How to Create a Cactus Curio Box

My goal in creating this cactus curio box was to elevate these textural, glowing orbs to the status of jewelry or artwork. Cacti are succulents with simple shapes, and none illustrate the plants’ elegantly elemental geometry as well as spherical varieties. To showcase the beauty of these often-ignored succulents, I went with an open wood box with a dozen partitions, each just right for cacti in 2.5-inch pots.

For design details and how-to, see my video, “Create a Cactus Curio Box.”

Here are the names of cacti shown in the photo and in my video. Labeled photos follow.

Mammillaria mystax
Mammillaria hahniana (Old lady cactus)
Mammillaria carmenae (Isla Carmen pincushion)
Mammillaria elegans
Espostola melanostele (Peruvian old lady cactus)
Mammillaria celsiana (Golden pincushion)
Mammillaria sp. (sp. means “species unknown”)
Mammillaria fragilis ‘Cristata’ (Crested thimble cactus)
Notocactus sp. (Parodia)
Echinopsis ‘Domino’ (Domino cactus)
Mammillaria sp.
Notocactus ‘Silver Ball’ (Silver ball cactus)