Krishna, The Cowherd

A little out-of-season perhaps, given that Janamashtami is way off! But I started this bottle sometime after the festival last year, when my daughter used to dance to a ditty dedicated to Lord Krishna.


After the initial Krishna icon, the bottle languished in a corner of my cupboard, and lay forgotten for many months. Then further inspiration struck and I pulled it out again.

Where else could Krishna play his flute, if not to his cows....


In the midst of a flowering garden....


Where peacocks roam freely, enchanted by his music!


This is the essence that this bottle aims to capture. So glad I finally completed it. Appropriate after all, in the season of love, given that Krishna was such an incurable romantic! :)

Colored Glass Experiments

All of you who have been reading my blog and following my work now know of my love for painting on transparent glass. But this time I decided to try something different, so I chose a brown-colored glass bottle instead.

Daffodils and pansies make an unlikely combination but they seemed to be the only colors that would show up on a brown background.

By far, yellow and white are the safest bets for a colored bottle. But methinks this limitation of the color pallette isn't a good thing....

....so I'll be back to transparent glass next time. Have some new designs hovering in the folds of my brain! :)

Beer Bottle Landscape

Right after I finished my last bottle (Gulmohar), my son knitted his brows and asked, "Mama, why do you paint only flowers on your bottles?". Good question, and the only answer I had was to promise him that next time I'd paint something different. I also quietly told myself that it was time to face upto a new challenge!


As I looked at the empty beer bottle standing on my work table, suddenly an idea flashed.... why not try something totally unrelated. And that is how the landscape emerged; after all a beer is best enjoyed on an outing to the countryside. ;)


So you have blue snow-capped mountains, green rolling hills, and miles of farmland on this bottle.

It has been tough photographing this particular bottle because you can take in the entire effect only from a distance. But I hope these pictures give you some glimpses of my efforts.


As for my son, he is happy that mommy kept her promise of making something different! :)

Bottled Gulmohar

Here's an attempt to catch the pretty Gulmohar blossoms again, this time on a bottle.

Let the pictures do the talking this time. :)

I'm happy because I could capture the see-through quality of the leaves.

Am currently working on another bottle; will show you the results soon!

Blue Cornflowers

My second bottle was inspired by beds of blue cornflowers swaying in the breeze, a familiar sight every spring if you happen to visit any of the parks.

I especially enjoyed doing the typical shape of the petals that give this flower its distinct identity.

And here is a close-up of the just-starting-to-open flower. I used some subtle glitter to do the details of the leaves.

Hope to get back to some painting after this brush with bottle art. Keep checking back for more!

Fuchsia Fantasy

I'm back after a rejuvenating break filled with fun, family, and some great food! It has been a fantastic time-out, of course. Especially after a hectic week spent finishing two bottles simultaneously.

Here is the first one called Fuchsia Fantasy. Inspired by the bell-shaped fuchsia flower with its brilliant colour combos, this bottle has travelled all the way to Bangalore and will adorn the work desk of a favourite cousin. :)

Love the deep aubergine colour that I managed to mix up for this one; it made a smashing combination with the blue.

Will show you the second bottle in my next post soon.

Festive Fever & Sneak Preview

Found this blog missing in action these last couple of weeks? Well, blame it squarely on the festive season. I have had my hands full, with my son's b'day, my parents' visit, and Durga Puja. You can look forward to some posts later this week as I finish off stuff I left half done last month.

Meanwhile here is a sneak preview of the latest bottle I'm working on. It is far from completion, and taking longer than expected.... but that is how creative things go. So no point complaining; only hope I get back into the creative groove soon before another festive bout hits! :)

Portulaca Splendour

Apologies for my absence most of last week. I got trapped in a bottle (Much like the fabled genie)!! Well, I'll let the pictures do the talking this time....

Portulaca blooms in my garden, a sight that welcomes me through the monsoon season.

Portulaca blooms on my bottle, a sight that will last through all seasons.

The eye-catching combination of hot pink and yellow was just too hard to resist.

Mmmmm... sheer gorgeousness!! Whaddaya think?

Hibiscus Glory

It is bottle art again this time....

My glassy ode to the red hibiscus flowers that look so pretty and cheerful in bloom.

I love how the bud has come out, with its glossy outlines.

The new bottle goes really well with my living room decor. :)

Though a nasty viral grounded my creative attempts through the week but the bright reds of my hibiscus flowers have brought the verve right back! So keep tuned for more creativity soon.

Blossoms

Inspired by portulacas and day liles that are so common this time of the year, here is another painted bottle that I've named Blossoms.

This was tougher to do because of its round shape. The paint kept flowing all over, and I had to struggle with some quick drying to keep it looking even.

When my mum heard what I'm working on this morning, she complained I hadn't gifted her any. So Blossoms is for you, dear Ma, especially because you so love flowers.

As for you, dear readers, next time you grab a drink on the go, you know what to do with the bottle! :)

Autumn Leaves

Another painted bottle, covered this time with autumn leaves of all shapes, sizes, and hues.

I randomly searched Google Images for 'Autumn Leaves' and the search results led me to making my own bottleful of leaves.

What I love about this particular bottle is the way you can see through to the leaves painted on the other side. I feel the translucence of the paints has been used to very good effect in this one.

And of course, the gossamer quality of the paint only adds to the look. Here's a close-up view for you.


This bottle definitely counts as my sheer favourite! :)

French Riviera, Bottled Up!

Aah! let me take you on a quick getaway to the French Riviera, arguably one of the most scenic holiday spots in the world. So come along, close your eyes and imagine a stone-walled villa, with green vines and bright flowers creeping up the brown walls.





Huge arched windows beckon you to look out.


And as you gaze beyond the arch of the stone window, the azure blue of the sea dazzles you.


Tall palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze as colourful boats and yachts bob up and down on the waters.


Hope you enjoyed the flight of fancy just as much as I enjoyed spinning the yarn! And capturing it all through paint on a bottle... :)

The irony : Never imagined a bottle of antiseptic to inspire so much creative thought!!! Sometimes you do get inspiration from the weirdest of places, but the arch on the Dettol bottle has long seemed like a veritable window to me.

Go on, now search for your own Aha! moment. :)

Upcycling Glass Jar

Today I am sharing the technique I used to create the toothbrush holder written about in my last post.

  

1. Draw out the design you want on a piece of paper. Make sure before drawing that you fix the width of your drawing as per the size of the bottle you want to paint. We don’t want any pattern overlaps now!

2. Affix this paper inside the bottle using tape so that when you paint on the outside, the design doesn’t move.

3. Now paint directly or draw out outlines using a non-permanent marker. 4. Fill in all the details of your design, including a background. Tip: If you want to add a background to your creation, then ensure you start the painting process with that. It’ll be easier to paint on the design details over the background color rather than make your background fit in with the lines of your design. The second alternative if you are using a wide-mouth jar is to paint in the background color from the inside of the bottle. 5. Enjoy your creation! :)

P.S. - Remember the bottle-vases I painted a few months back? You can catch them in action here.

Painted Toothbrush Holder

Have just finished painting on a jam bottle with my ceramic paints. And voila! It has metamorphosed into a toothbrush holder for the kids’ bathroom.

Froggy with his red umbrella and the giant mushrooms all add a dash of fun to the morning chore of brushing, making it that much easier for the kids and us.


This time I tried a more complicated design than my previous attempts at painting on glass bottles. And learnt some invaluable lessons.

I used Fevicryl’s ceramic paint pack which comes with basic colors. The paints are so quick-drying that you cannot work with them under a fan. Mixing colors is also pretty tough since you have to constantly keep thinning them with water else they dry up. And all that water wrecks color consistency.

So while this activity requires immense patience and a fair amount of careful planning before you start, the end result more than makes up for it. When my kids saw their new brush holder, they made friends with Froggy instantly and loved the mushrooms. :)


I’ll share the technique I used to paint this bottle in my next post.

Glassy Affair

I’m back here after a long hiatus because my internet service provider knocked off our connection and kept us away from the Web for a whole month. But that meant some “extra time” for my creative pursuits, so I really shouldn’t complain. :)

Here’s a peek into what I have been up to in the last month. Glass has caught my fancy currently so I am painting bottles and trying out new styles and combinations. I have mostly worked with water-based ceramic and glass paints, and a couple of glitter outliners.

I plan to use these bottle-vases in my new home when we move there next year. How’s this for a tiny flower vase? It used to be a nail paint remover bottle.

I created a Ganesha glass painting using a similar technique but I’m not going to show you that now. Let’s wait till we get that one framed….

The second bottle-vase I plan to use for dry floral decorations; this was an antiseptic solution bottle before it landed in my hands.

I really love the way it came out, especially how I can see the objects on the other side through the glass.

Do let me know what you think of my bottle-vases!