A Rustic Vignette

Well yesterday found me trekking through the woods at my parent's property in search of vintage bottles. A large tree had fallen late last year during a winter storm, uncovering a hidden trove of buried bottles in the wake of its rooted mass. I came home with over a dozen of various sized and shaped medicine and/or liquor bottles. Most still had rusty caps intact with scary substances lingering within.

Some of the reclaimed bottles, cleaned and basking in the drying sunlight.

I brought my "prized finds" home and commenced on removing cabs, dumping contents and cleaning bottles. Wow, what a chore that was. The caps so rusty, they were easily removed by pushing a nail through the center and prying off broken pieces, but getting some of the bottles cleaned-up proved problematic. Quite an ensemble of experimental cleaning products lined the garage for usage. If one failed, the next was tried. Vinegar and baking soda, rock salt, bleach with dish detergent in warm water, some super de-greaser by Prestone (automotive), Goo Gone. Eventually, all the "ickiness" was removed. A narrow paint brush and toothbrush alike helped a bit with the interiors too. Wish they were a bit more bendy at times however. They all received a second cleaning once back inside my home.

While the bottle were drying, I decided to make another rustic, decorative box from weathered pallet wood I had found. This time, a flat piece of rusty, galvanized steel was used to "badge" the front of the box. Another piece of salvaged metal formed a clamp to hold it in place. I was going to add some text to the badge but decided to leave it simple since the box could have so many varied uses. I initially thought it would be cool for displaying hand-made soaps and saying "SOAP" across the metal. Now that it's complete, I'm actually glad I chose to go "nondescript".

I decided to create a small vignette with my new box and one of my newly found and cleansed bottles. Since this bottle had a threaded top, I decided to mask them with a burlap wrap clamped in place with more scrap metal.

To finish off the look I added one of my steam-punk inspired metal orbs made from numerous broken pieces of rusty, metal springs.

I love a grouping of three and this simple ensemble just worked together so nicely. 

A trio of elements.

The completed ensemble.

Now I'm in the mood to do a few more, perhaps with a variance of included items. I'm definitely enjoying creating these rustic pallet boxes and since it's such a nice, sunny day, I can see myself outside doing a few more. Until next time . . . ENJOY!



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