Pithos - a phone stand

Pithos means a jar-like container in Greek, and is also the term used for the container in the myth of Pandora’s box. I named this phone stand Pithos since it serves to contrain the chaos and evils in their modern form — a smartphone.

“… Pandora’s box : a present which seems valuable but which in reality is a curse.” — Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1992

Rough-carved trenches on a square piece of beech wood. The thickness and width were determined by measuring my phone (with a case on), an iPhone 16e.

After rounding edges and polishing surfaces via sandpapers and an electric grinder (WORX WX750). This took me most of the time since the grinder’s power was too low and the battery had to be charged rapidly when using higher rpm. Happy to see the result though!

After applying some wood finishing paint and ground, the surface became so smooth and shine that it could reflect lights like a mirror!

Thoughts

I made this because I noticed a nice piece of wood sitting in the corner of my drawer—probably for years. At first, I started carving it with the only tools I had back then: a few carving knives and some sandpaper. It was tough, slow, and physically exhausting to work with just those. Later, I bought a small electric grinder. It wasn’t great, but it still made the process much easier, and I was just happy it worked.

My grinder’s polishing head.

When it comes to making things, I don’t think you can expect to have all the perfect materials and tools from the start. If you wait for that, you’ll end up stuck—both by the resources at hand and by limited imagination. In this little project, I began with an image in my mind and figured out better ways to do the work as I went. That mix of trying, thinking, and learning is the most exciting part of the process. It’s also what makes the results surprisingly good—and helps us grow with every project.