FOLK ART FANATIC

Today I played with all the different flickr related games or mashups. I was looking for bottle cap art. As you can see from my logo, I am a bottle cap lover and collector. I have had some with me for over 20 years-very useful for change, keys, etc. I also display my rock collections or other small collections or a piece of art. A popular hobby in 50's and 60's, particularly in the Midwest, directions were published in hobby mags or as scout projects. this odd fad was popular enough to have had some manufacturers of particular types. They were made as bar ware-to hold nuts and chips and many had ashtrays which prompted bottle cap figure collector extraordinaire to nickname them "Nuts and Butts." His site is wonderful to comprehend the variety of figures made with bottle caps, coat hangers, wood slabs, plastic, aluminum and wood bowls or ashtrays and decorated with simple household items such as thumbtacks, studs, curtain rings, binder paper hole fixers (??is there a name for these round sticky items?). Check out his collection at http://www.philiplamb.com/Bottle.html. I do have a few very old primitive bottle cap men and woman which are older and quite charming in simplicity and large in size. There are also many that are black, sometimes with nose rings and big earrings recalling an African tribal look. Perhaps examples of African American make-do folk art. There are also some that have been said were souvenirs from the Caribbean islands and have a "Carmen Miranda" look, often with fruits in the upper bowl. There were other shapes. I have a dog, his bowl is the snack holder in this case. I have seen other animals as well, in addition to very old examples of bottlecap ashtrays (made around a short tin can), bottlecap baskets and chains. These might be examples of hobo art. Its a funky form of folk craft, nowadays many people put it under the general umbrella of "tramp art" but I think that's stretching the term a bit. The bottlecap figures are just plain fun and functional, kitschy and cute. Read more about bottle cap art in one of my favorite sites: http://www.interestingideas.com/out/cap.htm . Soon to come a post about bottlecap figures raised to an art form, the amazing Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack) and the Woolsey's plus others. I made a lickr photo mosaic of images of Mr. I's art, with his classic bottlecap paintbrush as the background image on flickr Montager. Its called Whiskbroom Pharoah. Enjoy. http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php?image=2221046020