I’m trying to save time so I decided to make a box to organize watercolors. I’ve been carrying them around in a cardboard box with no handle and I loose a lot of time fumbling with the box and rummaging around to find stuff. So let’s see what can be done.

Okay I made this design (it doesn’t have a top or a handle yet). It’s a box within a box. The top box has trays that hold two paint tubes each. Brushes go in the long boxes at the right. The inner box also has a large flat tray at the bottom. Then the outer box give a bunch of flat space. I guess a bunch of partitions could go there so stuff stays separated.

The only thing about this is it wont be as light as a feather. Lighter than the commercial ones I think but I like things to be really light. I guess I can remove some material to get the weight down by about 20 percent.

On the other hand once you separate the trays you can get to all your stuff easily. And the lid would be a great work surface….

One problem I can’t seem to figure out is how to prevent brushes from getting crushed. In the current design the’ll just go brush end up in the long trays. The handle will be at the top so they’ll always be resting on their butt or side.

I just tried an experiment with polyethylene sheet. I folded it up and then sealed it with an impulse sealer. This is very promising.

This is quite easy to access plus it can roll or fold. Further it’s really light and will work for pens, pencils. Pencils and pens can be rubber banded but with this method you can lay them out rather than fighting with them.

This is shaping up really well. After making up some of these poly holders the whole thing compacts into three poly bags. That can now be generically transported with other projects and can set up and take down fast. Not only that I can make up the bags in any configuration as I wish.

I think this solves the problem for now! I think the idea of a box may come forward again if I want a portable easel or work-space.

I set out to make a box and I made a bag.