Marie starts with plates of hand-blown glass in an opaque white that is particularly striking. Tiny air bubbles which appear in the blowing process play with the light and create variations in the intensity of the color.

She cuts and then paints the plates by hand in several layers using a vitreous pigment known as grisaille, giving depth and nuance to the shades of black.

Marie assembles her box by wrapping each plate individually in copper ribbons, a technique developed by American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, inspired by the 13^th Century stained-glass in Chartres Cathedral in France. Though the methods have evolved somewhat over the centuries, the gestures Marie uses to create her superb pieces have changed very little since the Middle Ages.