My attempt of Deck in Bottle

Aug 31, 2007
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Long Island/New York
It's really time consuming, but for awhile I've been wanting to try to make one of these eye catchers. I didn't have any set of instructions to follow, so this was just me winging it with a Bob Marley's Mellow mood bottle(similar to a Snapple bottle).
I included all 54 cards (jokers included) to make this and I got to say it looks great.

After finishing, I have a higher respect for Jamie Grant because mine is far from perfect.

Here's some photographs:
IMG_0609.jpgIMG_0610.jpg
 
It looks nice... but somehow I kind of feel like you're treading on sacred ground. I'm not going to go much more into it, because I don't feel I have any right, or authority to speak on the matter but seeing this thread, and a few of the posts in it kind of makes me go "ehh".
 
Feb 27, 2008
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Grand prairie TX
the instructions can easily be googled. Tons of info on making these.
It looks nice, got one from a garage sale once. Used it for a trick having the deck pass from my hand to inside the bottle and the selected card next to the deck inside.
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
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Looks pretty darn good Danny, I'm sure with practice you will get it down. Draven, don't feel bad, one of my major problems I have is exactly doing what you did, reacting on gut instinct without doing my research first. I believe one of the Art of Astonishment books has the instructions on how to do it as well.
 

Jamie D. Grant

theory11 columnist
Oct 12, 2008
189
1
Vancouver
www.cardsinabottle.com
Hiya Gang,

This is always a sort of touchy subject for me. Let me start off by saying that I, nor anyone else, should ever try and discourage Art. I believe that is so vital to us as people, that it's absolutely necessary for survival. So when anyone starts to create, they should be applauded! The only thing I would like to suggest is that people explore there own artistic voice. When I saw Harry Eng's bottle, it was never just a deck of cards, there was always a lot of other stuff inside (Harry was an absolute genius!) and I thought it looked a bit busy. Also, Harry's decks were never in cellophane- something I discovered I could change. That, combined with using a milk bottle- representing nostalgia from my youth, a cork- to represent bottles thrown into the river (another thing we often did as kids), and the title "Anything Is Possible"- representing my philosophy on life; all came together to represent a small version of myself.

And that's what art is- to try and put yourself out there for the world to see- and for the viewer to, in turn, perhaps look at themselves differently. I get requests, almost daily, from people asking me how I make my bottles because they want to make one and I always try and say the same thing: Do you want to make one because you'd like to replicate work I've done? Or is it because you simply haven't found your own voice yet? I always think the best of people and believe it to be the latter. So go out and find it! Experience life and then bring it home. Put it in a bottle. Make it your own. Make something, BE SOMETHING, different. Believe in yourself and that Anything Is Possible.

Gah, I hope that makes sense and that I don't sound like an idiot, lol. I've devoted my life to the "Anything Is Possible" bottle and the "Send Wonder" campaign so it's very close to my heart.

Thanks for reading.

Your friend,

jamie
www.SendWonder.com

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Aug 31, 2007
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Long Island/New York
Jamie, let me start off by saying I didn't mean any harm by posting this thread. I have seen your work with custom decks in bottles, and like I said before I always wanted to try to make one myself. I was proud of myself after accomplishing this as of I didn't think it would actually work or look right.
So once I was finished, I had to show some people. And who would have more interest in it than a forum of magicians?

Like I said, it's far from perfect. It doesn't have the cellophane in which you have in all of your bottles. If you look closely, you could notice a few indents in the box.

I can't say that I devoted my life to making this bottle because I didn't.
However I enjoy doing projects such as painting, graphic design, photography, filming, magic, etc. That's honestly what this was for me; another fun project to occupy my mind. So you could say I haven't found my artistic voice yet since I did replicate a certain design. But I feel I get more inspired from imitation because that tends to lead me to an idea that hasn't been discovered yet. Kind of like how my friends share their new ideas on tricks with me. I would then take their idea and go even further with it on something they had not even thought of.

I hear what you're saying Jamie, but I hope you understand where I'm coming from as well.
All the best,
Dan.
 
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