Video: Pochade Box Pattern

 

 

I made a pochade box from a cigar box today!  Pochade boxes are ultra-light, small painter’s boxes that hold supplies and serve as an easel.  I had been thinking of various ways to assemble one using the different methods in the three how-to videos I posted last year.  I kept getting caught on how to make the palette stay in place inside of the box.

People familiar with the pochade boxes for sale by Guerrilla Painter and other manufacturers are usually put off by the sale price.  Basic units 5″ x 7″ inches large start at $80.00 USD and go all the way up to $150.00. These do not even include a number of accessories sold separately.  I bought a Cezanne half-box French easel for $60.00.  The high price on pochades may be part design features for ultra-portability and part low demand.

With the pattern I show in the video, I don’t see why anyone would not make their own.  I spent less than $10.00 in the hardware store on the brass hinges and the nice brass handle  The bolt, hex nut, washer, wing nut, a small bungee cord, scrap wood, two wine corks and a piece of white acrylic were all scavenged.  The bungee cord will hold the box open or shut as needed.

The bolt was longer than I needed; it would have kept the lid from closing.  I wound up pressing it between pieces of scrap wood, locking it in a vise, putting a few drops of 3-in-1 oil on it and sawing through it with a hacksaw.  I put two hex nuts on the bolt to show where I needed to cut and the nuts pulled off the shredded steel.  I used a Dremel tool to sand any sharp edges of the end.

I am going to cut a wooden dowel rod to size to wrap up my brushes with a rubber band like this brush case pattern has so the bristles do not get smashed.