Here are a few of my completed ships in bottles of which I am very proud of...the "cream of the crop" so to speak. Every one of them is hand carved from basswood, bamboo dowels are turned down to create masts, sails range from fine linen to parchment paper, tiny seed beads are used as rigging blocks, and various found materials are used to mimic different details and portions of the ships, many of which are tiny watch parts. These ships can take anywhere between 50 hours to 400 hours to build. Ships range from anything to open dinghies, motor boats, classic sailing yachts, to monster power yachts. To add a bit of liveliness, composition, and atmosphere, many are accompanied with small personas, lighthouses, or landmarks. All of them are placed on a sea, fabricated from a mixture of plumbers putty and oil paints and each ship is presented in a bottle that best displays the ships, filling the space, and overall, capturing the likeness of the boat as if it were really at sea.
