Everything good comes in a Box

There exists a certain magical intrigue about boxes. How we like to compartmentalize everything. How the packaging industry of today is just feeding of our instinctive need to relate everything in a box to be more precious and more valued.
From presents on Christmas and Birthdays; to treasured memories - wedding dresses, love letters; to loved ones who passed. We put everything in a box specific to that. I was thinking of making tangrams for my next project but I am far more interested in making the box that they will be stored in.
There is a section in fine arts called functional ceramics but why is it that functional sculpture becomes a craft? Can I make really beautiful and well thought our boxes as fine art? 
I am looking to merge the wood and clay to create boxes maybe for the tangrams or for whatever else I think deserving enough to be in a box.