Make a Sunflower Box

The leaves may be starting to change, but the sun is still shining! This week, Art Educator Karin Pavey show you how to make a sunflower box inspired by a small sunflower tureen in our English porcelain collection. It was made at the Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory in London, England c.1755. Craft your own version using materials from around the house.

You can also download the instructions as a PDF

Materials:

• Plastic snack container
• Paint (yellow bristol board may be used for sunflower templates instead of painting them)
• Paint brush
• Tray for paint
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Thin cardboard
• Paper
• Tape

Instructions:

Draw your sunflower and lid template on your cardboard or bristol board. Your measurements may be different than ours depending on the size of your container.

Draw a slightly smaller sunflower template on a piece of paper or thin cardboard.

Stack your cardboard sunflower template on top of a second piece of cardboard. Cut around the template. You should now have 2 sunflower templates cut.

Cut out your paper template as well.

Cut out the circle in the centre of each sunflower.

Cut out your circular lid and make 6 slits around it. Remember that your measurements may be different than ours depending on the size of your container.

Overlap the edges of the slits and tape them into place.

Here’s what the cardboard pieces should look like at this point.

Paint the plastic container that will be the base of your sunflower. We used light green.

Paint all sunflower templates yellow. If you used yellow bristol board, you can skip this step.

Paint around petal edges with white for contrast.

Paint the lid dark green. You can also add some details to the base.

Draw a leaf shape on your cardboard. This will be the knob or handle on your lid.

Cut out the leaf shape and make little slits along the edges.

Paint your leaf green and attach it to the lid with tape.

Stack your sunflower templates on top of the pot or base, with the smallest one on top. The lip on the pot will hold them in place.

With your fingers, curve the petals downward on the bottom template, and upwards on second and third.

You should now have your very own paper sunflower box!

Take a photo of your work and share it using #GardinerFromHome.