A Year in Glass: Project 9: A Surprise Engagement

Believe it or not, this project is not late. I finished it on Thursday, I just didn't have time to put up the blog post. I went away for the weekend and, horror upon horrors, the place where I was staying didn't have internet! So now I'm posting my entry 3 days late. Hakkuna Matata.

Anyway, this week's project was inspired by a pendant I found at the Bead Garden. The pendant says 'Love Me' in the middle and has 'yes' and 'no' written around the edge. Then there is a spinning arrow in the center. It's super cute. I decided to make a box. I was thinking specifically a box to hold an engagement ring, but I guess it could anything. The pendant is the door to open the box. I thought it would be really neat if I could get the box to only open if the arrow points to 'yes'.

The Process:

My Inspiration

First thing on the list was to design the box. The box is 5 cm x 5 cm x 2 cm.

Pattern for the box.

I built the box as two separate pieces; the lid and the bottom box.

It was important to figure out the lid and the locking mechanism before the box was put together because once the box was soldered shut there would be no way to go inside and fix problems.

The first task for the lid was make a hinge for the pendant. I really wanted to have a pivot point so the pendant twisted open. This would also keep hinge in the box and thus hidden. However, I couldn't figure out how to lock the box if the door opened in this manner so I had to stick with the standard pin hinge. If that didn't make any sense, don't worry. I have yet to figure out a clear way to explain it.

No lock, just a hinge. I explain the lock later.

The last step, besides installing the lock, was to solder the pieces together.

Final Product:

I bet you're wondering about the 'lock'. The box is locked by a bar that is larger than the hole cut in the top of the box. When the box is 'locked' that means if you try and pull the box open the bar will catch under the glass and it won't open. I soldered the bar to the arrow so the bar spins when the arrow spins. Finally, I cut away part of the glass around the hole that conveniently line up with with words 'yes' on the box. Hence, the box only opens when the arrow points to 'yes'.