How to Build a Ship in a Bottle

Feb 10

Feb 10 How to Build a Ship in a Bottle

“Start with the right bottle,” says Greg Alvey, a builder and restorer of ships in bottles who has owned some 800 since he started collecting them in the late 1990s. You want clear glass without visible seams, flaws or raised lettering. The classic version is the Haig Dimple whisky bottle, with its short neck and flattened sides. “It can’t roll away,” Alvey says. Beginners should consider constructing what’s known as a waterline ship, which sits atop a sea usually made of modeling clay or plumber’s putty, thereby saving you from having to make a full hull that needs to fit through the opening. For dimensions, find a plan online or in a book. Alvey suggests a schooner whose sails will seem impossibly tall inside the bottle. The point of this type of folk art is to evoke a sense of bewilderment in the viewer. “It’s a puzzle,” Alvey says. “How is it possible to get that in there?”

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From "How to Build a Ship in a Bottle" by Malia Wollan for the New York Times Magazine