Figural Bottle Openers?

Question

My uncle is hard to find christmas gifts for, what should I get him? He likes old cast iron bottle openers from John Wright, antique glassware like depression glass, guns, etc. etc.. but he usually buys whatever he wants. Any help on finding cool books on the above items or any suggestions for a gift would greatly be appreciated.

Answer 1

http://www.paulmaddenantiques.com/bottleopeners.html
They seem a bit expensive. If you can afford them, they look like originals.

Answer 2

Since you don't know much about those topics or what he has already, you might want to concentrate more on books about the topics. Just go to http://www.amazon.com and enter one of these into the search box:

antique glass
depression glass
John Wright

Get ones with more pictures than text if he's not a reader.

Those topics may bring up novels that have to do with the subjects too.

You may also want to try something different, like helping him take pictures of his items then put them online at a photosharing site, etc., if you know how to use a computer, etc., and he doesn't. Or just a regular album he could put his hobby related photos into.

Or give him the gift of your time and attention... for example, offer to take him to thrift stores, flea markets, etc., to hunt for some good stuff... or ask him to teach you a little about one of the topics.

You can always give him a gift certificate to some place that would have those items or books about them (like amazon or Barnes & Noble or whatever is close to you) too, or just a gift certificate to a larger store so he can buy something else.


Actually, I just thought of something else. You could make some molds of the front sides of some of his bottle opener figures using polymer clay... then bake them. Then you can fill the mold with raw clay to make a copy of that figure (though with a flat back) that you could then bake, and glue or attach to a wood box, or to something you'd turn into a pencil holder, etc, etc.

Just using a plain color of clay would be fine, but you can bring out the details of the clay figure more if you "highlight" it or "antique" it.

Highligting means to apply another color (often gold or metallic) only to the high areas of a dimensional object--that can be done when the clay is baked with a metallic wax like Rub N' Buff, or when it's still raw with a powder like Pearl Ex... both available at craft or art supply stores.

Antiquing is most often done after the clay item is baked. In that case, an acrylic paint** is rubbed all over the item and into the crevices, then the upper portions are all wiped off. If dark brown paint is used, then the item will just look old and as if it has shadows in the crevices.
**best to use "artitsts" acrylic paints that come in a tube just because they're thicker, but you could also just craft acrylic paints

(If you're interested in highlighting or antiquing, or making molds with polymer clay, check out these pages at my site:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/molds.htm
... click on MAKING MOLDS YOURSELF
and on HIGHLIGHTING, ANTIQUING, ETC.
And there's more info on metallic powders and waxes on this page, as well as more on highlighting and antiquing with them:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/powders_metallicwaxes.htm )


Diane B.