12 Mar 2009

SHOW & TELL - Egyptian Glass bottles

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More participants are here at Kelly's

When you are in Egypt you will see artists on the street who are selling these little bottles. It's usually a landscape with a camel. We saw one at work and how he filled in the little bottles (even smaller sizes) lay by lay.

Mr. Gattino asked him if he could do a cat instead of the usual camel. I never thought he could do it, I was convinced that the way he did it was like a pattern he automatically used all the time. But no, he did it !

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It was very interesting to watch him. He sat there with a little table and had in a big bowl very fine natural sand out of the Red sea. In other bowls there was the sand mixed with colored pigments in all sort of colors.

He then took an empty bottle and a very little funnel and a spoon and started to fill in the bottle with the colored sand lay by lay. I was fascinated by his work. It went rather quick it was amazing !

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And he managed to make a cat ! He kept the pattern of the background but I am sure that was the first time that a tourist asked him a cat ! Unfortunately I have no picture of him. I filmed the whole procedure. In 2004 I didn't think of photography yet !

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Here you see both sides

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and a close up to show you the sand. Isn't that an amazing artwork ? I don't remember the price but it was ridiculously cheap. Of course we gave him more for his extra work.

22 comments:

  1. I have a little one with a sea scene, the beach, the sea and a palm. Yours is really beautiful and.....ahhh Egypt....maybe one day.

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  2. It is amazingly clever. It must have been fun watching him make it.

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  3. I remember my kids doing some sand art when they were younger, but I've never seen anything like this. That is one skillful artist. Thanks for sharing.
    Brenda

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  4. How great is this?!!!!! He made it look Egyptian too if you ask me...the black cat or jackal...is it Anubis? Yes.....it's a super job done.

    My show n tell is offered for viewing, won't you stop by sometime today and keep me company?

    Have a terrific Friday and wonderful weekend.

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  5. How wonderful! I love it.

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  6. Yes! They have people that do this at the beach here too! And then sometimes a table set up where you can try to make your own. NOT as easy as they make it look! LOL! That is a wonderful little piece of art for you -- and very special cat for your collection!

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  7. That is an amazing piece of art! It's beautiful! I wonder if he can do an Elmo.

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  8. Wow! I'm REALLY impressed, what an idea to make such art. I love when people are creative and invent new forms of art :-)

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  9. I can't believe that's SAND! WOW...that is amazing! Have a great Friday...julie

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  10. How special!! It amazes me that people can do those.
    Susan

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  11. Wow, that's some amazing skill. And, you are a lucky duck to have been to Egypt! Thanks for sharing!

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  12. He probably was pleased to have the break in routine. Thanks for sharing. Happy Show and Tell Friday. Here's mine.
    http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

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  13. Hi Gattina, that is really interesting how he layered that sand into that bottle to make a scenery! What a great artist!
    Thanks for sharing....
    ~Ann

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  14. what a marvelous job this guy did! It's really beautiful! I'm very impressed!

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  15. That is talent. I don't see how he could do that.
    Those are very good pictures.

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  16. Not only can I not believe the detail in this...I can't believe you got it home without it all mixing up together...amazing!

    Warm Wishes to you Gattina!
    Susie

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  17. Way too advanced for me. When I was young my stepmom made sand art in glass containers for us but we never got more advanced than mountains!

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  18. It's beautiful! What an interesting process he went through to make it. Thank you for sharing the details, and for sharing your lovely treasure!

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  19. This is amazing! What a talent:) Thanks for sharing this unusual with us:)

    Linda C

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  20. Amazing!
    I could never imagine doing something like this.
    And I would have thought they go by a pattern too. Awesome that he could make a cat!

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  21. He did a wonderful job with the cat, Gattina!
    ~Kelli

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  22. How neat and what a skillful person must have made it. I like the little black cat on it.

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