SECRET BOXES - ZITA

Solid wood box cm 18x18x21.5h, limited edition of 99 pieces. Structure in solid maple carved from a single block. Yellow aniline coloring. Wax finish

"I wanted to design boxes to be opened by carefully lifting the lid slowly with two hands, as if the box could sense that I am gentle with it and that I have no intention of mistreating it. Boxes made of precious woods to hold even somewhat secret things: a special brush, some small notebooks of special paper, or more simply something I would like to keep secret. Perhaps love notes."
Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass designed for Numa Secret Boxes, made of plywood: five small architectural pieces that express a very personal vision of the value of things: that symbolic value that certain meaningful objects can acquire when we use them for a very specific reason.

Rosalia, Agnese, Teresa, Zita and Agata are the names of the five wooden boxes offered in 99 numbered editions. Five small architectural pieces that express a very personal vision of the value of things: that symbolic value that certain meaningful objects can acquire when we use them for a very specific reason. Five extraordinary interpretations by Ettore Sottsass of a traditional material like wood, in the strongly iconographic language that distinguishes this great designer.

Material:

• Maple from Europe, solid wood

Processing steps:

1. The box making process begins with a careful selection of solid maple wood to achieve a homogeneous color and grain pattern.
2. The solid maple is then hand-carved according to the design.
3. Once the different faces and the bottom part are obtained, the parts are glued and joined; the horizontal parts are worked and joined using a rebate; the vertical joints are made with internal wooden cores.
4. The lid of the box is carved from the solid wood to create the closing rebate; the protruding lamellae are fixed one by one to the lid using hidden internal wooden cores.
5. After an adequate period, the surfaces are hand-sanded with cuttlefish paper and the edges are rounded.
6. The box is manually colored with yellow aniline pigments.
7. A first coat of "primer" is then applied by hand with a brush to seal the wood pores.
8. The surfaces are then re-sanded by hand with increasingly finer cuttlefish papers.
9. Stamping is performed.
10. Another coat of varnish is applied with a brush to make the surfaces "silky."
11. After adequate drying, a layer of natural beeswax is applied by hand.

NB: all parts of this box, before being assembled, are left to rest for several months to make the wood more stable.