SECRET BOXES - TERESA

Box made of multilayer wood measuring 15x15x23.5h cm, limited edition of 99 pieces. Structure in birch plywood covered with three layers of zebra wood. Knob and base in solid black ebony. Wax finish. “I wanted to design boxes to be opened with care, lifting the lid slowly with both hands, as if the box could feel that I am gentle with it and that I do not want to mistreat it in any way. Boxes made with precious woods to hold things that are a little secret: a special brush, some special paper notebooks, or simply something I would like to remain secret. Perhaps love notes.” Ettore Sottsass. Ettore Sottsass designed for Numa Secret Boxes, in multilayer wood: five small architectures that express a very personal vision of the value of things: that symbolic value that certain objects can assume 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 copies. Five small architectures that express a very personal vision of the value of things: that symbolic value that certain objects can assume 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 characterizes this great designer. Material: Zebra wood from Africa, parts made of solid ebony from Indonesia, solid birch from Russia. Birch plywood composed of 7 layers of 20/10 mm with crossed fibers to make the wood stable. Processing phases: The processing begins with a careful selection of woods to achieve a homogeneous effect of color and wood fiber design. The parts that make up the box are cut. Solid zebra wood edges are fixed to the profiles of the birch plywood facades. Each part is then veneered, internally and externally, with a layer of zebra wood of 20/10 mm thickness. The gluing and fitting of the parts that make up the box are carried out. The horizontal joints are worked and joined by a butt joint, while the vertical ones are made with internal wooden cores. The two knobs are constructed; the ebony is turned from solid after a careful selection of the trunk to be worked. The trunks are small and full of defects. There is about a 70% waste to obtain solid blocks suitable for processing. The knobs are left to rest for several months before being further worked on the surfaces and fixed to the lid, to allow for further stabilization of the wood. After an adequate time, the surfaces of the box are worked with sepia paper and the edges are rounded. A first hand application is done manually, with a brush, of a “primer” to close the wood pores. The surfaces are then brushed by hand with increasingly fine sepia papers. Stamping is carried out. Another coat of paint is applied with a brush to make the surface “silky.” After adequate drying, a layer of natural beeswax is applied by hand. The knobs, which have undergone the same treatment as the surfaces of the box, are fixed to it using hidden cylindrical wooden dowels. NB. The processing of ebony parts requires great care, as the wood releases a black powder that penetrates the fibers of other woods, irreparably soiling them. Ebony must be worked alone and separated from other woods until after its painting.

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