This was very experimental casting.
I had cast silver around beach glass before, so I figured that stained glass would work OK as well.
It's got a low expansion co-efficient ( 90-104) and because stained glass get kinda bendy at relatively low temperatures, I figured it might match the contraction of molten silver as it cools from molten ( about 900C ) to about 400-500C.
I cut some off cut pieces of some scrap I had laying around.

I wax joined the sides with blue sprueing wax.
It's low temperature melting used for sprueing models to the central tree in lost wax casting.
The bottom would be the green part.

I melt wax in each corner on the inside and also on the outside.

I figured that the cast silver would run along the corners, and then as it froze in the plaster mold, the glass would still be pliable, because I cast at 700C, which is about 200C higher than the normal casting temperature.
This deduction was correct, but the wax shown in this picture was too thin.

Here is the size of the box, which is a bit big for this kind of work and the flasks I had at the time.

I sprued up the box.
This amount of sprues was also wrong. There were too few and too thin.
It was also quite ambitious to put a catch on the glass and think that the top bit of wax would be big enough to feed to the center.

The back was also equally ambitious.
The green waxes are just waxes that I injected from molds that I already had.
Sea shells, dolphins and palm trees and the like.
( I lived on a Caribbean island at the time)

The weight of the sprue wax in relation to the size of the box was incorrect.

And so it proved.
A complete failure for my first attempt.

The bottom was completely ruined.
Subsequently, with further casting attempts, the green glass would almost always break, whilst other colors in the same piece would not.
This led me to believe that certain colours of glass are more 'castable' than others.

I also think the glass broke before the actual cast took place, thus allowing the molten silver to flow in the cracks.

This was my third attempt.
All the wax work was heavier and there was substantially more sprueing.

Even with thicker wax, it was still unsuccessful.
I didn't take any pictures but the orange glass was unfriendly to casting.

This was my first successful attempt.
I used red glass only, because that make/colour seemed to be the most forgiving.

This picture shows how heavy the wax was in relation to the surface area of the glass.

Success at number six.

After the sprues were cut off.

Note the silver on the inside left corner flowed perfectly to the bottom of the box.

The future hinges were quite usable too.

Then I cast the lid.

The blue glass cast perfectly as well.

This is my wax work station.

I wanted to see if I could cast some thin dental sheeting into box shapes.
It is very easy to 'solder' wax together with a hot iron, much easier than using solid metal sheet.
I'm not saying wax is better, only easier.

Problem is that cleaning up the side after the cast is a real pain.

Nevertheless, they came out quite nice.
Casting then into silver is much easier than glass.

Nice little box to keep your smuggled diamonds or stash of illicit drugs in (joke).

I have always liked making little boxes.
I'm sure the shrinks have a name for it

I have always liked making little boxes.
I'm sure the shrinks have a name for it

I've got a couple of other heated wax pens, but for plain instant grunt, I prefer my soldering machine.
It's a bit heavy, but it goes from 0 to 60 real fast.

I made a silver tip out of silver wire, like this.

Below is my contact email and other websites.