I went looking for polymer beads and found a Treasure Box! It’s called Pitch with Easter Trance Spirals, by Lauren of thickneckARTS.

I’ve always loved hemp jewelry but without going to a craft/art show I could never find stuff that was unique or if it was, it wasn’t my style. Then I realized I would never find exactly what I wanted outside of my own creation. Only I could create exactly what I wanted!

Long story short, I bought some primary colors to play around with and have been hooked ever since!
~ Lauren

But what brought her to making a treasure box instead of beads for her hemp-knotted jewellery?

Lauren tells me she’d read that polymer clay could be used on “just about anything that could withstand the clay’s baking temperature” — around 225°F depending on the piece.

“It opened a whole other door for me with the clay,” she says. “I went from beads to candle holders to treasure boxes in a day!”

Basically, for the treasure box she used a wooden Home Depot giftcard box, black polymer clay, liquid polyclay and part of a polymer clay “cane” she’d already designed. (And for those of us who aren’t hands-on with the polymer clay yet, ClaySquared has an terrific photo show of the step-by-step process of how a polymer cane is built that, trust me, you’ll really enjoy!)

As Lauren explains her process, she wrapped the entire box — lid and all — with black polymer clay, attaching it using the liquid polyclay. Then she cut slices from the cane and stuck them onto the black clay in a random pattern — going for a polka dot-look.

“I had to use a roller to flatten it on all sides, then smooth the corners with my fingers. Once the box was completely wrapped and the “polka dots” in place, I made “incisions”, if you will, where the door and box would separate so that it could be opened once baked. Then I separated the door from the box, and baked both on a cookie sheet for about 15-18 mins at 200-215°F.”

If you want to try this project yourself, Lauren advises, it might be best to bake the wooden box before you cover it with polymer clay.

“The box I used bubbled sap up from its bottom into the box itself during baking. It still came out beautiful but the sap takes up a good bit of room on the inside. lol. Also, don’t try to make your corners too flush or too tight because when the clay bakes it will pull taut, so to speak, and may create cracks.”

Lauren made a wise design choice in the classic black-and-white theme for her first treasure box, I think, as almost anything black-and-white has an automatic touch of class!

(Another way to go might be with wildly funky colours and a lot of detail, if you’re afraid you might have an ‘ooops’ or two to disguise…)

As for the wood Home Depot box giving up some sap when it was heated — that sounds like these boxes are made with fairly green wood, so likely to have some shrinkage over the years in any case.

You might be able to pick up an old wooden box of the right size and shape at a yard sale, one that’s already well dried by age. Just be careful not to polymer-decorate a priceless collector’s item by mistake! So, come to think of it, I think I’d go with the Home Depot box and just try to plan ahead, to dry the box out gradually at a very low heat over a period of days, to prevent the wood from warping.

Why not get a couple of boxes, and just pop them into the oven whenever it’s cooling off after you’ve had a cooking spree? Saves on electricity, dries the wood out in a gentle way to prevent the box from warping as the moisture evaporates from its fibers, and gives you a couple of boxes all ready to go when a treasure box inspiration hits you!

Whomp!
Yep, that was inspiration hitting right now…

Find Lauren’s polymer beads, hemp jewellery, and other arts at thickneckarts.etsy.com.

Here’s a cheery eco-alternative to using those nasty plastic bags when you shop for groceries! It’s a sturdy folding box made of woven polyethylene fabric, fully lined, with built-in aluminum carrying handles.

The Shop Box comes in two sizes, made to fit into supermarket trolley. Fold it flat to take to market, then open it up to fill with your purchases and carry the groceries home.

The Camouflage Company does its Shop Box in four designs — Willow, Evergreen (which is sort of an ivy pattern), Long Grass, and Roses and Petals (shown here). You can also get an expandable tray in a matching pattern, to organize the smaller items or flip over to serve as a lid.

As far as I can tell, The Camouflage Company only sells to the UK and parts of Europe, but you’ll be happy to know that Garden Divas will ship Shop Boxes to international customers — just choose your country at their online checkout.

I just came across this “non-traditional book” in the Potter Style (Random House) line-up — the Holiday Motif Box of Boxes. Basically, it’s 9 self-folding boxes, 12 stickers, 12 wrap bands, and 12 sheets of tissue paper, all done up in a festive holiday motif.

With three size options, you can mix and match bottoms, tops, ribbons, and stickers to create the perfect presentation for the perfect gift.

At $16.95, it may be a smidgen steep for the DIY’er who likes to create and fold her own custom boxes — but such a dandy item for the gift-wrap-impaired male (we won’t mention names) who’d want a special presentation for a tiny hard-to-wrap gift… Like, oh, say, a breathtakingly-expensive handmade charm bracelet…

Inspiration:
Sari Silk Patchwork Box
ArtAsiaOnline.com

Round, pink box decorated with sari patches with tassel. Delicate gold and silver embroidery, embellished with sequins… 9 cm x 10 cm.

I’m reminded of a Victorian-era crazy quilt in scraps of silk, satin, velvet, and brocade. The embellishment is key — no plain quilting, for example, but a line of fancy embroidery stitches along the seam between patchwork pieces…

DIY Ideas and Resources:

There are instructions for creating a cylindrical box in the book Creating Books & Boxes: Fun and Unique Approaches to Handmade Structures by Benjamin Rinehart, published in 2007 by Quarry Press.

No time to build from scratch? Paper mache craft boxes might be a good starting point… but recycling is even better. I understand that Quaker Oats come in a cylindrical box that’s suitable for making pinhole cameras, too, not to mention a good excuse for making a batch of oatmeal cookies…

You’d want to be careful with any padding, and the thickness of the fabric scraps used, to make sure that the lid would still fit. I’m inclined to think that making a round box out of heavy cardboard would be just as easy in the long run.

The trinket box treasure hunt has yielded another lovely little box [via Helen and Beadwork magazine ], this retro styled box, hand beaded, by Theresa A. Gozeski of Massachusetts, USA.

I’m quite taken with the turqoise and coral colour scheme, which is so reminiscent of the 1920s while the seed beads whisper of Victoriana…

It’s an original beadcharmed design (‘Terracina’) — a wooden box gloriously embellished with glass seed beads, a Style Stone oval, a wood rectangle, leaf findings, four vintage coral floral cabs, and two vintage glass floral cabs. Whew!

Named and dated by the artist, this trinket box is sturdy enough to be truly useful, and lovely enough to be passed down as a treasured heirloom to the beadwork lovers of a future generation.

The search for little boxes continues…

Tonight, a fleeting heart-shaped hint on Etsy’s front page — I caught it by the merest of lucky accidents! — leads to an artist who’s new to me, Paula Manning-Lewis…

Voila!
Two lovely light-hearted boxes in acrylic paints on papier mache, as well as the stash-sized Red and Brown Heart Spiral trinket box in oil paints on wood. (I really like the way the lines of paint almost suggest a fantasy wood grain, counterpoint to the wood itself.)

PaulaM‘s work has a free and easy southwest feel to it, at least to me from my northern perspective — is it the flowing line, or the palette of warm clear sunrise/sunset colours?

About the artist:

I currently work mainly in watercolor, but I have worked with a variety of mediums. I like to paint a fairly large variety of subject matter but stick mainly to southwest landscapes, portraits and my newest fascination, abstract expressionism! Recently, my main theme has been peace.

PaulaM lives and creates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she co-founded the Seventh Mountain Artists group.

Okay, so this is a little too small for a proper stash / trinket box. I don’t care, it’s worth a little rave about it anyway! (My Yorkshire penpal Lynn (who just emailed me the link) is clearly hinting for an early birthday gift… ahem!)

This little box is all kinds of gold. The top of the box is covered with a gold textured paper with beaded wallcovering and glass tile forming a pattern in the center. The bottom of the box is covered with an ivory paper with small gold studs that form a subtle leafy abstract pattern. The inside of both top and bottom is painted dark gold.

The tiny elegant gold box is 1½” in overall height, and 2½” square at the widest part of the lid, with an opening of 2¼” — not really large enough for hiding your billets-doux or the credit card receipts from that last shoe-shopping spree, but perfect for a piece of precious jewellery or some other small treasure.

By artist Erin Sibley, who peddles her decoupage as ergodesign on Etsy and Lov.Li.

The hinges are finally going beyond hope of repair, on the old wooden cigar box in which I’ve stashed my bits-and-pieces of girly nonsense since, oh, since the days of big hair and Lycra. So now I’m on the hunt for a replacement (and suggestions would be welcome!).

Got a Box?

Suggestions are welcome!
If you make special stash boxes, or know someone who does, why not drop a comment and share a link here? (Too shy to comment, you can always email me with the info…)

Go ahead, my crafty pals, it’s an open invitation to shameless self promotion!!
;-)

A stash box, a trinket box, a jewellery box, call it what you will… it has to be just so. Not too big, not too small, not too fussy to open (but not with one of those balancing-act lids that can blow off in the breeze from a quickly closed door, either), and it has to be truly unusual.

I’m not saying one-of-a-kind, necessarily, though that would be good. But the fact is, you’ll live with that chosen stash box right there in front of you, day in and day out, in your own personal living space, for years on end. So it’s got to be the right box. Not a decision to be rushed!

In the meantime, here are a few of the trinket boxes that I’ve got marked down as fabulous “possibles”…

1. ghostgirl11‘s Silent Screen Goddesses trinket box [Etsy]

This box stands 2½ inches high and measures 4½ inches square. It is adorned with some of the silent screens most famous divas such as Theda Bara, Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson and Marion Davies.

2. Helsinki printed case with metal clasp [Peep Keep]

From Ivana Helsinki in Finland come these Fennofolk designed boxes with pixelized, chocolate brown birds. Made of plastic cover with Ivana Helsinki logo embossed inside. 8″ x 4.75″ x 2.75″

3. Haru‘s Here Kitty Kitty Treasure Keeper Box [Etsy]

dimensions: 5-1/2″w X 5″d X 4-1/8″h
Several layers of protective medium has been applied to ensure a smooth and durable finish. Created in a smoke-free environment.

JR’s grandmother was a Brit who used to talk about feeling “wonky” every now and then, when she was a bit unsteady on her feet (age, not vino) and had to sit down. I wonder if this was the way she saw the world, at those moments!

The Mini Wonky Jewellery Box here, a little chest of drawers just under a foot high, is the bold primary version of a whole clan of these woozy dance-y little stash boxes from Paul or Sandra Szewc at Masterpiece Cabinets.

But that’s actually pretty tame. In fact, there’s a whole gallery of even more groovy one-of-a-kind hand-painted boxes to gladden the heart of your Inner Flower Child — especially if she is, oh, Alice in Wonderland!

Catch this wonky wave at the One Of a Kind Show in Chicago, Illinois, USA, from December 7th to 10th, 2006.