Bhaili – Your Friend

Is this old bottle of any use? What can be done about these used containers? Don’t these questions creep in our mind when it’s time to dispose-off un-used bottles etc? However, even though we may not figure out the exact use that particular bottle, we still keep it for future use.

Now, let’s fast forward six months or one year down the line. While browsing through our scrap room, we again come across that unused junk and the same set of questions revisit our mind. And this time again our futuristic instincts just don’t let go that junk item from our life.

Simply speaking, it has become our habit to not throw away bottles and empty containers. We just keep cleaning and storing them, thinking they may be of some use in future.

However, the truth is we just store and forget about what’s in our bundle of scrap. It’s only during our mega house-cleaning and space improvement drive, we think that scrap is really a waste and cannot be the part of our beautiful home.

Just like an under-performing worker is fired by his boss, we throw that junk to where it belongs to – garbage. OK, now don’t get emotional! Unlike, that harsh boss, we ladies can always give new lease of life to some of our dear trash objects.

So, in this post I’ll tell you how I revamped a trash bottle and made it our living-room decorative. But, before moving ahead, I would like to share with you how I got this bottle.

Accidental Meeting

Couple of months back, I had been to dinner at a nearby restaurant with my hubby. Our sitting arrangement was such that (just by chance) I was facing the bar. So, while having the dinner, my eyes got stuck on a small, cute blue bottle.

I completely fell in love with its design. I wanted to ask the attendant if I could have that empty bottle, but my social-upbringing was stopping me to ask – after all how can a lady sitting with her husband in a restaurant inquire the waiter about liquor etc. Also, I was apprehensive of my husband’s reaction.

While these thoughts were playing in my mind, our dinner was over and it was time to delete the idea of painting that cute blue bottle. Also, by that time waiter had put that bottle in the trash bag kept behind the reception counter. But, my desire to paint that bottle somehow gave me courage to ask my hubby if I can have that bottle as I wanted to paint it.

And do you know, to my surprise my loving husband readily agreed to what I said and went straight to the manager and requested him to get that bottle. And thankfully, manager was gracious enough to oblige his request. As an artist, I was really happy to get a new canvas to paint on.

Trash to Beauty

That night, while going for sleep I had started imagining how I would paint this bottle. I was trying to figure out what could be the best theme. Just to tell you, I have been practicing this visualization technique since my early jewelry designing days. However, I will discuss more about it in another post, because my pretty blue bottle is the protagonist of this post, so I’ll keep the spotlight on it 🙂

So, thanks to that visual imagination, when I woke-up in morning, idea of Ganapati flashed to me. And coincidentally, Ganeshotsav was also around the corner. So, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to dedicate my first bottle art to Lord Ganesh and that too during Ganesh festival.

Therefore first and foremost, I rigorously cleaned the bottle with warm soap-water inside out. Then after drying, I applied light yellow color on an area where I wanted to paint Ganapati. Idea was to portray Ganapati in orange color with yellow background. Also, I didn’t want to completely hide the bottle’s bright blue color, so applied yellow color on a small part only.

Thought was to keep the front part as simple as possible in order to keep focus on Lord Ganesh. However, I wanted to add some detailed work as well, so decided to include detailed pattern work on the rear of bottle. But, while filling the bottle with pattern-work, I thought why not include a brown colored temple-like frame around Ganapati as well.

This would cater two purposes. Firstly, it would further highlight Ganapati and blend with the theme, and secondly it would seamlessly link the center yellow area and detailed pattern work. So, after few erasing, I re-started the work on backside to merge the patterning-work with temple border.

Patterning was really time-consuming and required lot of focus, because it was about matching each and every stroke with the earlier one. One mistake could completely distort the overall look. Now, Ganeshotsav was also knocking the door, so I was getting really desperate to finish this bottle in time.

OK, now do you know how much time it took me to complete just the backside along with temple border? It took around 4 weeks. Yes, you heard it right. To paint this small area it took me 1 month approximately.

Being mother of a small child, it sometimes become really hard to take out few moments for yourself to pursue your hobbies and interests. There use to be stretch of days, when I not even could get time to see this bottle which I was working on – leave aside working on it.

Finally, after the long wait (it was really long for me) the moment arrived – it was the time to paint Ganapati. However, by His grace I was able to paint Ganesh without slightest of rework. Whatever picture and color was in my mind, I was able to completely replicate it on the bottle.

Surprisingly, contrary to my earlier apprehension, depicting Lord Ganesh was the easiest part. May be it was Ganesh’s blessings that worked in my favor. By His grace, bottle was fully ready (along with varnishing) by the first day of Ganeshotsav – Ganesh Chaturthi.

Whosoever saw this bottle, was full of praise and it was really heartening to hear those compliments. Their appreciation inspired me to such an extent that I decided to add bottles as well in the list of canvas on which I can express my thoughts. This blue bottle suddenly came out of blue in my life and gave a new turn to my creative journey.

Now, I always keep an eye on glass bottles – wherever available – which I think can be apt to paint my imagination on. Few days back, may husband jokingly said, “Since you have started painting bottles you seem to have learned quite a bit about liquor bottles”. He is teetotaler, so even he doesn’t know much about liquors etc 🙂

In the end – yes, you have finally reached the end of the post, and thanks for coming till here – I’ll suggest you as well to create beautiful decorative out of waste materials lying at your home and save on buying expensive showpieces from stores. These smart creations can add wonderful personal touch to your home and can become really cool conversation starters with friends.