The design on the front of this bottle was made with a plaster leaf stamp intended for ceramic clay. The stamp was impressed many times before the hot glue set,being re-wet on a damp cloth between each impression. The wet plaster stamp can be pulled away immediately after the impression is made, because it does not stick to the molten glue like a rubber stamp would. A hammered spiral of brass wire was inserted into the top of the cork stopper and used to hang a beaded dangle. Hammered copper charms hang from the loops at the ends of the coiled “arms” of wire.
Right:
Two sizes of plaster leaf stamps were used to make this design and a heavier, 20 gauge wire was hammered into flat spirals at either end, and then twisted around the neck of the bottle (making sure that both spirals ended up in front).
This bottle presented a challenge because there was no flat space on which to create a medallion. We decided instead, to use the hot glue to make decorative bands to accent the rounded sections of the bottle’s shape.
We then made hammered “swizzle sticks” from heavy, 16 gauge copper wire, and hung a dangle of crystal and copper beads offsetting a beautiful raku ceramic bead.
Here, the swizzle sticks are made from black and brass wire. The beads were fed onto the wire on the left before the bends and spiral were hammered flat. That keeps the beads right where you put them because the flattened wire is wider and the beads cannot pass over it. For the sake of something different, the neck of this bottle was painted with black Porcelain ceramic paint - applied with a make-up sponge to get an even coating. Then, Vermeil Porcelain was sponged more sparsely over the black using a sea sponge. Colors were allowed to dry 24 hours and fired in a kitchen oven before the rust and hot glue embellishments were added. Design stamp by Magenta.
