River Larking/Bottle Digging.

[Meryl]

I have a new passion. I love searching the rivers and river banks for old, river worn pottery and glass. We are lucky enough to be invited to dig on friends' property for vintage bottles too. Bottles that were buried in old bottle dumps, well over a hundred years ago.

We have quite the collection now: Poison bottles, old ink wells, apothecary bottles, glass bottle stops, vintage sauce bottles, beer bottles, perfume bottles, clay pipe stems etc.

I use the river worn pottery and glass to make mosaic pictures. I'll post some pics soon.

[wildmaven]

My grandmother used to put old bottles (leaded glass) outside and it would turn a beautiful purple or blue.

I did some collecting of things, but at this stage in my life, I'm trying to downsize instead. Your collection sounds like a lot of fun and I'd like to see your mosaics!

[Meryl]

Here's my first attempt at a mosaic, for my daughter Catherine:

A bottle from the early 1900s my daughter Lissie found:

[wildmaven]

Jul 4, 2020 16:13:03 GMT -8 Meryl said:

Here's my first attempt at a mosaic, for my daughter Catherine:

Oooo, that turned out great! I bet you could even incorporate them into candles, like my grandmother used to do with shells. You fill the middle with all your junk pieces and make sure that your best ones are along the edges when you pour in the wax. Then take a blow torch or heat gun and melt away the wax on the outside once it's set to expose the best parts. We used to make shell candles by putting the shells into a milk carton, then pouring the wax in. The milk carton holds up well to the heat and peel off easily once it's all cooled. 

[Water Crystals]

This is something I've always loved the idea of and wanted to try, but at the moment I don't live anywhere interesting enough to be able to give it a try. Maybe one day.

It is truly fascinating though. You never know what you might come across. I love that you've repurposed them, and that bottle from the early 1990s is cool. I've always loved apothecary stuff, and have been collecting some bottles or jars to make my own apothecary shelf once I'm able to have the room for it. I get a lot of my bottles etc from second hand stores. Some are really old too, but others didn't see the value in them. It really lives up to the "one person's junk is another's treasure" eh?

Do you have a picture of some poison bottles or old ink wells? I've love to see them! Meryl

[Meryl]

Water Crystals, thank you! You'd be surprised where you can find 'treasure'. Take a look along any river/riverbank, beach or woods...even your local park, or disused industrial sites. When you're walking, search the ground. If you come across even one piece of china or an old jar or bottle, chances are, there's a dump there.

I love finding china doll parts. I don't know if you noticed, but there's a china doll's arm in my mosaic!

I'll take some more pics of my finds and either post them later, or tomorrow.

I love finding old things, I love to imagine who they belonged to ❤️

Thank you Marian 😍

[ZandraJoi]

We watched a show years ago where people found old bottles. Was really interesting. You did a great job with this mosaic! You have a good talent going here! I'm all for repurposing items.