CCC: 4 elements bottles

 Well hello there! First CC creation over here!

Back in lockdown 1, I discovered glass painting. This stemmed from my, and my housemates' alcoholism and the millions of bottles that we had laying about. Now, I am not particularly good with drawing, painting or any sorts of artistic expression as such, but has that ever stopped me from creating? Yes. But it didn't this time.

Finding the right products, building the supplies up from nothing was hard. Especially, because I can get veeeery stingy with things like this. I love a bargain, I love the knock offs. That's because I know myself, I easily find a project or hobby, obsess over it, struggle, give up, and be left with unfinished items and a bunch of expensive resources. So, instead, I opt for the same scenario, but I will know I spent less money! Sometimes this works out, sometimes you do need to get the quality products though. Which is what I found out after many tries of different paints. Anyway. I found some that actually worked for me, and fell in love with creating different designs.

The four elements collection was made as a gift for my parents, each inspired by and containing different spirits infused by yours truly. I know, I am a double threat on this front (not sure what front that is, but watch out). I used the 100ml flat flask bottles I discovered on Amazon that are perfect size for gifting, they are easy to work with, came with different coloured caps and just overall fun! I wanted to paint a large picture on one side of the bottles while leaving the other side mainly empty, otherwise the two designs would have interfered with each other. This was my thought process that led me to each final product:

AIR - Transparent? Shall I just leave it empty? Well that would be a laugh, but 1/10 for effort... Air, sky? Clouds! But my white paint is a struggle (it doesn't reeeeaally show up, it mainly is used to mix colours). Air, balloons? Bristol hot air balloons in the sky! Nod to my city. However, I do not want the balloon just to be standard stripes. I should incorporate something of the spirit I infused for air (rose and cucumber gin, I know, it was a choice). So, roses on the balloon? Fancy. 

WATER - Well, I hate fish, so that's a no-go. Let's stay on the water surface. Sea, waves, slam a ship on there, it will have rum in it after all. Don't forget some good old 'm' shaped birds in the sky for good measure. Hell, I had fun with the foam on the waves, but the white paint was a pain yet again!

EARTH - This one will have to be a little far-fetched, I can't really just paint dirt on a bottle and call it intention. So it will have to be a landscape. Finally colours that are easy to mix (I only have the basic colour set of 5, I mix all my shades). Mountains, forest, all the greenery with a little wooden cottage. Trying to paint miniature 3D objects with no outlines was hard, nay impossible. Also, has no connection with the bacon flavoured bourbon inside. I attempted a few blobs on the field as pigs, but they did not show too well.

FIRE - I have to try not to make this too literal... Or at least give it context! It's a bonfire! Painting the sky was a choice, I am not sure it paid off as made the fire bottle stand out from the rest of them with being fully painted top to bottom. But it certainly helped with creating the bonfire ambiance with the night sky, and contrasted the fiery red (yes, I really went with that pun). 

On the flip side, I wanted to give a clue on the elements, just in case they did not seem obviously as a collection but just four random designs. I ended up displaying the same signs on the labels on the neck of the bottles that noted the contents.

Overall, I give myself 9/10 for effort. They aren't perfect and I should work more on cohesiveness, but I am happy with the thought that went in creating these. Check out the IG: @casacookiecrafts for info on the spirit infusions I made for the collection.

Much loves.