A trick development of one shown is done by extending the uprights to about 20" and making a shelf wide enough to let in an ash tray and cigarette box. (A job for the compass saw, and careful cutting to make an exact fit for the cigarette box and tray which you would already have acquired.) The whole point of sinking the ash tray and cigarette box in the top of this rather gadgetty contrivance is to thwart that portion of the human race which seems to have been born only to knock over smoke-stands or brush ash trays off tables, or anywhere else you put them. With a load of magazines in the bottom, he would be a clumsy ox, indeed, who could knock the whole thing over.

In making wastebaskets, it would seem a good idea, as suggested, to make something that can't be had more easily (and better made) for $1.98 in the department store.

Something pleasantly tricky and unusual can be done in the Chinese manner, adhering to the cube in shape and to typical Chinese color schemes in lacquer decoration.

Good effect comes from mounting it on a low Chinese stand, simply made of clear 1 1/2"x 1 1/2" sticks. Simple as this would seem, the technique of making such a stand requires considerable concentration. It will turn out more happily if you put in the little cube blocks with boiled glue. There is almost a certainty of splitting the pieces if you try nailing them together.

Here are a few color schemes, always planning a different one for the inside. Black, gold inside; red, gold inside; mandarin yellow, jade green inside; ivory, red inside. If the stand, or base, is done in black it will have the effect of the characteristic Chinese black teakwood base. With the box in jade green, ivory, mandarin yellow or lacquer red, the black base is very effective. Gold, if used, should be given a coat of varnish, which will "antique" it more or less, and keep it from powdering off.

If you happen to be able to pick up a small-size tea chest, this makes a very quaint and unusual wastebasket for an informal place like a studio. Lacquer the inside, glue up any of the gay paper covering that may be loose, varnish it to keep it in place permanently, and mount it on a stand like the designs for the more or less simulated tea-chest style of wastebaskets shown. The simple thing is to make a table-topped stand to which the tea chest may be nailed, and make it sufficiently over-size to take a 1/2" or 3/4" cove molding or quarter-round, mitered at the corners. This will conceal the bottom edge of the tea chest and make the whole thing look quite neat.

The same sort of square fret-work, made of surfaced square sticks, may be used very effectively under cocktail and coffee tables, if you mean to finish them up in Chinese color schemes.