Thursday, January 14, 2010

January Photograph #5 - The Bottle


One of the things around here to do is to dig bottles. We are a small town surrounded by water. The Cape fear river on one side, the Intercoastal Waterway on another then farther on the Atlantic Ocean. Interspersed among these are several swamps, coastal creeks and a lot of marsh land.

South of town, along the river they used to take the garbage out in wagons and dump it along the river. When the tide came in the coastal creeks and river would swell and the garbage would disappear. The organic stuff would be eaten by the marine animals and birds, the metal would rust and erode, and all that would be left would be glass and pottery.

Every few months, several of us go bottle digging to these dump sites. The bottles are covered in yuck when you first get them. We take buckets and several gallons of water. This bottle is an ammonia bottle. The chemicals have reacted with the soil and water to make this snowy pattern on the bottle. With the light streaming in on it it is so beautiful.

11 comments:

Melody said...

Im very interested to hear more about your bottle hunting. My husband and I do the same thing only in old mine sights and ghost towns. We have hundreds of beautiful bottles. Melody

Bea said...

What fun, like being little kids again. I bet there are some interesting things discovered.
I love blue bottles. That colbalt blue. People know that I collect it so I have quite a few interesting ones up above my kitchen cabinets. I'll keep my eyes out for those bottles you were asking about. :)Bea

peggy gatto said...

This one looks like it has gold leaf on it, very lovely!

Diane said...

Oh, these are like digging up treasures!

Shelly Hickox said...

Oooh, what fun! Nothing like a bit of treasure hunting. Your picture is gorgeous.

Terri Kahrs said...

Old bottles have wonderful stories to tell, and this is a beauty! Hugs, Terri xoxo

indybev said...

What wonderful old bottles, and what a fun hobby! You have the beginnings of a very nice blue bottle tree to keep the "haints" away!

vintage wil said...

What a beautiful bottles!!!

Patti Edmon Artist said...

I can't believe you find such incredible bottles - how cool, I love them! One advantage of a river? great finds!

Anonymous said...

Do you have tips for cleaning your found bottles? I have some that were found near our home but I have no idea how to clean out the gunk inside. One has quite the narrow neck.

(from mixed media yahoo group)

jmquilts @ gmail DOT com

Joyce

Unknown said...

oh I just love stuff like this!!!! what wonderful fun and the bottles are beautiful..........