Can't Get Enough Bottle Cap Art #4

I'm very excited about the growing field of bottle cap art.  These next artists feature products that I've classified as functional art.  It's a smaller field than jewelry, but it is well worth the hunt.  These items aren't as easy to subcategorize, but the artists I chose tend to celebrate the artwork of the cap itself.  The first artist, fattslures,  creates fishing lures with recycled caps.  What a fabulous way to spend the day; fishing, sunshine and your favorite brew.

Loranscruggs, was also featured in my very first bottle cap treasury many moons ago on etsy.  I'm not sure how I first stumbled across her store, it was either a feature on Etsy's front page or one of my many combs through the bottle cap entries. Her whistles are amazing and she has adorable pull toys made from tin cans and bottle caps.  I'm also impressed with her collaboration with a fellow etsy artisian, oopsthatsart, who makes the wooden frames for Loran's toys.  Two handmade objects in one item is fabulous.

I found StickToIt when preparing for this article.  They make the cutest tic tac toe boards using coordinating bottle caps as the game pieces.  They'll even customize a board for you.  A very convenient item for mom's to keep in their bags to keep the kids entertained.

There are many sellers who make bottle cap magnets; however I love ScreaminMonkeyCircus's shop name and the idea of giving a six pack of magnets to your favorite beer drinker.  Brian also showcases the bottle cap image rather than covering it up, which I prefer for gifts for the men in my family.  Speaking of the men on your shopping list, kroseadams, has fabulous leather belts embellished with bottle caps.  She hails from Oregon and lauds it as beer heaven.  As a onetime resident of Oregon myself, I used to agree with her.  However, Michigan does offer some fabulous breweries of its own, not to mention the best cap ever designed, Oberon.  I feel a beer taste off in the works!

Pottopgirl, offers several bottle cap related items, but as a midwest gal, I couldn't resist this clock made from bottle caps and,  get this, recycled car parts.  What's not to love!  The same is true with ElenaMary's unique business card holder made of various recycled materials and bottle caps.  What an excellent way for sellers of bottle cap art to present their cards.

The last two artists feature items for your home.  Rettocamme offers trivets and table runners and I can tell she really appreciates bottle caps.  How do I know?  Her table runner has cork under each cap to protect your table top.  However, she very considerately did not put cork under the Magic Hat caps.  Magic Hat lovers know that these caps have fun phrases on the inside of their caps and Emma was sure to leave those visible for you to enjoy. 

Our last artist, LeBeauMEL, offers end tables, planters and other items utilizing bottle caps and I love the title of his store, The Art of Drinking Beer.  If you're a poker player, you really have to check out his poker chip set.  An amazing collection of caps and a unique way to play poker.

I hope you enjoyed this new set of artists.  I'll be cycling back for more in depth coverage of a few artists featured, but the next post will be on the art category.  You'll be just amazed at what these artists have done with caps.

Can't Get Enough Bottle Cap Art #3

The easiest way to continue my series on bottle caps is to show the works of some fabulous artists I've found on Etsy.  Jewelry represents a growing avenue of bottle cap design and is the first set of designers featured.  These designs can be loosely divided into those that: showcase the cap itself; use the cap as a form for other artwork; use the cap as a bezel; or transform  the cap into a new form.

The Integrity of the Cap

The first four designers embrace the iconic image of the bottle cap and preserve that image to different affect.  The first designer, Blingismything, showcases the cap in its original form.  Few do it as well as Katie; her designs are simple, yet chic and wearable.  While the cap does the heavy lifting, her beadwork adds whimsy and flair.  Also showcasing the elemental cap is the second designer, edGys.  I love how he flairs out the edges of his bottle caps to create unique decorative pins.  It's a fabulous design that celebrates the cap while changing its look dramatically.

When I stumbled across the third designer, artbyelissa, I was immediately enamored with her jewelry.  Every piece of  the earrings you see here are from recycled materials and SOLDERED.  I put it in capitals to show how impressed I am with this design.  Soldering is not for whimps, it takes practice and I find it very difficult to master.  Which leads me to the fourth designer, mannmadedesigns.  Jimmy makes his OWN sterling silver bezels and findings.  He cuts out the important part of the bottle cap (the image) and sets it in precious metal.  His design elevates the cap into something that would easily grace the store front of your favorite jewelry store.

The Cap as a Form or Bezel

The next two designers take a different direction with their bottle cap art.  They use the bottle cap as a form or structure for their other artwork.  The first, SomewhatHip, uses the bottle cap as a canvas for her stunning paintings.  I've done some very minor painting in the past, and painting on such a small scale takes real talent (again, not for the faint hearted).  The next designer's, craftyaddictions, piece caused me a great deal of stress when I first researched my own designs.  Well, not her's specificially, but the notion of the flattened cap.  No matter how hard I tried, my cap DID NOT look like this.  (The capitals illustrate my level of frustration at the time.)  It took several ruined caps before I discovered this look can only be achieved with unused bottle caps.  Notice how perfectly the unused cap flattens into a wonderful bezel for her artwork.  Unused caps can be found from many sources, but the most common is the home beer brewing industry.  For my designs, a used cap works better, so oftentimes I have to use my husband's bottler to crimp them first.  But for designers like craftyaddictions and scrapbookers, the unused cap is pure gold.

What Cap?

The next two designers remind me most of Mary Hettmansperger's inspiration.  When you first look at these two designers, markaplan and RadiantShadow, you don't see a bottle cap, you see a stunning piece of jewelry.  Who needs a pristine, unblemished cap, when a rusty beat up cap provides such a spectacular design.  I've been pinning after Mark's earrings since I featured them in my very first etsy treasury many moons ago.  Denise's pendant is now on that list of growing wants.

Bottle Cap or Cabochon?

The last designer is a fellow Etsy Beadweaver's teammate, PFordCustomJewelry.  This is a design very much after my heart and uses the bottle cap (in this case champagne) as a cabochon surrounded by beautiful beadwork.  While preserving the bottle cap image, the cap is transparent in this design.  Your eye is drawn to the image itself and the beadwork which showcases it. 

In the next post, I'll showcase functional bottle cap designers.  If you'd like to learn more about the designers in this post, please check out their shops:

http://blingismything.etsy.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/edGys

http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyelissa

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mannmadedesigns

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SomewhatHip

http://www.etsy.com/shop/craftyaddictions

http://www.etsy.com/shop/markaplan

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RadiantShadow

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PFordCustomJewelry

Can't Get Enough Bottle Cap Art #2

In my previous post, I credited Mary Hettmansperger with my foray into designing with bottle caps.  But after a conversation with a facebook friend, I realized the seed was planted much sooner.  Sigrid asked me if I'd ever created with champagne or cava caps.  After admitting to my secret desire to obtain these caps (I don't drink enough champagne to build a stash) we agreed to a trade and a friendship has blossomed.  In our conversations, I remembered a piece submitted by a Bead and Button reader, Toni Trefethen, in the December 2006 issue.  She utilized Laura McCabe's bezel technique to create a stunning bracelet out of champagne caps.  From there I realized, that my original inspiration came from Laura's Expand Your Memory Necklace that was published in Bead and Button in April 2003.  That necklace was created with computer circuit boards as the cabochons.  I remember laying awake at night figuring out how I could use circuit boards.  With my husband, the engineer, and my father, the electrician, surely I could find and cut circuit boards.  Of course I never did, the cutting part was a hindrance and I was still very new to beading at the time.

Now we come back to Mary.  When I took Mary's class in 2008 all those buried inspirations began to surface.  It took awhile, though.  I was hampered by what I learned in class and was not thinking outside the box yet.  My failures to create a pendant I liked with wire, and my willingness to keep trying led to this design.  I came up with the brilliant (if I do say so myself) to treat the cap like a cabochon and bead around it.   Okay, now that I've traced my inspiration, maybe not so brilliant, let's say inspired.

With my first attempt,  I cut a 1 inch circle out of the top of the bottle cap with my circle cutter and poured resin on that.  That didn't create a uniform result for me.  I do have a couple and I'll probably create more for a smaller bracelet design.  The waste involved in the uneven results led me to do some some research.  I found that people flattened the caps for use in scrapbooks and other crafts.  Again, with some experimentation and a lucky find of a used die cut machine, I was able to flatten used caps effectively.  This created a reservoir for the resin, a slight dome for the beadwork, and protection for the image.  In my earlier pendants, I bent the edge of the cap all the way to the back, before adding the resin.  Since then, I realized that step was not necessary and I got a much smoother result if I left the edge upright.
 

I absolutely love the results.  Not only was I able to preserve a piece of graphic art, I elevated it into something wearable, eye catching and fashionable.  From that humble pendant, I'm now working on pieces that further test the design and, I hope, encourage people to consider the cap as something worth preserving.  These caps are every bit as stunning as a gemstone or crystal cabochon and well worth using in designs.

Once you start looking, and I spend way too much time at the store just looking at bottle tops, you'll discover many other unusual caps out there.  This pendant was made for a friend who collects Fleur Di Lis.  She discovered a wine bottle with this cap and it made a beautiful pendant.

In my next post, I'll show some of my non-beaded items.  I'm still experimenting on finding a design that men might enjoy.  I'll also share with you some incredible Etsy artists who have taken the bottle cap to new levels.