Matthew Sutton, an art student, comes in with a broken fan that his mum gave him to air out his boarding room. Now, one just has to wonder if it was hot air, neglected cleaning, or prohibited smoke that was meant to be fanned out. Or one just leaves all such speculation to the side and attacks the task at hand. To me, an object that was once able to perform any kind of movement or locomotion immediately calls out for a modified reinstatement of such, but often to the detriment of the sometimes better ideas hidden more in the form or structure than in the function. And honestly, isn’t the case in this case much more interesting than the spinning machinery it once held? And even after it’s wings were clipped, the fan still kept suggesting a spin.

Getting rid of the fan liberated the case to be a box for other things. Fitting it with hinges was exceedingly simple, and as it already had a handle, I didn’t even need to add that. But a case for what? Well, for paintings of course, for an art student. And all the air holes in the surface of the case makes it ideal for paintings with still wet paint. Isn’t this a typical problem for art students, that their masterpieces are still wet come crit? And how to then transport them without smudging both paintings and clothes as well as walls, teachers and colleagues? With a wet painting portfolio!

The trickiest bit to make was the small hasp that now locked the portfolio. It looks simple enough in design, but given how flimsy the case is, I had to make it just easy enough to spring without having to put any stress on the plastic casing, but still firm enough to hold the portfolio closed. The devil is in the details, or rather, he is in the muddling of the details.