Custom Jewelry Box From a Vintage Container

What better way to store all your homemade jewelry than to give each item a special place! I was looking for a way to store some of my jewelry, and I had a nice vintage container laying around. So I decided to turn it into a jewelry box with custom inserts for some of my favorite pieces.

For this project you will need:

• a box or container
• some pieces thick leather, same size as the container
• a 3D printer
• strong glue
• paper or cardboard
• knife
• lots of jewelry!

Start by deciding on the lay-out of your pieces. Turn the box over on the paper and draw around the outline on a piece of cardboard. Cut it to the exact size of the opening of the box, so that it will fit inside the box snugly.

Then decide on which jewelry you want to include. I knew the container I used was high enough to have two layers stacked on each other, so keep that in mind when deciding on the amount of jewelry to use.

Use the cardboard cut-out to draw a few outlines on paper. Now for the fun part: arrange your jewelry within the outline. Draw your desired border around each piece, it can be very geometrical or you can follow the exact shape. Play around and have some fun with it! I tried several different lay-outs before I settled on the final one.

Make a separate 3D model for each insert, I will have two inserts stacked on top of each other. First determine the measurements, these will be based on the size of the insides of the box. The bottom insert will always remain in the box, so it should have a snug fit. The top insert you will need to take out to access the bottom one, so it should have a more loose fit to easily lift it out, and it should have a small grip to pick it up. The height of the inserts depends on the height of the box, mine was about 40 mm. I used a height of 15 mm for each insert and edges of 2 mm thickness. I added a lip of 10 mm height in the center of the top insert as a grip.

To make the 3D model for the inserts, there are two options. The first one is to use the lay-out drawing as a reference for Tinkercad. Start by making a rectangle the size of the box, but subtract 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm from each side as clearance (the exact value depends on your printer and settings, but better that it's a bit too loose than that it doesn't fit). Give it the height you want the inserts to be. Copy this rectangle, change it from solid to hole. Give it the same dimensions of the box, minus the wall thickness. I used a wall thickness of 2 mm, so I subtracted 2 mm for each side from the size of the rectangle. Make sure to center both rectangles, then subtract the hole from the solid. This is the main wall. Now draw the shape of the inserts. Depending on the shapes, you can make use of rectangles, the ring tool, or the scribble tool for organic shapes. I kept a wall thickness of 2 mm for each inset, and I gave them a height of 10 mm.

The second option is to use a vector drawing program. Take a picture of the lay-out drawing with a ruler next to it. Upload this picture to the vector program (I use Adobe Illustrator, but there are also many free options available. Choose one that can export svg-files!) and scale it to the correct size with help of the ruler in the picture. Draw over the pencil lines with vector lines. Keep in mind that each vector will be exported as a single line, so give thickness to the lines by setting the stroke to 2 mm and expanding them. Export the drawing as an svg-file and open it in Tinkercad. In Tinkercad, extrude the sketch to the height you want it to have.

Export the inserts as stl-files, and slice with your favourite slicer, I used Cura. Standard settings with a brim should be fine!

A piece of leather will be the bottom of the inserts, so the jewelry has a soft bed. Draw the outline of the insert on the leather and cut out with a sharp knife. Then use a strong glue to attach it to the bottom. Allow to dry. If you like, glue the lower insert inside the box. But mine had a pretty snug fit, so I didn't feel it was necessary. Then place your jewelry in their new home!

As a bonus, make a nice base for the box to finish it off. For this, I used the same outer frame in Tinkercad as for the bottom insert, just a bit lower. I added spheres to use as legs. Print in a filament of a similar color to your box, and glue to the bottom. I really like the vintage feel the legs add to the box!