I wanted to take my art to sea. Yes, actually on a series of sailing ships that I had lined up for myself this spring and summer. I knew it had to be self contained, so all the things I needed were in it. I knew it had to be tidy – spilling things on a ship is bad manners, and paint can be hard to clean up. I knew I wanted it to be small, both the kit itself and the resulting paintings. So I collected some 1/2 pans of paints (Derwent Inktense Paint Pans) and water brushes, and a sponge to clean the brushes on, and some ATC sized paper, and started experimenting with how to make them as compact as possible.

The kit I made was so successful that several people have asked me to make one for them, so here are the patterns and directions.

Supplies

Materials:

1 12”x24” (30x60 cm) sheet 3mm/1/18” birch plywood
short length of string
epoxy (2 part or UV cure)
peel and stick magnetic sheet - ATC card sized (2.5x3.5” or 64x89mm) and a strip 1/2”x3” or 12x75mm
3-6 small magnets
superglue
sandpaper

Tools:

access to a laser cutter
scissors
craft knife

Step 1: Cut the Parts

I used https://www.festi.info/boxes.py to make a box with compartments, and then edited the resulting files to fit the things I wanted to carry. The .SVG files are organized by color, with the text on a completely separate layer, so you can select sections to cut if you have smaller pieces of wood.

Cut the pieces from 3mm plywood. I’ve had good luck with Ocooch Hardwoods Birch plywood, and Rowmark ColorShop plywoods.

Step 2: Finish Inside Lids

Set aside the two top sections. One is going to get the magnetic sheet glued or epoxied to it, and the loop of string will be saturated and stuck down to form a deeper palette for paint mixing. The magnetic sheet is to hold the paper down while you are working on it – it gets windy on ships and I don’t want to lose artwork over the side. The strip is for holding finished work while it dries, also magneted down.

I used some leftover epoxy from a boat project to hold down the magnetic sheet, strip and piece of string. Mix it according to directions, and use it as glue to hold down the magnetic sheet on one side of the top. Then soak the string in the epoxy, and form it into a loop on the same side, then smooth a thin coat of epoxy over the rest of interior of the top. Use the remaining epoxy to coat the interior and stick down the magnetic strip on the other side of the top. Let the epoxy cure. If you are using UV cure epoxy, cure it now.

If you don’t have epoxy, you should be able to do something similar with any left over acrylic paint you have handy, or spray paint. You just need some way of sealing the surface and making it waterproof.

Step 3: Put It Together

Once the interior of the top sections is finished, you can start to put the box together.

If your wood is unfinished, sand all the unfinished sections lightly, especially the ends of the comb-like connecting toes. The wood in these illustration is Rowmark ColorShop plywood, and is already nicely finished.

Find the base, and the interior pieces. The interior dividing pieces are narrower than the exterior walls. First put in the two pieces with U up notches – I called them interior A and B. They might need a tiny bit of persuasion with a hammer. Be as delicate as you can with hammer. Then add the piece with a single down notch (interior 1) and the piece with two tabs (interior 2). A little bit of superglue will hold everything together pretty solidly.

Add the short ends, persuading a little as necessary.

The lids get hinge pin washers (small round pieces with square holes) and buttons. (I included cutting lines for 8 more washers, and 6 buttons, because they are easy to drop and lose.) The combination stabilizes the lid hinge pin inside the hinge hoops, and keeps things from wabbling. Glue four hinge washers to the centers of four buttons. You will attach these to the hinge pins once the long outside edges are in place, holding the tops in place. DONT ATTACH THE WASHERS AND BUTTONS BEFORE THE LIDS ARE IN PLACE!! The buttons are to keep the pins from falling out of the loops, and they don't fit through!

Test fit the outside long edges, with the lids in place. If the box feels solid, and the lids function, and are right way up, superglue the corners to keep things from moving, keeping glue well away from the hinge hoops. Now glue the washer/button combos onto the ends of each pin, keeping the glue well away from the hinge loops, so that the lids can open and close.

Step 4: Make It Nice

At this point you have a functioning box, but you can make it a little nicer. If you glue a piece of ribbon on the bottom of the paper compartment, you can get paper out more easily, and stabilize it when the wind is blowing.

You can attach a latch of some kind to hold it shut, or glue down two buttons and a piece of string that can be wound around them.

You might find the paint pans need some trimming to fit better. It looks like individual paints come in a standard size, called a 1/2 pan, so you can swap out colors as you choose. There is a small compartment for miscellaneous things, I used it to hold extra tube colors to broaden my palette.