Bottlecap Mural - caps needed!

The current cap collection

I'm going to take a break from the history of the place to describe a future project.  For those of you who know me, I get my heart set on something and then can't let it go.  If it's something time-consuming, requires lots of little pieces, and I've never attempted anything like it before - that's the project for me!  Thankfully, I've managed to finish most of my projects associated with the cabin, and they've all turned out fine.

So, for this crazy project, some history.....    I have a distinct memory from my childhood of running my hands over an adobe wall decorated with bottlecaps.  The caps had faded, some were dented, and the pattern was pretty simple.  I don't remember if I saw this in Tucson (when I was really little), in the Albuquerque area when I was a bit older, or in visits to the Santa Fe area.  I mentioned this to my sister, and she says the image rings a bell for her also.  I know that there isn't anything like this in Albuquerque now, but I did see similar things in Sonora, Mexico when I was in grad school.


A search on the internet didn't reveal anything like my memories, although this patio, barn entrance, and road repair have a similar rustic 'feel'.  I found other examples of bottlecap art online.   Molly B. Right creates portraits from flattened caps and the detail and expression she obtains is phenomenal.  Her aged caps are overlapped and adhered to a substrate, giving the portraits a lifelike color palette.  This mural in Portland utilizes a hexagonal grid, and provides a good level of detail when seen from a distance.

In any case, I've decided I want a bottlecap mural on my cabin, and I've the perfect place - the north-facing exterior wall where I plan to have a deck in the future.  I've decided to go with a traditional mud plaster (earlier posts show the currently exposed adobe walls), and the caps can just be pressed into the wet mud when the plaster is put on.  I will likely make 12" 'tiles' of caps temporarily adhered to paper for simplicity of installation.  


The plan is to plaster the exterior the summer or fall of 2011; in the meantime, I'm collecting caps, thousands of caps. I have a few ideas for images, but I won't make a decision until December 2010.  By that time, I should have an idea of what color distribution I'm getting and I can estimate how many caps I would have by next summer.  That's the plan. 

To all my friends and family, please save your caps!  Email me for more collection/shipping info.  Thanks in advance for your beverage consumption.