Ball Blue Fruit Jar paper

You may recall that I posted an image of a Ball Jar I called The Odd Ball several weeks ago. My art on the old piece of Ball Brothers letterhead was not just an accident. Larry Munson, who lives South & East of where I grew up in Northern Montana, gifted me that piece of paper. I have been waiting for the proper stamps to arrive, after purchasing a sheet of the American Glass stamp issue, Scott #3325-3328 from a seller on eBay. The stamps arrived today, although I had finished this cover several days ago. I will add the address to this cover and get it into the mail to him today.

The other fellow in this equation, Bruce Schank, who has a fabulous web site and collection of Ball Fruit jars (including the Odd Ball) will be getting a similar Thank You from me with a slight delay in it being posted. I have a show opening at the Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City, Montana this coming Sunday. I have been asked to do a live demonstration of my art, and I intend to complete Bruce's cover during the opening reception.

Did I mention that I owe a debt of gratitude to both of these gentlemen? They've been very gracious in sharing with me not only their time, but gifting me the paper and taking numerous photographs for me. I'd like to thank them properly, and perhaps one of these days I will - in person.

The other person I'd like to thank is Marianne Dow. She put us all together in one way or the other.

Ball Blue Fruit Jars - The Odd Ball

In February of this year I put up a post for a Ball Brothers fruit jar that was amber in color. That piece became the highlight of my room during the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana in March. I sent Thank You notes to Larry Munson who gifted me the paper, and Bruce Schank, who allowed me to use his photograph as a model for the Amber Quart.

A week after sending the Thank You to Larry, I received a manila envelope in the mail that contained several pieces of paper, one of them being the piece that you see here. There's more to the story.

Through further emails with Bruce, I learned that he had a Ball jar that he had obtained from Larry, and consequently he took several photographs of what he called the ODD BALL. I don't know how well I portrayed its oddness, but there are several visual clues that there is something not quite right about this jar, and I think they're worthy of mention.

Quality Control must have been sleeping when this jar was produced. There is a seam line running down the jar, and a huge glob of glass at the base of the seam on the inside of the jar. I tried as best I could to make a Cinderella of a Cinder Girl, and I think I succeeded at least in some small measure.

So a big THANK YOU to both Larry Munson for gifting me the Ball Brothers paper, and to Bruce Schank for sharing Odd Ball photographs with me, allowing me to put a Larry Munson jar on a Larry Munson piece of paper.

Western Heritage Artists Show

  

The Western Heritage Art Show begins on Wednesday, March 16th at the Holiday Inn in Great Falls, Montana. It's only my second year as a member, but it's the 30th Anniversary for this show, and I'm honored to be the Featured Artist this year. Hope Good, our Advertising Chairperson has put together a fantastic program again for us this year, and the first image above is of the centerfold page.

I met Christy Daniels at the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction in 2009, and we participated in our very first Quick Finish at that event. You have to see her sculpture to believe how well she captures her vision in three dimensions.  I shared a page in the program last year with her, and I think it brought us good luck.  At least I came out a winner, and it was primarily due to two images - my lobby piece which caught the attention of art fans as soon as they walked into the Holiday Inn, and the major piece in my little quarter page in the program was sold as soon as I hung it on the wall.

I'm hoping for the same results this year. The second image above is of my piece for the lobby show.   The title is "He's A Pinned Ball Wizard". I wish I could have displayed a bit more white space in the online image, but the fact of the matter is - the image just barely fit on my large flat bed scanner. The jar came from my mother in law, as did the antique wooden clothes pins. It's the largest piece that I've done in at least thirty years. I'm so happy with the results, I've decided to start tackling some larger pieces to augment my Old Paper habit.

The Ball jar in the ad above will be hanging in the same spot that the ad piece hung in last year. And just in case you can't read the room number in the program above, my wife and I will be in Room 219  just to your left at the top of  the stairs above the lobby. We met a lot of old friends and made a lot of new ones last year, and you can view a lot of good art (besides my own) in the process if you stop by this year. We also are going to participate in a new event this year called the Paint Around, which happens Friday Evening poolside at the Holiday Inn, beginning at 7:00 PM.  I'm not going to reveal what I'm doing for that event, but I am doing another piece of mail art for the Quick Finish on Thursday, since my piece last year was a real hit. We hope to see you there!   

BALL Amber Quart Fruit Jar

My circle of Jar friends just keeps growing, but to get the story right I have to back up a couple of years.

Two years ago this Spring, I made a trip to my hometown of Shelby, Montana, to visit my youngest sister and make a side visit to Larry Munson. Larry has a collection of fruit jars, or should I say HUGE collection of fruit jars. He has a five room house that is filled with fruit jars, and that house isn't even the one he lives in. I spent an entire afternoon taking photographs of fruit jars, and I came away with some good photos of  the specific jar that I made the trip to see: The Kilner Jar. I also took photos of the Everlasting Jar while I was at it, and I'm glad I did since you don't get an opportunity to see the variety of glass that Larry has very often.

And how can I forget the Amethyst Economy jar? Another jar from Larry's arsenal.

I'm not out of paper yet, nor am I out of story, either.

Through Larry, I met a woman on the web by the name of Marianne Dow. Larry told me that Marianne was a very personable woman who had a keen interest in antiques and a real love of glass. She's steered me to other folks who've been more than happy to feed my glass habit in one way or another. Marianne had a Putnam Lightning jar to hand when I needed a good photograph, and went so far as to provide a YouTube video of her opening and closing the jar so I could see how the wire bale operated.

Several weeks ago, I received an email from a fellow by the name of Bruce Schank. Bruce has a collection of Ball jars and a web site to go with it. He introduced himself by telling me that Marianne had suggested that he contact me. He told me that I really ought to look at what was on his web site, and as long as I gave him credit, I could use any of the photos he had out there. After exchanging several emails and a phone call, Bruce simply sent me some higher quality photos of a Ball Amber Quart jar that was proper for the Ball Brothers letterhead that I had obtained from Larry - two years ago.

So there you have it. I'm now out of the BALL game, since I have no more Old Ball Paper, but I'm always looking for glass paper of any kind suitable for framing. Marianne tagged me a couple of weeks ago with a new title: JArtist. I love it. And Larry and Bruce - you have mail!

Marianne, This Ball Is For You

On the third of July, Marianne Dow wrote a very nice post on the Findlay Antique Bottle Club Blog about my art work, and my fascination with glass. In particular, what she pointed out were the various pieces I've done this year on old paper. Although this piece isn't very old, only having been done in 1999, I thought that since it hasn't been seen but by those who collect my First Day Covers, I'd post this one and talk a little about the glass itself.

The stamp issue was called Art Glass, picturing four different types of collectible Glass. My mother-in-law was born and raised on a homestead South of Havre, Montana, and her mother canned fruit and vegetables to tide them over the winter months. Among those jars were Atlas and Ball jars, some with rubber rings and bales, but the colored Ball jars were my favorites. As I do with all of the pieces of art that I do, I had to give it a title. A Ball jar is not exactly Art, but to me it was beautiful - and utilitarian, so I titled it Working Glass. I've a few photographs of paintings that I've done which I may post here, but for now - you get to look at a Ball jar - on an envelope!