These adorable boxes combine cold working and fusing techniques and are incredibly versatile.
Each box uses 2 empty bottles of the same size. You can use two of the same color or contrasting colors. Bottles with flat or nearly flat bottoms work the best.
Select one bottle for the box and one for the lid.
Begin with the bottle that will be the box part. With the bottle upright on your workbench, measure up 2” and mark the bottle all the way around. Carefully cut on this line using the bottle cutting method of your choice. (I prefer a tile saw.)
After cutting the bottle, grind the edge flat. You can do the grinding on a bench grinder, or by hand lapping. Hand lapping will produce the most flat surface, but you can achieve a pretty flat surface by grinding and then placing the bottle upside down on a piece of flat glass and marking the high spots for further grinding. Once the edge is perfectly flat, carefully round the corners just a tiny bit with a diamond sanding pad or file. This will help avoid chips on the edge in the future.
Once the box half is finished, we need to make the lid. The lid is going to be the fused bottom of the other bottle with a groove that will fit the bottle box edge.
Place the cut bottle bottom upside down on a piece of 1/8” fiber paper. Carefully cut out the circle, keeping the lines smooth and clean.
This fiber circle will form the inside of the lid of your bottle box.
Cut the bottom from the second bottle, as close to the base as you can. Make sure edges are smooth. Set aside the top of the bottle for other projects.
Place the bottle bottom with the outside of the base up and fuse over the fiber paper.
Your lid should fit right over the top of the bottle box.
Now that you have the basics figured out, you can expand this technique to other sizes of bottles, and even lid embellishments.
For a fancy lid, place a plaster element between the bottle bottom and the fiber paper before fusing. This works best if the plaster element is relatively flat. A tall plaster element may tip your bottle bottom, causing it to fuse unevenly and your lid to be off center.
The trinket boxes could be sandblasted or etched for further detail.
