Been thinking about making a piece with the quote–“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you; I could walk through my garden forever.”

When I ran across this box in my stash, thought it might be fun to combine it with the quote.

The exterior bottom of the box had a hand written price of 79¢. Made me smile. The notion of how objects are valued is a curious thing. Some would say the value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

Box Lid Exterior
The lid of the box has a slot for a postcard or photo that is 3.5″ x 5.5″.

I used a piece of parchment paper and bamboo fiber for the code. I applied PVA to the front and back of the code piece for easier insertion into the box slot.

To prevent the code piece from moving about, I applied some PVA to the right side back of the parchment before inserting it into the slot. Why?

I noticed the postcard was a bit mangled. I thought it was wear from being carried around.

But there are thin wood strips on the top and bottom inside of the slot reducing the space. When I trimmed the code piece, it moved about a tad in the slot. Apparently the wood strips aren’t exactly square. The PVA should prevent the parchment code from shifting.

Code Used
The code is based on an altered Masonic cipher, also know as Pigpen.

Box Interior

I fixed up the interior of the box with a bamboo I-cord, a piece of linen, and some trim that I purchased years ago.

I make a practice of gathering and drying plants to use in pieces. The interior lid has two dried Datura flowers. Why two? For the same reason I have two stacks of bound pennies inside the box.

The second part of the code was stitched onto a piece of tree wrap with bamboo fiber.

I stitched a few flowers onto the flipside of the linen with code.

I placed a beautiful malformed Brugmansia flower on top of the dried flowers to protect them. The Brug flower should prevent the dried flowers from shifting when the box is handled. It should also prevent the dried flowers from flitting away when the box is opened.

Unusual for me, but I did not count the number of flowers in the box. Even typing that makes me anxious. Should have counted them. Maybe I will.

The bound pennies are located in the front left corner of the box. The binding is a dried Brugmansia flower tied with a bit of cotton cord. There are two stacks of two pennies–the first stack is 1963 and 2018, the second is 1973 and 1990.

Materials
Wood box, parchment paper, tree wrap, bamboo fiber, cotton fiber, linen fabric, cotton trim, dried flowers, stain, PVA

Masonic/Pigpen Cipher