Sam Stewart
Daisy Chain
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Out of the six works in Sam Stewart’s Daisy Chain, his second solo exhibition at Volume Gallery, only one can be easily or understandably used. That would be the graduated stack of 12 lidded oval boxes, rising in a soothing selection of resins: faded burgundy, butter yellow, pewter blue. Titled Lefty, they are a puckish (pudgy) homage to the bentwood originals that the Shakers made by hand. Cartoon fingers stand in for swallowtail joints; removing the lid recalls the classic party trick of detaching your thumb. But before the colors, finish and general irreverence of Lefty convince you this is American craft turned even more American (as in, Shaker Tupperware) — look inside and notice the tapered edge at each box’s seam, an eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch thick. Also, the boxes lack the visible sink marks typical of injection-molded products. Lefty was made by hand, in nearly the exact manner as the Shakers, except its medium is a two-part resin that is mixed, pigmented, poured into a mold and left to harden.
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To make your own Shaker box, take a strip of quarter-sawn wood — cherry or maple is best — and trace the swallowtail joint on one end. Cut it out and drill the holes where you will tack the box together. Finely sand the other end. Plunge the wood into boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes, softening the fibers. When you pull it out, you will only have about a minute to wrap the wood around the shaper, so work quickly. After the wood conforms, clench-nail the box wall and fit a base, securing it with dowels. Once you have your box, you can make the lid by wrapping a heated strip of wood around it, ensuring a snug fit. Traditionally, the boxes are finished with a milk-based paint. First made for sale to the outside world in 1799, Shaker boxes were immensely popular and reached near industry at Mount Lebanon between 1822 to 1865, with 77,000 boxes made.
This essay was published in a booklet on the occasion of Sam Stewart’s exhibition Daisy Chain at Volume Gallery, September 16 – October 29, 2022.