There was only one problem: the box. Now, I am extraordinarily picky about some things, as people who know me irl would attest, and I couldn't find any boxes that I both liked and could afford. Then it occurred to me: DIY! So I went to the local craft store and bought a lovely little wood box, the kind meant for kids to paint.
This is the unstained inside of the box, to show the wood's colour, as I forgot to take a picture before I did all this.
Now, if you're wondering where the coffee fits in with all this, we're getting there.
I didn't want to use one of those really intense stains from the store, and decided to make my own. My first impulse was to use tea, but I've used tea to colour things before and that wasn't quite the colour I wanted. As I was flipping through my notes on herbs for spellwork while prepping for a ritual, I stumbled across a mention of coffee and it being associated with the element of fire. That immediately felt right. I've always had a strong bond with the element of fire, and I felt the slightly more reddish hue of coffee would be exactly what I wanted.
So, I used about a cup of coffee, mixed just under a tablespoon of the instant coffee from the back of the cupboard in with it, and set about at it. This is definitely a project that takes patience, but the results are worth it. Use a paintbrush to apply the coffee to the wood, and allow to dry (about ten, fifteen minutes). Use the corner of a damp cloth to clean any metal bits (hinges, for example) or you'll end up having to scrub them for ages like I did when I was done. Repeat until the wood is a colour you like. This was my finished result:
Make sure to use the damp cloth mentioned above to gently pat the box. This will remove any excess coffee.
Now, we just need to seal the stain. Again, I didn't want to use something store-bought, so I did some googling and came up with this: http://bit.ly/1KNE9VA
I used it and it worked beautifully. And there we have it, a perfect little portable altar box! Also, I posted in this section because I assumed this counted as a craft, forgive me if I should've posted elsewhere.
I will shortly be posting the final, finished version of this as a potable altar in the altar section with the approximate cost if anyone's curious.
Thanks for reading!
