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Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish

bottle cap mosaics at Vale Craft Gallery
Bottle Cap Fish Mosaics at Vale Craft Gallery
Bottle Caps, plywood, printed tin, copper or bronze, rakes, dustpans, nail, etc.

126" H x 90" W
Check my ArtBuzz Blog for Availability

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 combined  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. Even the smaller fish require hundreds of caps to complete.

The most amazing thing about these fish 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 color tones that are vibrant and lively and wholly unexpected.

What I like most about making the Bottle Cap 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… They typically sell out almost as soon as they appear. 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.

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More Like This: bottle cap mosaic , folk art , mosaic panels , mosaic sculpture , recycle art

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Mobile: 231.584.2710 (9 to 5 PST only) | Email me
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Artist Statement + Bio | Curriculum Vitae

I'm best known as an artist and designer. Relaxing makes me tense, so I tend to put in a lot of hours on diverse projects.

On the way to a successful art career I've been a poet and writer, a tech geek, a print and web designer, illustrator, industrial designer, musician, teacher, actor, set designer and even a paid guru once.

It's all the same thing in the end— I wake up most days thinking about how I want to change, fix or improve some aspect of the world. And after a couple cups of coffee I get started on it.

My specialty is impossibility remediation: if it can't be done, I'm on it.

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