How to Make a Zen Garden from an Altoids Tin

It wasn't too much of a stretch for Kate Pruitt to decide that an old Altoids tin would make an excellent desktop Zen garden. After all, the tins -- at 3.75 inches (9.5 centimeters) long, 2 inches (5 cm) wide and 0.75 inches (1.9 cm) deep -- is similar to the size of factory-made desktop Zen gardens out there for sale [source: Benjamin]. That said, Pruitt's Altoids tin Zen garden stands out for a couple of reasons. First, the artist has a penchant for crisp and soothing design that she shares with her readers. More importantly, the Altoids tin Zen garden she is something of an homage to her mother, who Pruitt says is an devotee of Eastern spirituality.

Pruitt removes the lid by of an empty Altoids tin by unfastening the screws, leaving the base of the tin with the hinges still attached, but flattened with pliers. To add an earthy feel to the garden, she uses faux wood grain contact paper. She says she was inspired by designer Todd Oldham, who tends to favor similarly ironic patterns. "It makes sort of a little kitschy Zen garden," she says [source: Pruitt].

With the contact paper applied, folded over the edges inside the tin and smoothed of wrinkles (except those that form at the corners -- which can't be avoided but can be flattened, Pruitt says), the garden can be filled with sand. Pruitt uses coarse-grain sand, which looks like gravel in a miniature garden. Gravel is a key component of the Karesansui ("dry mountain and water garden") type of Japanese rock garden [source: Bolt].

To simulate the upright boulders that are characteristic of all rock gardens, Pruitt places small stones she's accumulated on family trips over the years to add an even more sentimental touch to the space. Follow the Japanese technique of burying the bottom third of the stones, so they look seated in the garden.

To complete the project, Pruitt constructs a miniature rake. The rake is used in a Zen garden as a way to smooth and ripple the sand, a traditional means toward creating tranquility in the raker. In other words, without the rake you've got a garden with no Zen. She uses a thin strip of balsa wood, cut into a 2-inch (5 cm) length for the rake handle, with a 0.5-inch (1.3 cm) length attached at a slight angle on one end of the handle. The pointed tips of three bamboo barbecue skewers glued to the half-inch strip form the rake's tines.

Fresh breath and tranquility; how can you go wrong?