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.