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Altered Jars, Part 2

Monday, February 11th, 2008 by Alyice

I know I still owe you a photo of my daughter’s vase but I can’t seem to get the lighting right. I don’t own studio lights and the house we’re renting is rather dark. I can’t even open the windows to let in natural light because they’re covered in plastic to keep the winter drafts out. So I thought I’d show you the progress I’m making with the jars I started last week.

Now, if the photo is a little blurred you’ll have to forgive me. My Bell’s Palsy is really affecting my eyesight today and I am seeing lots of blurred images—even with the eye drops. But I wanted to get something up today.

You’d think I’d be done already; after all, it’s been an entire week but I had a few setbacks.

There’s nothing like smearing the design you spent two hours painting because you picked up the jar while it was still wet! Yes, I actually forgot just five short minutes later. I had set down the jar to begin work on another jar when an idea popped into my head so I went back to grab the first jar to work on my “idea”. And that’s when it happened—a fist full of black paint.

It was so disappointing. I was so mad at myself that I put the jar down, rinsed out my paintbrushes, and walked away for the day. But to be honest, I’m kind of glad I did because the second draft is far better than the first. (It’s the gold jar with squares and flowers.) Now all I need to do is find a nice ribbon for the top and it’s ready to go.

Remember the orange canister? It really did look ugly. But thanks to several coats of acrylic paint and alcohol inks it’s been transformed into a cute “catch all jar”. I can’t decide if I want to give it away as the Valentine’s gift it was intended for, or keep it for myself. On the blocks, I wrote, “Live. Love. Laugh”

Then there’s the medieval times jar I am working on—it has the lightning and the green stones. I can’t quite figure out what to do with the top yet. And the floral jar is still lacking uniformity. I like the flowers covering the top of the jar. But it’s not coming together as expected. I don’t know if I should use the same flowers on the body of the jar or continue to paint on more flowers. And finally there’s the ocean jar. My original idea was to leave it as is and top it off with a nice ribbon, but the more I look at it, the more I think, “How can I adhere a few dolphins? And where can I find them?”

So many decisions…

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Altered Bottles, Jars, and Containers

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 by Alyice

I made a gorgeous vase for my daughter’s room out of an old root beer bottle she’d been saving. My neighbors said it reminds them of something you’d find on a pirate ship—minus the heart of course. I’ll post a photo later this week as my colleague informed me, after emailing her a quick snap shot, that I really need to do the piece justice by photographing it in a nice setting before placing in on my blog.

It was so much fun that now I find myself saving every empty jar, container, and bottle for future projects. I just hope I don’t turn into one of those crazy people who can’t throw anything away and before they know it their homes have become nothing more than indoor junk yards!

Currently, I am in the process of altering a peanut canister, a mayonnaise jar, a pickle jar, a coffee can, and a spaghetti jar. The peanut canister is nearly complete and will have the honorable role of housing pens, pencils, and other writing things. The coffee jar will become a place to store loose change—complete with pop off lid. And the remaining jars are still undecided. Perhaps they’ll become wide-mouthed vases.

You can’t really tell how things will turn out from the photo—so many things in the beginning “yuck” phase. But I thought you’d get a kick out of my make-shift workstation. I hadn’t planned on turning a $25 fold-a-way table into a workstation full of paint and sealer, but I didn’t feel like waiting until the summer for my husband to build me a workstation just so I can start working on things again.

And yes, I’ve discovered I am a very messy artist. I think it is part of the fun!

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AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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