Found Object · Paint Skin · Resin
Six requirements. One box. The cat is annoyed about the latch.
The brief
Pax has accessories. Wand toys, crinkle balls, a charging cable for a motorized toy, catnip, miscellaneous items that needed a home near the couch. The brief was specific: one object that stores all of it, functions as a side table at the correct height, is beautiful enough to live in the living room, and is secure against a cat who knows exactly what’s inside.
The catnip is the issue. He knows it’s in there. The latches remain closed. He remains annoyed. The system is working as intended.
The design
The starting point was a wooden storage box — a found object with the right dimensions for a side table. Everything added to it was chosen to reference Pax. Ragdolls have dark face and ears, a lighter body, white chest and paws. The box reads the same way: dark pour top, lighter natural wood base.
The band around the lid edge is black felt with upholstery tacks painted silver — a direct reference to the studded collar Pax wore for years. Two latches were added to the front and painted silver to match.
The full construction visible — dark pour top under resin, black felt band with silver studs along the edge, natural wood base. Pax is conducting an inspection.
The surface
The lid top is a paint skin — bronze, black, silver, and grey poured together with silicone oil to drive cell formation. The skin developed dense cellular structures and crater-like ring formations before it was lifted off the wet canvas below and applied to the box lid.
Over the skin, a layer of clear resin — poured on top to seal, harden, and protect. The resin deepens every color, makes the surface wipeable, and leaves it sturdy enough to hold a drink or a book without damage. There are teal formations in the bronze ground that appeared during the pour and weren’t planned.
The full lid surface from above — bronze, black, silver, and grey with teal cells scattered through the bronze ground. The resin has clarified and deepened every form.
A large teal formation in the bronze ground — the kind of cell that forms when silicone oil creates a pocket that heavier pigment can’t fill.
Concentric rings around a teal center — layers of silver and black that settled as the cell stabilized during the pour.
In use
The interior has a magnetic USB-rechargeable light mounted inside the lid, motion-activated — open the box, the interior illuminates. The box sits beside the couch. He sits on top of it regularly, surveys the room, occasionally attempts the latch with no success.
A side table. A storage solution. A portrait of a cat, built at side-table scale, for daily use by the subject.
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