One of the difficult things involved with making "things in a bottle" props is finding authentic looking bottles. Flea markets and antique shops are a couple of time-intensive sources for bottles and specimen jars. I also suggest haunting bottle collecting sites and bottle shows. Bottle collectors are generally happy to share information about bottles and sources to interested parties. Also consider a bottle with a chip on the lip, which generally renders a collectable or rare jar or bottle greatly diminished in value, would work just fine for a prop. The chip would add a bit of age and wear to the item and a big wax seal could cover it up. So consider slightly damaged containers as possible props and find yourself a good source of jars through your local bottle collecting club.
Hi! I've got two new things in the jar to show, if you're interested:
Unknown thing from KGB archives: http://glebsite.net/articles/things/alien-embryo.html and gnome sceleton: http://glebsite.net/articles/things/thing-in-the-jar-2.html
On the one hand those wax-drop-covered lids look cool and gnarly, but on the other hand they don´t really look like old specimens in jars at all. This wax-covers are still somehow ambivalent to me. They are comparably easy to make and give a bottle or jar a unique and strange style, but if you look at real old specimens in jars, you will see the lids were in general either made of glas, or also often made from uninary bladders or animals like pigs. There is also another trait of original and even modern specimens in jars. Desriptions with locality, date or scientific names are often placed inside the jars, and not only at the outside. You can see some very nice old specimens from the collection of the zoological museum at Berlin here:
Markus - Thanks for the reference photos. Really interesting.
Re their appearance, I like to cut jar creators a little slack for creative licensing. Or just assume that the specimen jars sealed with wax or sack cloth and cord were recovered from the abandoneundergroundnd room of some half-mad researcher or amateur delver into dark mysteries.
4 comments:
One of the difficult things involved with making "things in a bottle" props is finding authentic looking bottles. Flea markets and antique shops are a couple of time-intensive sources for bottles and specimen jars. I also suggest haunting bottle collecting sites and bottle shows. Bottle collectors are generally happy to share information about bottles and sources to interested parties. Also consider a bottle with a chip on the lip, which generally renders a collectable or rare jar or bottle greatly diminished in value, would work just fine for a prop. The chip would add a bit of age and wear to the item and a big wax seal could cover it up. So consider slightly damaged containers as possible props and find yourself a good source of jars through your local bottle collecting club.
Hi! I've got two new things in the jar to show, if you're interested:
Unknown thing from KGB archives: http://glebsite.net/articles/things/alien-embryo.html and gnome sceleton: http://glebsite.net/articles/things/thing-in-the-jar-2.html
Just in case.
On the one hand those wax-drop-covered lids look cool and gnarly, but on the other hand they don´t really look like old specimens in jars at all. This wax-covers are still somehow ambivalent to me. They are comparably easy to make and give a bottle or jar a unique and strange style, but if you look at real old specimens in jars, you will see the lids were in general either made of glas, or also often made from uninary bladders or animals like pigs. There is also another trait of original and even modern specimens in jars. Desriptions with locality, date or scientific names are often placed inside the jars, and not only at the outside.
You can see some very nice old specimens from the collection of the zoological museum at Berlin here:
http://www.sammlungen.hu-berlin.de/dokumente/42468/
http://www.sammlungen.hu-berlin.de/dokumente/8743/
Markus - Thanks for the reference photos. Really interesting.
Re their appearance, I like to cut jar creators a little slack for creative licensing. Or just assume that the specimen jars sealed with wax or sack cloth and cord were recovered from the abandoneundergroundnd room of some half-mad researcher or amateur delver into dark mysteries.
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