About Us
Welcome to Michigan Crate and Canvas. We are a small business in southeastern Michigan that began in a wood-working studio in our garage. In a noisy fast-paced world, we are dedicated to producing simple utility from un-complicated objects.
MC&C is owned and operated by John Finn and his wife Greta. During John's twenty years working in the photography industry in Detroit, he developed an affinity for two things: working with his hands, and practical quality design. The inspiration for MC&C was born from quite possibly the most practical tool used in photography and film: the Apple Box. An "apple box" is a simple wooden box that serves countless functions on a film set.
John, a modern design enthusiast with a degree in fine arts, set out to build a similar object for use in the home. The result is the Apple Box Project. The quality of the build is the most important characteristic. We build these by hand in our shop in Michigan. In the day and age of flat pack shipping, it is no coincidence that there is no assembly required; these are solid objects that have been worked and finished by hand. There are no metal fasteners; they are held together with glue and wooden fasteners, making them strong enough to last generations. Over time, our boxes will patina like a nice leather bag. Made out of ½ inch Baltic birch plywood, they have been thoughtfully finished with a sealcoat of all natural shellac and a final coat of hand rubbed wax.
In addition to the Apple Box Project, we will bring more products to our collection as we move forward with further utilitarian design concepts. Stay tuned.
Born out of sheer utility, more than one hundred years ago nearly everything from root-beer to real beer, and oranges and apples, were packaged and transported in some sort of wooden crate. The first apple boxes used in the film industry were nothing more than one of these wooden crates. The abundance of these crates naturally led to further function and repurposing as stools, tables, ladders, etc...is there more proven or practical a design than a simple wooden box?
