Altered bottle

I recently ran an 'altered bottle' swap on CC Swaps Yahoo group. I had originally altered a bottle by melting it a little and coating it with patinating paints, but noticed the paint was flaking off after a week or so. I assumed that this was because the bottle didn't have any 'tooth' for the paint to hold onto. I guess I either need to sand the bottle first, or better still, cover it with tissue before I paint it. The bottle above is the one I finally sent my swap partner - it began life as a 'Pom' bottle full of pomegranate juice.

I drank the juice - yum - and then used a versamark hot knife to trim the bottle top - it had mouldings in the shape of the top of a ;pomegranate, so i just followed the moulding with the blade. Than I used PVA glue to stick tissue all over the bottle, overlapping and crinkling as I went. Once dry, i painted it with Aubergine colour wash - diluted with 3 or 4 parts water. It looked a bit dull, so I stamped it all over with a tiny stamp and Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink. It still needed 'something' - shine, I thought, so I gave it a coat of gloss medium, which made the colourwash run :(

I decided the colour was too blue and needed to be a warmer shade of purple, so I gave it a quick dab of amethyst rub'n'buff, and stuck 2 sun charms on. My art often takes on a life of it's own, and this project was no different. I am not sure I am completely satisfied with the final object, but I know we are all our own worst critics, so I tried to be objective about it - and decided that if I saw it in a shop, I would like it. I hope Fiona likes it, too.