Little soldered boxes

I had my first taste of mixed media at a workshop me and wonderful mum went to at Hope and Elvis.  The workshop was led by Di Tinker Foster and we made little soldered boxes.

There were a selection of paper boxes to chose from and we selected one in each of three sizes - 1" square, 1.5" square and 3"x2".  There were a whole host of "bits" to chose from too, and we'd brought along some things of our own.

There were loads of old postage stamps, and I managed to dig out some old Communist ones, including one from the USSR!  I was thrilled with that as the Communist world is of endless fascination to me.  I'd taken along some fabrics, and some charms, and available were glitters, the postage stamps, old dictionaries to cut up, sari silk, tons of beads and buttons, sewing thread, bits of lace and other trims, and broken jewellery.  

On my tray above you can see my largest box at the back with the stamps in it, some charms, buttons, a pot of beads, a mirror tile, a bunny bead (it's actually hand made, not by me, and I've treasured it for a couple of years waiting for the perfect project), the 1" box and my glass lids.  The glass lids are heavy bevelled glass.

This is my big box.  I stuck down the stamps using foam pads on some to make them different heights.  I picked out some large pearls and cut out words from the dictionary and glued them on.  The words include communism, Poland, Yugoslavia, USSR, comitern and socialist.  There is also a little bead with KGB on it - unfortunately it has wedged itself behind the USSR stamp which I think is hilarious - the KGB is behind the Iron Curtain!

I added a trim round the edge.  The process was to solder the glass lid on using copper tape and solder.  This is a technique I've done before when I've done copper foiling on glass projects so I was familiar with what we were doing.  I cut the copper tape using deckle-edged scissors, then applied it to the box and lid.  Solder is then used to cover the copper tape, holding everything securely in place.  I added little handles with some wire.

The paper box was made from olde worlde map paper which is quite fitting!

This is my 1.5" square box.  I gathered some sari silk and used it as a background.  I then added some sequins and a button and three words.  Love.  Bunny.  Rabbit.  Appropriate for this beautiful bead, and for bunnies in general!  The bead is from Tree Wings Studio on Etsy.
Her beads are amazing and there are a few more I'd like!  This was pricy, but it was a present from the lovely Mr CA.  Of course, being handcrafted, it is well worth the price, but it is a lot of money to pay for a bead.

The paper box was made from a dictionary page.

This was so hard to photograph!  This is the tiny 1" square box.  The paper box is a page from a French book.  I put some pretty paper in the back (mum had brought some with her), then suspended a sewing machine charm from the top.  I added some small purple iris beads which I left loose to rattle around.  

We had an absolutely brilliant day, it was the day before mother's day so also took mum to the on-site cafe for lunch.  Playing around with bits and bobs was so much fun.  I'd love to do some more mixed media, but I want to take more classes first, I don't feel prepared to just run with it.  Have any of you lovely readers tried mixed media?