A Bespoke Box

My book That Unbearable Lightness for BookArtObject evolved in the making and I wasn't sure how it would end up until I got there -which was as a sculptural structure which folds between book covers. It did, however, end up forming an unusual shape which was going to need an unusual box to house it. As five of the books were to be posted overseas, keeping the book and the box small and lightweight was a priority.
The box needed to be wider at the foredge and narrow at the spine end, and the spine edge needed to slant inwards. Obviously I was going to have to come up with an unusual solution for this particular book box.

I found a pattern for making a trapezoid, which wasn't what I needed and in all the wrong proportions - it had a small narrow top, wide base and slanted sides. I needed a lidded box to make it easy to get the book inside. However, as the trapezoid had sloping sides it gave me an idea of how to approach this box. I'm not a mathematical wiz, so with a lot of cutting and pasting and fitting pieces around the book, I eventually came up with this made-to-measure solution and made the pattern pieces below for the box and the lid. All this was the hard part, and once I had cut out the pattern pieces, it was as easy to score, fold, glue the tabs and finish the box as the other slipcases I make.......and it was perfect for this book.