Frame panels of the 3-sun cube
Today is Monday, and this week is a regular five-day workweek. It’s also the last week of October, so the year-end events are starting to come up. This week includes Halloween, and November brings important sales events that lead into the Christmas season.
I have several projects scheduled to finish by the end of the year, and my production plan is taking shape. Today, I continued working on the 5-sun box with a drawer and also started a new 3-sun cube box. The 5-sun box already had the Aruki moving panels attached and was kept in its case.
Until yesterday, it had been raining a lot, and the humidity was high, so I couldn’t take it out of the case. Today, the rain stopped, and by the afternoon, the humidity finally began to drop. I made the top and bottom panels today and attached them in the afternoon. That was the final step for today. Tomorrow, I plan to attach the side panels with the sliding keys (kannuki).
Unless I have extra time, this will probably be the last 5-sun box with a drawer I make this year. Recently, I’ve been mainly producing two types of 5-sun boxes — the 10-step with a drawer and the 27-step type. These two seem to be the most popular among the 5-sun sizes.
Unfortunately, the supply of traditional yosegi used for these boxes has become very limited, so I’ve had to pause wholesale shipments to overseas shops for now. However, it might still be possible to get them from other makers in Hakone. In fact, there’s more than one yosegi manufacturer producing traditional patterns, so there may be some workshops that continue making boxes using materials from those suppliers. I recommend checking with them if you’re looking for one.
After that, I began working on the 3-sun cube. The side panels were already prepared, so today I made the frame parts and just finished assembling them. I don’t make this 3-sun cube very often, but I plan to keep it as part of my regular production lineup.
As I mentioned recently on Instagram, I’ve made several slightly different versions of these larger cubes over the years — for example, 3.5-sun and 4-sun sizes. For now, I intend to continue producing the 3-sun version. Strictly speaking, it measures about 8.5 cm (3.3 inches), so it’s actually closer to 2.8 sun, but I call it 3-sun for convenience 😅 I think it’s a good size — easy to hold and move the mechanism.
This time, I’m making a 14-step mechanism, and next, I plan to make an 18-step version. All the boxes I worked on today feature a three-colored checkered pattern. I’ll soon move on to attaching the internal parts.
I have several projects scheduled to finish by the end of the year, and my production plan is taking shape. Today, I continued working on the 5-sun box with a drawer and also started a new 3-sun cube box. The 5-sun box already had the Aruki moving panels attached and was kept in its case.
Until yesterday, it had been raining a lot, and the humidity was high, so I couldn’t take it out of the case. Today, the rain stopped, and by the afternoon, the humidity finally began to drop. I made the top and bottom panels today and attached them in the afternoon. That was the final step for today. Tomorrow, I plan to attach the side panels with the sliding keys (kannuki).
Unless I have extra time, this will probably be the last 5-sun box with a drawer I make this year. Recently, I’ve been mainly producing two types of 5-sun boxes — the 10-step with a drawer and the 27-step type. These two seem to be the most popular among the 5-sun sizes.
Unfortunately, the supply of traditional yosegi used for these boxes has become very limited, so I’ve had to pause wholesale shipments to overseas shops for now. However, it might still be possible to get them from other makers in Hakone. In fact, there’s more than one yosegi manufacturer producing traditional patterns, so there may be some workshops that continue making boxes using materials from those suppliers. I recommend checking with them if you’re looking for one.
After that, I began working on the 3-sun cube. The side panels were already prepared, so today I made the frame parts and just finished assembling them. I don’t make this 3-sun cube very often, but I plan to keep it as part of my regular production lineup.
As I mentioned recently on Instagram, I’ve made several slightly different versions of these larger cubes over the years — for example, 3.5-sun and 4-sun sizes. For now, I intend to continue producing the 3-sun version. Strictly speaking, it measures about 8.5 cm (3.3 inches), so it’s actually closer to 2.8 sun, but I call it 3-sun for convenience 😅 I think it’s a good size — easy to hold and move the mechanism.
This time, I’m making a 14-step mechanism, and next, I plan to make an 18-step version. All the boxes I worked on today feature a three-colored checkered pattern. I’ll soon move on to attaching the internal parts.