Strawberry Box Treasure Chest
tutorial
With some leathery-looking brown paper, gold stripes and a
decorative clasp made from a paper cast, you can turn a quart-size plastic
strawberry box from the store into a treasure chest.
I love to use newly-made, still-wet sheets of paper to cover
plastic boxes and bottles.
Blend enough dark brown pulp (nice and dark – use some brown
paper bag pieces, brown card stock, black, purple, even orange printer paper)
to make two 8 x 10 sheets. Using the Arnold Grummer large pour handmold, make
two brown sheets of paper.
Carefully cover the outside of the strawberry box with the
brown paper. One sheet covers the top, one the base. Gently press the wet sheet onto the plastic
until it adheres completely. You can cover the box with the black screen from
the pour screen and then sponge the paper in place. Fold the edges of the brown paper over the
rim to the inside. Leave the plastic hinge bare.
To make the gold straps, mix enough yellow/gold pulp to fill
a squeeze bottle. I used manila envelope scraps and goldenrod printer paper to
make the gold pulp.
Here’s a great way to make strips of pulp:
Place the large-size white plastic screen support grid from
the pour handmold kit on a tray, place
the black cover screen on top. Take two small-size white plastic screen
supports and lay them parallel to one another on top of the black screen about
one square width apart. Using the squeeze bottle, pour/squeeze the pulp onto
the black screen between the two small plastic grids. Make a strip long enough
to wrap all the way around the box. Remove the small support grids. You will
have a long yellow strip of pulp.
With the pulp strip still on it, place the black screen,
pulp side down, in place on the box. Start at the back of the lid next to the
hinge and lay the strip all the way around the box breaking the strip gently at
the edge of the lid. With the black screen still in place, sponge the strip
until it adheres to the brown paper.
Make one more yellow strip for the other side.
To line the box, make two more large sheets of paper in a
contrasting color. Place one wet sheet on the inside of the lid and one on the
inside of the box. Carefully tear the
liner at the lip of the box and lid. Be sure to cover the brown paper that has
been folded to the inside of the box. Press the liner paper in place with the
sponge, making sure to press firmly into the brown paper that has been folded
to the inside. The more you press, the better the paper will adhere when it
dries.
Remember to lay wet paper onto wet paper. If you let the first layer of paper dry
before adding another layer, they won’t stick together.
