Steampunk Bottle

I Started by drilling two holes in the neck of my bottle ( for use later ) and then covered it all with Gesso. As you need to have a good primer to enable you to work on Glass.

next, I chose some half beads (to form the rivets) and a sheet of A4 paper that I wasn’t necessarily that keen on as it was going to be covered. ( if I used this technique again I would use thicker paper, as this would give the seam more definition).

I wrapped the paper around the bottle to get the size, and added 1/2″ overlap, (13mm) I then trimmed the paper to fit the height of the bottle, measuring 1″ (25mm )from the bottom to just below the shoulder. Then marked out evenly the placement for the beads. These went around the top, bottom and the overlap to look like a seam and then glued into place. Make sure they line up as much as possible, as it can be a little tricky to glue into place around the bottle.

My bottle had a thread, so to cover this I used garden string and Mod Podge. Once dry, I covered the whole bottle in another coat of Gesso. Once this was dry I rubbed a thin coat of Graphite texture paste randomly over the bottle. Allow to dry.

Using Deco-art Raw Umber, I painted the entire bottle with 2 coats.

then started to prepare my embellishments with Archival ink mixatives.

I chose a gold chain and lock and key, some wooden cogs a plastic handle and some nuts and bolts as my main items. I covered these with Archival mixatives in gold and copper, then added a wash made from quinacridone gold and carbon black acylic paints to make them look old and worn.

Next I made a wash from Transparent red oxide and painted it over the bottle so that it dripped around the beads, then giving another coat with a little warm white added just to lighten a bit, this will give a rusty look. Make sure it is dry between each coat. Finally I applied a Carbon Black wash. Once the paint had dried, I then rubbed each rivet with a graphite pencil to make it look shiny and worn. These techniques are all based on Andy Skinners work.