July 11th, 2006 |
theWAREHOUSE Photo Cube
My wife's birthday came up recently, as birthdays tend to do from year to year, and in addition to a sweet new video card for her computer (one of the reasons she kicks ass) I decided to give her a photo cube to take in to the office. A little more entertaining than just a picture in a frame, this whimsical yet cool-looking project would be something unique to spice up her office.
Check out the steps below to make this simple, yet striking, project:
Depending on how you want to make your cube, there are several ways to begin. I chose to build mine out of several pieces of smaller wood. It would certainly be easier to simply go out to a hardware store and ask a salesperson to cut you a cube of wood. You'll have to buy the whole piece of wood, though, which would probably make it more expensive. The pieces I got (which unfortunately had rounded edges) were only 99 cents each.
If you're following my method, you've got to glue the pieces together. I was a little sloppy with my glue, but it all worked out in the end. Hopefully you'll be able to find pieces without rounded corners, because if you can't you'll definitely have to fill them before applying the photos.
Use wood glue and rubber bands to begin your cube, adding a second layer (with more glue, of course) and a third when ready.
FAMOUS CUBES THROUGHOUT MEDIA HISTORY:
Rubik's Cube - 1974 Erno Rubik invention
Borg Cube - Star Trek
Q*bert - the expletive belching hero
The Cube - Rosenthal's famous sculpture
The Cube - the psychological horror movie
Photo Cube - theWAREHOUSE
When thoroughly dry, you'll need to sand the bejeepers out of this photo cube before you can go any further. Depending on how cleanly you put the cube together, of course. It took me quite a while to get mine smooth. Whoops.
You'll also need to go back and fill any holes left by, say, rounded corners. This can be done with either more glue or wood putty or...whatever works!
When your cube is sanded and clean and flat, start gluing your pictures down. The higher quality paper you use, the better it will look. I haven't tried using photo-printer paper, but I don't imagine it would be much different.
Now, once you get everything glued on, take it back to the sander! Sanding down all the edges not only makes it less deadly of a photo cube, but it also gives each of the pictures a beautiful wooden border.
Once sanded down, you'll probably have to clean up the edges of the photos with an x-acto knife carefully cleaning up any paper burrs.
Putting some clear lacquer or spray coating on the cube will not only help protect the photos, but it will also really bring out the texture of the wood. I love how this cube turned out.
A fun, simple, very cost effective project that turned out looking just fantastic. Aubrey was thrilled.
Please let me know if you make one of these! I'd love to see it.
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