How To Store Your Dutch Oven!

Dutch ovens are large earthenware or cast-iron cooking pots and are used as simple ovens that are heated by placing them under or near hot burning cinders.

They're thick-walled cooking pots with tight fitting lids used for cooking such things as stews and casseroles and have been used for centuries.

During the 17th century the Dutch produced a technically superior design. A similar design was subsequently patented in England, so the term 'Dutch Oven' has endured!

Pinewood Dutch Oven Container

However, once you've used your Dutch oven what do you do with it? Well, you can leave it lying around the kitchen to gather dust and get in everybody's way, or you could obtain a wooden storage container, specially designed for the purpose.

Using pinewood would be my choice of wood, as it's robust, hard-wearing and inexpensive, with lots of knots. The construction of your container needs to be substantial. The side panels should be between 15-20 mm thickness and include a tight-fitting, hinged or lift-off lid to prevent dust incursion.

You can use butt joints, or tongue and groove joints to hold the side panels together, which are easier and cheaper to form but I would recommend glued finger joints for a stronger, more permanent solution.

Pinewood is a soft wood, so is susceptible to dents and scratches but minor impact damage such as this, over time tends to enhance rather than detract from it's rustic quality!

Pinewood also has a long tradition of use in cooking. For instance, pinewood has been used to make dough boxes for hundreds of years and many Italian Pizzerias even today use them to make their pizzas crispier.

Pinewood baking boxes are also used today to bake traditional fruit, pumpkin and chocolate fudge cake. This makes the cakes uniquely moist and infuses that delicious, natural pine aroma from the natural oils and resins into the baking.

Pinewood Dutch oven containers will make a great addition to your kitchen and will protect your Dutch oven for many years. You'll only need to obtain one, unless of course you buy another Dutch oven!

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Why We Love Memory Boxes!

Our homes are stuffed with objects that hold personal memories. Putting these items into memory, or keepsake boxes as they are sometimes called, is a way of retaining these objects and the memories associated with them, so we can stay in touch and others can discover and learn from them.

Memory boxes can contain objects that help us recall people and events from the past. They can be based upon a particular theme or era and may contain items such as photographs, letters, a toy from childhood, music, or even a recorded message. For instance, baby keepsake boxes are incredibly popular nowadays!

Polmac Hand-Painted Keepsake Box

Though it may take some time to find which keepsakes to store in your memory box, it's certainly worth the time and effort, as they can provide a continuous and fascinating time-line to the past, for future generations.

Memory boxes can be made from practically any material. Keepsakes can even be stored in an old trunk if nothing else is available. However, if a memory box is to be created from scratch, wood is the ideal material, as it's natural warmth and beauty resonates so well!

Wooden memory boxes can be inscribed with a personal message and/or decorated with natural wood and colour stains, carved, or hand painted with colour motifs to provide a particular theme. They can also be left unfinished, if the natural, raw quality of wood is preferred.

Ideally, memory boxes should be small enough so they can be lifted easily and large enough to accommodate a range of keepsakes of different shapes and sizes that can be easily accessed.
 

Wood memory boxes can be designed with compartments if necessary, for different t5ypes of keepsakes and provided with a lock and key to help keep the contents secure!

You can create several memory boxes with different themes. For instance one memory box can be dedicated to children and another for a favourite hobby, or sport and so on.

Memory boxes are being used more and more nowadays to engage with people suffering from dementia and similar illnesses, where memory may be a huge challenge, providing them with an opportunity for mental and even physical stimulation.

Creating a memory box, particularly if it's an activity undertaken with friends and relatives can take time but it can also be a lot of fun and it may someday be a great memory itself. Now there's a thought, or is that a memory!

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Wood Turning & The Art Of Producing Beautiful Round Boxes!

Wood turning is the art of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut shapes that are symmetrical around the axis of rotation.

The wood lathe can be used to create many beautiful forms, including hollowed out cylindrical wooden boxes, needle cases and urns etc.

Before the industrial revolution in England, wood turnery was a difficult skill to master, because the turning mechanisms used were primitive. This is why turnery at that time became known as 'the misterie'!

Wood Turned Box With Lift-Off Lid

However, once mastered, wood turning is a great way of transforming small pieces of wood into beautifully crafted objects, using creativity and skill.

Most woods, including alder and linden wood can be used to make turned boxes, although a fine-grained hardwood is probably the very best wood to use.

Irrespective of the choice of wood, it's essential that it's properly cured and seasoned, to avoid any moisture movement which could lead to warping issues.

Wood turned boxes may be created as stand-alone artwork, or as functional and economical storage containers, with or without lift-off lids!

They are usually small and round, due to the lathe-turning process and so their lithe appearance differs quite significantly from square or rectangular boxes

Lids may be designed in a variety of ways, including ...

1: Sitting loosely on the base.

2: There is some resistance between the lid and the base but any sharp movement will dislodge the lid.

3: The lid is retained on the base securely and will not fall off if the wooden box is overturned!

In the case of 1 and 2 above, lid restraint can be easily improved by the use of tiny, flush mounted, lid magnets, if required

Beautiful turned boxes may be made from single pieces of wood, laminated woods and even segmented woods and despite the special skills needed, they can be very economical to produce.
 

They can be decorated with stunning natural wood and colour stains and clear lacquer finishes, to bring out the natural warmth and beauty of wood. 

For more exotic finishes they can also be embellished with metal, or hardwood inlays and hand carved decorations.

Whatever the style or finish chosen, the only limit on the design of wood turned boxes is your imagination!

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Tramp Art - Why This Art Form Is Being Re-Discovered!

Polmac (UK) Ltd is always curious about art forms that include the production of wooden boxes and the construction and decorative techniques used to make them, to see what we can learn.

One of these is 'Tramp Art', an art form that evolved around the world when small fragments of wood, from discarded shipping crates and cigar boxes were carved into complex geometric shapes.

 

Tramp Art Carved Box

The outside edges of each layer was 'notch carved', or made in the form of a 'crown of thorns'. Tramp Art was popular in the years between the 1870s and the 1940s, after which it began to rapidly decline.

Simple tools such as pocketknives were used to carve the wood and assemble mainly utilitarian objects. Thousands of tramp art objects were produced worldwide but mostly in the USA where the art form took root.

The most common objects produced were carved wooden boxes, such as jewellery boxes and picture frames, although objects of every conceivable shape and size, including full sized furniture were made.

Tramp Art was a democratic art form made wherever suitable raw materials could be found. It is thought that in the USA 50 different ethnic groups were involved in making tramp art objects.

It appealed to anyone who was proficient at whittling wood with a penknife, because making tramp art objects was relatively quick and easy. Tramp art was mostly made in the home environment by people from all walks of life.

Tramps or 'hoboes' as they were called in America, also made tramp art but not in very great quantities. The name tramp art was conceived in modern times and was believed to have been created by skilled German or Scandinavian immigrants to America, although some people dispute this.

Tramp art is an important art form and is a testament to the ability and creativity of ordinary people, with little, or no training in the arts, to produce objects of great artistic merit and beauty.

The Tramp Art movement was among the first to use discarded materials to make objects of art, as well as every day utilitarian objects. Many of these objects are truly stunning and it is no surprise that the art form it being discovered once again.

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Traditional Materials & Premium Spirit P.O.S. Displays!

Whisky and other premium spirit suppliers spend millions creating 'touch points' for their brands, because it's known that most buying decisions are made at the point of sale.

However, consumers are inundated with thousands of marketing messages every day. So, there's a great deal of white noise to be overcome before their message is heard.

With such a high degree of impulse buying and severe competition, whisky and other premium spirit brands are under huge pressure to be creative with their point of sale displays, in order to make their products stand out from the crowd.

Jura Whisky Counter-Top Display Stands

It's crucial therefore to research the demographics and the motivating factors, in order to understand the target market.

Is it the image, the kudos obtained by being seen ordering a premium spirit, the unique taste, or is it that wonderful warm feeling that people get when the spirit goes down? These factors can and will influence point of sale design.

When certain visual cues are triggered they send signals to the brain which converts them into buying impulses. For instance, if someone can smell a product, pick it up, feel it and inspect it, they are almost twice as likely to buy it.

That's why traditional, wood display stands are such effective marketing tools for whisky and other premium spirits.

What's more, consumers today are becoming more and more environmentally aware, so they  react positively to displays made from traditional materials obtained from managed and sustainable sources. Sustainability is a deep-seated, emotional benefit that persuades many consumers to buy.

With counter-top displays, visual impact will be the main impulse, so this has to be as evocative and stimulating as possible. The more senses that are engaged at the critical point of purchase, the better the sales figures will be!

In today's competitive market, using virtual imagery is popular because it can bring point of sale displays to life. However, traditional materials such as wood will always have their place, because they resonate so well with people's emotions and senses!

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Why Use Wood To Manufacture Whisky Boxes?

For centuries whisky distilleries have stored their whiskies in oak barrels or barrels made from other 'pure' woods, to give the whisky it's 'flavour'.

Oak is most often used because it has unique, physical and chemical characteristics that seem ideal for whiskey making!

Oak Whisky Barrels

Whisky derives it's colour and character from direct contact with the wood, particularly if the barrels have previously been used to store different spirits such as rum, sherry and red wine.

In fact, many Scottish and other distilleries around the world use barrels previously used to store bourbon to age their whiskey and this process takes a minimum three years.

When these oak barrels reach the end of their useful life for whisky production, they may be ground down into wood chips and used in barbecues, or sold off to be made into quirky pub furniture!

It is this traditional connection in the production of whiskey that makes wood resonate so well with the 'elixir of life'. In fact, wood is the only material that can transcend a purely functional product into one that is truly beautiful! Yes, it's true!

Other materials such as aluminium, cardboard as well as fibreglass try to mimic the warmth and natural beauty of wood but fail to do so.

Wood whiskey boxes provide incomparable design and finishing possibilities that add real 'value' to the whisky inside, even if it's a 'special' and an extremely valuable distillation!

Furthermore, choosing wood for packaging whiskey boxes will give whiskies, particularly single-malt whiskies, that crucial competitive edge, because the unique quality of wood will make them stand out from the crowd!

Inherent characteristics such as colour, texture, grain and lustre all come into play in wood's visual appeal. For instance, a wood that has lustre appears to have a natural sheen that's difficult if not impossible to replicate in other materials!

Wood from the same tree may look the same but there are always differences due to it's organic nature! These are the subtle qualities that make wood such a beautiful, diverse and desirable material in the manufacture of whisky boxes.

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How To Display Military Memorabilia!

During the course of their military careers, many people accumulate items that have personal and / or historical significance. Some of these will be stored,  some  discarded, whilst others are displayed, as a reminder of their time in service. Sadly,  the display will sometimes serve as a memorial to a family member, or friend who has been lost!

Military memorabilia is a very broad category and is often referred to as 'militaria' and may include any, or all aspects of military life, from small items like medals and ribbons to larger items such as uniforms and equipment!

When organizing military memorabilia there is often a need to display these items in custom made, wood display cases and / or frames. Wood has unique qualities that resonate well with the traditions of military service and is used extensively.

Militaria Display Cases

The framing and display of military memorabilia is very personal and depends upon the materials available and the required size and style.

However, to create a great display, the details are always important. The first consideration is the importance and significance of the items to be displayed. They may have a personal significance, or they may simply be a collector's display, acquired for some other reason, such as an investment.

Then there arises the more practical question of how extensive the display is and the nature of the items, their size and quantity. The most popular displays are wall-mounted and often comprise glass-fronted wooden display cases, or wood frames rather like picture frames.

These may be either fixed displays, or with some kind of easy access, either at the front or the rear. With wall mounted display cases, the glass panel at the front will often be hinged and have a lock.

If a collection has particular significance it may even be displayed on a specially designed table, or other piece of free standing furniture. The display will have a glass top, or front for protection and so it can be clearly seen.

Military display cases and frames are important personal possessions. Invariably they'll occupy a place of honour in the home, that will provide a focus of attention for family members and guests.

Militaria display cases and frames are a testament to a person's achievements and military career and  represent an important aspect of a family's heritage. For these reasons, the design of the display, the materials used and workmanship should always be carefully considered.

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