ArtBuzz

Fresh Fish on sale at Etsy!

I've added a new Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish to my store at Etsy. Click here to go directly to the Etsy page where you can buy it.

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 will fade if you hang it in direct sunlight). The fins and tale are cut from recycled roofing copper.

Dimensions: 19" high by 49" long
Price: $450 plus S+H.

New Bottle Cap Mosaic Available on Etsy.com

I've added a new Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish to my store at Etsy. Click the picture below to go directly to the Etsy page where you can buy it.

This fish is made from Coca Cola, Becks and Harpoon Beer bottle caps. The plywood is primed with two layers of Kilz primer and can be hung outdoors (but the caps will 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.

Dimensions: 12.5" high by 44" long

 

 

 

Three Bottle Cap Mosaics Available on Etsy.com

I just added the last three available bottlecap fish mosaics to my store at Etsy. I'm not sure when or if I'll be making more of these, so if you're interested, I'd snag them fast. Here's a few pics of the three that are available.

Click the image below to go to the page where you can buy the mosaic.

 

Welcome Readers from Make Magazine and Instructables

 

I've just noticed a lot of people are coming through from Make Magazine after they posted a How-To article originally uploaded to Instructables by Skeplin. Skeplin was kind enough to credit my bottle cap fish mosaics as the inspiration for the dragon sculpture shown in the tutorial. Thanks for visiting, and thanks to Skeplin for the props.

If my work inspires you to create your own sculpture, that's awesome! I do request that you respect the fact that I make my living by designing such objects and that you not make bottle cap fish as a commercial item. I'm always excited when people are inspired to be creative and I feel like sharing the joy of making things is a big part of what I do. The Bottle Cap fish mosaics have been one of my most popular items… They typically sell out almost as soon as they appear online or in galleries. I expect most of today's visitors are looking for inspiration for their own projects, but if it looks like more work than you want to take on, I can do custom fish in this style, by brand, color, shape, or whatever 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 you'd like to see more examples of art I've done with bottle caps, please check out my portfolio blog. The Bottle Cap Mosaic index page has photos of all the work I've done in that medium. To date, I've made 25 of the fish as well as three larger sculptures which incorporate vitreous glass mosaic along with the caps. There's also a recent post on my studio blog which shows a bottle cap mosaic mermaid  by Rachel Thomas who was inspired by this sculpture and this one.

I'm glad to see this interest in a craft medium which I feel I've helped to shape in a fine art context. Bottle caps have long had a place in the folk art tradition as a decorative element. Usually, they're deployed only as texture, willy nilly without sorting for color. When I first began making my bottle cap mosaics, very few artists had experimented with the idea of using them as a source for color. The coolest thing about using caps as a color source is the way they interact with light. When you look at one or two caps from any brand, they're generally not all that impressive. But when you group hundreds of them together and let them catch the sunlight, they truly glow. The combination of the background color with the logo can create secondary color tones that are vibrant, lively and wholly unexpected. For instance, the little red maple leaf on a Labatt's cap will interact with the blue background to create a neon purple when you use enough of them.

If Dragons are your thing, you might be interested in a cool DIY project my friend Neil and I did: We built a 30 foot long, fire-breathing dragon boat which we sailed down the Chicago River to see "what you could get away with on the river." There are quite a few pics of the actual building process as well as of the trip.

 

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
click thumbnail to view larger images.
availability	Unique work available only from: Vale Craft Gallery 230 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL. 60610 tel: 312.337.3525 fax: 312.337.3530 email Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10:30am to 5:30 pm Saturday: 11:00am to 5:00 pm
price	$350-500.00
S&H	Please consult gallery

 

Bottle Cap Mosaics Available From Mixed Elements Gallery
click thumbnail to view larger images.
availability	Unique work. Available only from: Mixed Elements Gallery 128 W. North St. Brighton, MI. 48116 tel: 810.227.3300
price	$350.00
S&H	Please consult gallery

 

Bottle Cap Mosaics at Checkered House Gallery
click thumbnail to view larger images.
availability	Unique work. Available only from: Checkered House Gallery 2808 Colfax St. Evanston, Il 60610 tel: 877.328.2918 Toll Free or 847.328.2918
price	$350.00
S&H	Please consult gallery

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	Unique piece. Available only from: Vale Craft Gallery 230 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL. 60610 tel: 312.337.3525 fax: 312.337.3530 email Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10:30am to 5:30 pm Saturday: 11:00am to 5:00 pm
price	$500.00
S&H	Please consult gallery

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	Unique piece. Available only from: Vale Craft Gallery 230 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL. 60610 tel: 312.337.3525 fax: 312.337.3530 email Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10:30am to 5:30 pm Saturday: 11:00am to 5:00 pm
price	$500.00
S&H	Please consult gallery

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.
price	$500.00 plus S+H

 

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.
price	$350.00 plus $30 S+H

Tin Trout Bottle Cap Sculpture

 

"We all know it is a theoretical impossibility to catch fish without beer," says John "JB" Shireman of the New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, CO. "At the very least," Shireman continues, "it's poor form. Fishing and beer drinking are two endeavors in any sporting gent's life that evolve over time. While a cooler of cheap domestics and a worm tub once sufficed, no one worthy of the title, Fly Fisherman, would defile a Mackenzie [drift] boat with anything less than a hand-crafted ale in one hand and a nice fly rod in the other."

A Beer Lover's Guide to Fly Fishing, By Terry L. Hackett

It seems safe to guess you're not reading this on a laptop by the side of your favored trout stream. Most people go fishing to get away from the office, the computer, heck, the whole world. And when they get back, well, sometimes, a part of them stays at the river and calls across time and distance asking, "what are you doing in that office? Why isn't the rest of me here, riverside?" It's probably happening to you right now. You were thinking about beer or fishing or fishing and beer and instead of throwing your gear in the car and heading out, you wound up reading this because it was as close as you could get without leaving the office.

Let me suggest the following: If there's some compelling reason you can't just quit the job, pack up, and spend the rest of your days in waders with a rod and a bottle at the ready, perhaps a compromise is in order. Maybe if you were to hang one of these bottle cap fish on the wall behind your desk you'd feel better. When the river calls silently out to you, cast your eyes across the office to this ultimate trophy fish and remember the things that matter.

 

Tin Trout Bottle Cap Fish, 2005
medium	Bottle caps (Sierra Nevada, Stewarts Ginger Beer, Dos Equis & Becks), tin cans, copper rose head nails on particle board substrate
size	12" x 35.5" x 1.5"
	SOLD. Email me if you are interested in commissioning a similar fish in this style. Reproductions will vary, but will be as close as possible. Made to order in 2-4 weeks.
price	$350.00 plus S+H

Budweiser Bottle Cap Folk Art Salmon Mosaic

 

Budweiser Bottle Cap Fish, 2005
medium	Bottle caps (Budweiser, Bud Light), tin cans, stainless steel nails on plywood 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.
price	$350.00 plus S+H

 

Here's a lovely red and silver Salmon mosaic to kick off the weekend, hand-crafted from genuine Budweiser and Bud Light Bottle caps!

Perhaps you've heard about the recent scandal in Manhattan fish markets, in which the New York Times discovered that over two thirds of the salmon being sold in the city was farm-raised? Fish stores passed off farm-raised salmon as wild creatures while marking up their prices to double the going rate for domesticated fish. Shame on them!

I can assure you that the salmon pictured above is made entirely by hand, by myself, using only the finest authentic plywood, nails and bottle caps! Unlike farm-raised salmon, which takes its lovely shade of red from food coloring, this mosaic fish's deep red reflective hue is entirely natural, determined soley by the choice of brand.

Now, I still wouldn't suggest that you put this fish on grill— I think you'd find that the plywood was somewhat flavorless and the caps a mite too crunchy— but if you were to hang it above the grill, now, that would look right sharp! As for the question of wild or domesticated, I feel this bottle cap salmon strikes a nice balance: it obviously speaks of the wild life, fishing and drinking, tall stories and tall necks, but it can also look quite lovely hung in a domestic setting, whether a kitchen, dining room, bedroom or hallway. And, well, the beer caps are domestic, of course.

Thanks to Seth Godin's Liar's Blog for the scoop on bogus salmon in NYC:

Salmon Is A Lie.
Today's New York Times tested wild salmon, sold for up to $29 a pound, from eight different fish stores in Manhattan. It  reports that less than 25% of all the salmon tested was actually wild. The rest was farm-raised, which goes for half the price when the seller is honest.

That means that the vast majority of people who buy wild salmon in New York get the psychic benefit of believing they are eating something even better than than "ordinary" salmon. But it also means that they're being deceived out of their money.

PS do you know why farm-raised salmon is such a lovely red? It's artificially colored. But the color makes us think it's fresher, and thinking it's fresher makes us thing it tastes better. So it does.

Folk Art Fish Bottle Cap Mosaic

 

My favorite Jim Harrison poem begins:

I want to die in the saddle. An enemy of civilization
I want to walk around in the woods, fish and drink.

Every couplet thereafter ends in variations on fishing and drinking, a veritable catalog of the sportsman's obsession. I didn't have Harrison specifically in mind when I made this fish, but what could be better than combining beer and fishing to make art?

This funky, folk art styled fish makes a great Father's Day gift. Hang it above the fireplace at your summer cabin, or in the kitchen above the grill. It wouldn't be half bad as a trophy for a fishing contest either.

 

Red Stripe Bottle Cap Fish, 2004
medium	Bottle caps (Red Stripe, Anchor Steam), tin cans, earring, gear, copper nails on plywood substrate
size	11.5" x 33" 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.
price	$350.00 plus S+H