Toolbox.

When I was at art college a lot of the students would carry their equipment around in a cheap, plastic toolbox. It was the right size and long enough to hold brushes, and stopped your tubes of paint getting crushed. Plus the great thing about tool boxes is they have loads of tiny compartments for bits and bobs like rubbers and pencils and so on. Sure, companies made proper art boxes to hold these things, but those things cost a bomb and you’d be better off just buying a toolbox.

So anyway, I like to stock up when I buy stuff from Art-shops. Art-shops are terrible at restocking stuff. If you find a kind of pencil or brush or ink or paper you like, buy in bulk is my advice. You may never see that brand again. A couple of years ago, I’m all stocked up on gear and I decided I’ll treat myself to a toolbox to keep it all safe in. I pick one up from a local shop where I’m served by this tattooed man’s man, who seems very slightly impressed that I’m buying this manly product (it probably would of broke his manly heart if he knew it was being used to store arty things in and not manly tools.) All this Toolbox has done is sat by my desk for the last couple of years with a pile of comics and magazines on it. For a Toolbox, it’s had a pretty comfy life. And yet… my one is falling to pieces. The top comes off, the hinge that runs along the back is broke and it doesn’t lock properly. Must Toolboxes spend their life being carried to worksites everyday. Or being thrown around in the back of a transit van. Being covered in paint or having heavy tools dropped in them. I know my Toolbox leads a mollycoddled, bohemian life, but my Toolbox really needs to man up.