Refills for your pillbox are available (select "hard perfume" option under your favorite Visette blend) or you can clean and repurpose your pillbox.
Use a paper towel to remove any excess hard perfume, then wash the inside of your pillbox with warm soapy water. Use a soft toothbrush if needed to get into corners.
Note that metal pillboxes have been coated on the inside with a clear enamel to prevent the metal from leeching into the hard perfume.
CLOISONNÉ
Today cloisonné is most closely associated with Asia but the technique was developed in ancient Egypt. “Cloisonné” [French] means cell or partition, referring to metal wires (often brass or copper) that are attached to a base metal.
These wires contain the colored enamel paste as it melts. The paste is hand painted in between the wires and the object is fired to a temperature that will melt the paste into glass (enamel). The technique has spread around the world. It was used in Europe during the Middle Ages, and was introduced into China from Persia and Arabia during the Yuan dynasty (1277-1386). Chinese craftsmen mastered the technique during the Ming dynasty (1426-1435). Japanese craftsmen began to produce cloisonné in quantity during the 1800’s.
VENETIAN GLASS TECHNIQUES
Micro-Mosaic: The small mosaics on these pillboxes are handmade with Murano glass beads by craftsmen in various houses in Italy—Venice and its surrounding areas.
Micro-mosaics originated in 17th century Rome when the Vatican commissioned artisans to recreate deteriorating paintings using glass. The craftsmen used different colors of glass, melted, and then pulled into thin rods/strings called filati. The filati are created in different shapes, such as flat, teardrop, curved, and more. Once made, the filati is scored and cut into small pieces which will become the tesserae in the micro mosaic. The pieces are placed one by one into a bed of stucco or putty to create the final mosaic.
Milliefiori: Millefiori, also known as Murrine, is one of the best-known techniques of Murano glass making. It stands for "a thousand flowers”. In the 16th century some of the Murano glass artisans started attempts to imitate the beautiful ancient glassware created by Romans. They were successful, but as with many other glassmaking techniques, the secrets they uncovered were lost again until the interest in these Roman pieces sparked anew in the second half of the 19th century. The technique is also used in India, Tibet and Turkey.
Making of a millefiori pattern starts with a glass rod that contains multiple layers of semi-liquid glass paste applied one on top of another around the cylindrical rod. Each layer is molded to have a certain shape (usually star or flower-like) and color. The preparation continues as the multi-layered rod is stretched and then cut up into small cylindrical pieces called "murrine", which are then cleaned up and arranged in a pattern within a special heat-resistant mold. Next, the mold containing the murrine pattern is placed into the special furnace. Once murrine start bonding with each other inside the furnace, the mold is removed and its contents are pressed upon to create a continuous Millefiori surface with no gaps. After that, it's back to the furnace for shaping the final product.
METALWORKING TECHNIQUES
Repoussé: A metalworking technique where a design is created by hammering and pushing the metal from the inside or reverse side to create a raised pattern on the exterior surface. The technique is often combined with chasing, where details are refined by working the metal from the front. This detailed process transforms a flat sheet of malleable metal, such as sterling silver or brass, into a decorative, three-dimensional surface.
The process begins with a sheet of metal, cut to the size and shape needed for the pill box's lid or side. The metal is placed face down onto a supportive, yet giving, surface like a block of warm pitch, which holds it in place. Using a variety of specially shaped hammers and punches, the artisan carefully taps the metal from the reverse side. This "pushes up" the design, creating a low-relief, embossed pattern on the front. After the initial relief is formed, the pill box is removed from the pitch and worked on from the front. The artisan uses chasing tools to refine the raised areas, add fine lines, and texture the details. Pill boxes with repoussé designs are valued for their artistry and decorative qualities. The design is raised and tactile, contrasting with the smooth, flat surface of etched or engraved items. Because it is hammered by hand, each repoussé pill box has unique variations, giving it character that mass-produced items lack.
Guilloché: An ornamental engraving method that creates intricate, interlocking, and repetitive geometric patterns on a surface, traditionally using a rose engine lathe. The craft is a combination of mechanical precision and artistic skill, as the patterns are created by guiding a cutting tool, while precisely controlling both the tool's pressure and the workpiece's rotation.
More specifically, the process involves using a special hand-operated machine, most notably a rose engine, which uses rosettes (cams) to guide the movement of the workpiece against a stationary cutting tool. Unlike some other machines where the cutting tool moves, in a rose engine, the workpiece is moved by the operator, who turns a handle to control the rate of rotation and a lever to apply pressure. By adjusting the settings on the machine, artisans can create a wide variety of patterns, such as waves, spirals, and other complex geometric designs. Some common guilloché patterns include straight lines, concentric circles, waves, and basketweave.
PORCELAIN
Limoges: Limoges porcelain is some of the most coveted decorative art to emerge from France, in part because it refers not to one single maker, but rather to the array of hard-paste factories that thrived in the eponymous town centuries ago. Limoges porcelain dates back to the late 18th century, when a fortuitous discovery of kaolin clay changed the course of the region’s history. This was an essential ingredient for making hard-paste porcelain, which is fired at remarkably high temperatures and results in a luminous finish that is ideal for decoration. Capitalizing on the availability of kaolin clay, small-production porcelain factories opened in the surrounding area. But it was the arrival of King Louis XVI of France in 1781—who purchased one of the local factories in order to make porcelain wares for his court—that catapulted Limoges porcelain’s acclamation.
del Prado: Ediciones del Prado, a publishing company founded in Madrid, Spain in 1988, released a collection of 60 miniature porcelain trinket boxes as part of a series in the magazine Partworks. The boxes are numbered and signed on the base with "del Prado Collection, Fine Porcelain, Hand Finished". The collection includes 28 boxes with removable lids and 32 boxes with attached lids that open and close with latches. Technically speaking, del Prado is not a manufacturer but a publisher. It has released a number of companion items to its publications that are of interest to collectors—but they are actually manufactured by other, often well known, companies. Their trinket boxes are known for their high quality and detail.
PETIT POINT
The art of petit point embroidery originated at the French Court in the 16th century, where the women originally embroidered coarser tapestries. Over generations, the stitches became finer and finer, the threads thinner and thinner and the colors more sophisticated. The stitch used is worked either in diagonal or horizontal rows across the intersection of the canvas threads. The thread is carried back from stitch to stitch in a uniform manner to ensure the pull of the thread at the front is consistent. The style is characterized by the number of mesh holes per linear inch, with petit point having 16 to 20 or more.
BIDRI
Bidri reminds one of the silvery stars against a dark sky. The underlying concept is ''beauty in contrast''. The craft of Bidri appears to have had its origins in Persia and its development and efflorescence happened at Bidar, now in the Karnataka state, in southern India during the 14th century. This was with royal patronage and the skill of the craftsmen.
The Bidri art form is a kind of damascene work known as "koftagiri”—a system of ornamentation consisting of encrusting gold or silver on iron objects. In “Bidri” or “Bidari”, silver is inlaid in the designs to decorate objects made out of white brass, an alloy of zinc and copper (16:1 ratio). The process of producing a Bidri object involves casting, polishing, engraving, inlaying and blackening the alloy. The casting is done in molds covered with a mixture of wax and resin of red clay. The molten metal is poured in after the wax is melted out. The object is polished on a lathe before designs are drawn with a fine point and pure silver is hammered into the pattern. The final polish is achieved with sandpaper after charcoal and coconut oil are used to blacken the white brass.