so that varnish rather than paint is preferred. Cherry is more common for bands than plain maple. Yet this is still a box for all occasions, utilitarian as well as decorative. Its charm and grace make a difference whatever role it plays.
Graceful, well made and of widespread utility, Shaker boxes represent virtues of the Shaker order itself.
The Shakers
The original and proper name of the Shakers is the United Society of Believers In Christ’s Second Appearing. The name Shakers, and the variant, Shaking Quakers, were originally used to mock the trembling, shouting, dancing, and shaking that occurred during Shaker worship.
It was at the Shaker community at Sabbath Day Lake, Maine, that Brother Delmer Wilson made
boxes and carriers in large numbers beginning in 1896. It is there that a dedicated group of individuals live out the Shaker ideals begun by Mother Ann in this country in 1774.The Shakers were known for their unusual living arrangement where men occupied one side of the house and women the other. Called "family dwellings," strict laws of chastity kept the two sexes apart. With this belief in total celibacy, the Shakers continued their population by legally taking in orphans and by converting others.
At the height of the Shaker movement between 1830 and 1840, there were 6,000 Shakers. Today, the last remaining Shakers reside at Sabbath Day Lake, Maine.
Whoever joins the Shakers with the expectation of relaxation from toil, will be greatly mistaken, since they deem it an indispensable duty to have every moment of time profitably employed. The little portions of leisure which the women have are spent in knitting—each one having a basket of knitting-work for a constant companion.
Further information about the community may be found at http://www.maineshakers.com/ . Visitors are invited to visit and join Sunday worship when traveling in that direction.
The 33 boxes that I made are from cherry sides and top, maple sides and bird's eye maple top, or cherry sides and bird's eye maple top. The cherry wood will naturally darken as it is exposed to light. The finish is a shellac or Danish oil base, urethane top coats, and buffed Bri-wax final coating. The copper tacks are produced in Michigan on one of only 3 remaining tack machines, circa 1880’s, left in the world. Merry Christmas.
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