ArtBuzz

Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 48

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Mixed Up Blues: Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 48, 2008 plywood, primer, blue bottle caps, becks bottle caps, recycled roofing copper 13" H x 48" W x 2.5" D

This fish is made from a mixed palette of blue bottle caps with a white face of Becks caps. The plywood is primed with two layers of Kilz primer and can be hung outdoors (but the caps may fade if you hang it in direct sunlight). The fins and tale are cut from recycled roofing copper. Click here to view a video tutorial of how I create my mosaic bottle cap sculptures.

Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 48: SOLD

Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish No. 47

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Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 47, 2008 plywood, primer, Bud Light, Heineken and Becks bottle caps, recycled car body metal 17" H x 49" W x 2.5" D
This fish is made from Bud Light, Heineken and Becks bottle caps. The plywood is primed with two layers of Kilz primer and can be hung outdoors (but the caps may fade if you hang it in direct sunlight). The fins and tale are cut from an old car, circa 1950s I think… I don't know what kind of car it was. Click here to view a video tutorial of how I create my mosaic bottle cap sculptures.
	Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 48: SOLD. Commission a similar fish for $500 Including UPS Ground shipping*
	*Shipping: Price includes shipping for US orders and Canada, excluding Alaska and Hawaii (please call or email for rates to AK and HI). For International Orders please see FAQ here.

Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish No. 46

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Silvertone: Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 46, 2008 plywood, primer, Bud Light bottle caps, recycled car body metal 13" H x 44" W x 2.5" D
This fish is made from Bud Light blue and silver bottle caps. The plywood is primed with two layers of Kilz primer and can be hung outdoors (but the caps may fade if you hang it in direct sunlight). The fins and tale are cut from an old car, circa 1960s I think… I don't know what kind of car it was. Click here to view a video tutorial of how I create my mosaic bottle cap sculptures.
	Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 46: $500 Including UPS Ground shipping*
	*Shipping: Price includes shipping for US orders and Canada, excluding Alaska and Hawaii (please call or email for rates to AK and HI). For International Orders please see FAQ here.

Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 45

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Mixed Up Blues: Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 45, 2008 plywood, primer, Labatt Blue and Michelob Ultra bottle caps, recycled roofing copper 19" H x 49" W x 2.5" D
This fish is made from Labatt Blue and Michelob Ultra bottle caps. The plywood is primed with two layers of Kilz primer and can be hung outdoors (but the caps may fade if you hang it in direct sunlight). The fins and tale are cut from recycled roofing copper. Click here to view a video tutorial of how I create my mosaic bottle cap sculptures.
	Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 45: $500 Including UPS Ground shipping*
	*Shipping: Price includes shipping for US orders and Canada, excluding Alaska and Hawaii (please call or email for rates to AK and HI). For International Orders please see FAQ here.

Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish No. 44

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Mixed Up Blues: Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 44, 2008 plywood, primer, Coca Cola, Becks and Harpoon bottle caps, recycled car body metal 12.5 " H x 44" W x 2.5" D
This fish is made from Coca Cola, Becks and Harpoon bottle caps. The plywood is primed with two layers of Kilz primer and can be hung outdoors (but the caps may fade if you hang it in direct sunlight). The fins and tale are cut from an old car, circa 1950s I think… I don't know what kind of car it was. Click here to view a video tutorial of how I create my mosaic bottle cap sculptures.
	Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic No. 48: $500 Including UPS Ground shipping*
	*Shipping: Price includes shipping for US orders and Canada, excluding Alaska and Hawaii (please call or email for rates to AK and HI). For International Orders please see FAQ here.

Fish Art: Recycled Bottle Cap Mosaics

 

Bottle Cap Mosaics on Display at Vale Craft Gallery

 

Bottle caps have long had a place in the folk art tradition as a decorative element. Usually, they are deployed more as a texture, willy nilly without sorting for color. My  own bottle cap mosaics were initially inspired by  Haitian ritual flags, in which detailed images are realized entirely through the use of sequins. The first bottle cap pieces I did were large mosaics  combining  bottle caps with vitreous glass tile. Each cap is sorted by brand or color, washed, dried, punched, partially crimped and finally nailed in overlapping scales to create a feeling of depth, light and shadow. Decorative nail heads emulate the texture of seed beads often used to reinforce the sequins on flags. 

What I like most about making the smaller fish mosaics is that the overlapping texture of the caps does such a good job of representing scales.These fish have been one of my big sellers… I don't make a lot of them, because they're far too labor intensive to actually be profitable but I love the look of them. Typically sell out almost as soon as they appear. I am willing to do custom fish in this style, either by brand, color or shape, whatever, ah, floats your boat. If you'd like to commission a fish just drop me an email from the contact page and let me know what you're thinking. If one of the fish below tickles your fancy, I suggest calling the appropriate gallery A.S.A.P. These really do swim off to new homes pretty quickly.

 

Bottle Cap Mosaics at Vale Craft Gallery
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availability	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.

 

Bottle Cap Mosaics Available From Mixed Elements Gallery
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availability	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.

 

Bottle Cap Mosaics at Checkered House Gallery
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availability	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.

Heinekin & Budweiser Select Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish

 

I drank a lot of Budweiser Select last summer because I liked the caps so much… that stylized crown on a black background looked to me like it was just made to represent fish scales (if tipped on its side). And here I used to be such a beer snob too. Sigh. Just goes to show what an artist will do to get the desired effect.

I also love the copper colored dust pan for the tail fin. I'll definitely do that again! The way the metal is corrugated nicely suggests the lines in the fin.

Heinekin & Budweiser Select Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish
medium	Bottle caps (Heinkin, Budweiser Select and unidentified), tin can, dust pan, bronze nails on wood.
size	approximately 18" x 55.5" x 1.5" (consult gallery to be sure)
availability	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.

Amstel Light & Bass Ale Bottle Cap Fish

Before Budweiser came out with the red colored cap they use now, I was saving Amstel Light Caps as the only real source of red other than Coke… It's pretty hard to come by Coca Cola caps where I am, since everything comes in plastic these days. Anyway, I finally used them on this fish and was totally blown away by how gorgeous they turned out. The red and gold with black lettering just gleams when the sun hits it and has a totally different effect than I could have guessed just by looking at the caps jumbled up in a bin.

The key here is aligning the caps precisely. You can get a sense of how good they look in the second photo, but this one really just has to be seen in person to get the full effect. I'm definitely going to do more using these. The different tone of red and gold from the Bass Ale caps plays off the Amstel caps very nicely too. I also really like the bronze sheet on the fins.

Amstel Light & Bass Ale Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish
medium	Bottle caps (Bass Ale and Amstel Light), bronze sheet, rake, brass plated nails on wood.
size	approximately 18" x 55.5" x 1.5" (consult gallery to be sure)
availability	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.

Heinekin Pike Beer Cap Mosaic

 

This was a lot of fun to make… I got to use all my favorite beer caps, the ones with stars in the design, and that rake makes such a fantastic tail. Is it a pike, a muskie or a sea serpent? I'm not quite sure, actually. I just know I like it. It's definitely my favorite of the bottle cap fish mosaics so far. Scroll down for a detail image of the fish.

 

Heinekin Pike Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish
medium	bottle caps (Heinekin, S. Pelligrino, & Newcastle), , antique rake, tin cans, bronze shipwright's nails and brass plated nails on wood substrate
size	18" x 55.5" x 1.5"
	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.

 

Corona Coho Salmon Bottle Cap Mosaic

 

This little fish makes you want to sing the 70's dance hit Copa Cabana… Well, it makes me sing, anyway "Corona, Corona Salmon, Corona Coho Salmon." Yeah, the scansion's a little off, but the brand does tend to make me think of resorts and beachs, so maybe it's not such a stretch.

Now that I've put that song in your head, I suppose a you might be thinking that for the price of this bottle cap fish, you could maybe pick up a discount ticket to a Mexican beach in the winter. Too true, you probably can. But wait, before you click away to travelocity, think about this: I spent a week on one of those beachs once and I can't remember much of it at all. If you go with the salmon, you'll have something tangible to hang on to, that will always inspire perfect sunny dreams… no passport hassle, no sunburn, no risk of salmonella.

 

Corona Coho Salmon Bottle Cap Mosaic
medium	beer caps (Corona and Corona Light), tin cans, brass plated nails on particleboard substrate
size	12" x 35.5" x 1.5"
	SOLD . Email me if you are interested in commissioning a fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.