Altered art bottles

A few months ago I volunteered to do a workshop for a group of our occupational therapists. The workshop was based at Emmaus in Carlton where homeless people are given the support to help them get back on their feet again and part of the project includes them up-cycling and selling second hand items. I choose altered art bottles because it is something I wanted to try and because it fits in with us occupational therapists aiming to see the best in people and supporting them to move on in life. We were giving discarded bottles another lease of life. I have meaning to do a blog on this but am just getting around to it now. Better late than never is my motto.
Altered art bottles is just a posh way of saying that the bottles are being transformed using paints mediums and embellishments.
this first bottle is one I made as a sample before the workshop to give ideas.

I started by covering the bottle with white gesso. I used white because that was what I had in the house. I then added some texture paste over a stencil to give some texture.

A lot of the embellishments were made by sticking together three or four layers of die cut cereals box card. I also tried adding some paper flowers to see how it would work. I also added lace.

I painted in one colour and then added sprays and waxes.

This is another I made using string, buttons, glass pebbles etc.

This bottle commemorates our wedding anniversary- 20 years...

This is the bottle before it was painted.

I used the mixed media face dies by Leonie Pujol to create this character. I layered the die cuts to give them some depth  and used coiled string and buttons for the hair.

I used a key as an ear-ring.

The bottle was fun to create. Unfortunately  I can`t find the photos from the actual workshop at the moment. However I started the face during the workshop and finished it afterwards.