Throughout the time that I have been working on ships in bottles, which is just under three years now, I have always pushed myself to take the traditional, often static model, a step further towards playing a more active role within the realm of a bottle.  My bottles need to tell a story, so that the viewers themselves can take a more active role in observing what is passing within a bottle and connect with it emotionally.

So, I was excited when last summer, I was requested to develop a scene from the movie “Jaws,” in a bottle.  As I began to think of the movie, many scenes of the 1975 thriller started flashing through my mind, and I even shivered at the idea of recreating the massive man-eater that would go in the bottle.  I had seen the movie when I was a teenager and still to this day have moments of silly fear when I go for a swim at the beach, imagining that a killer shark may be lurking not far off.  So, my ultimate goal became how could I literally bottle up all those emotions, along with the overall scene that was to go in the bottle.

I soon went through the task of watching the movie once more, and though outdated and lacking the special effects of modern film, the ominous theme song and the suspense leading to the appearance of the great white, still makes my heart skip a beat.  After discussing the bottle with the customer and proposing many possible scenes, he came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to choose only one scene. Instead I would build one scene that combined the many moments leading up to a scary point within the movie. The police chief, Brody, is preparing to shoot the scuba tank in the mouth of the shark, which in the movie leads to the explosive death of the man-eater.  Hooper, the oceanographer, is in the “shark-proof” cage preparing to be lowered into the water, which is moments before the shark destroys the cage and nearly eats him.  And finally, Quint, the shark hunter, is throwing chum into the water to attract the shark who would be harpooned many times with trailing yellow barrels.  

The scale of the ship was a little larger than I typically work at, which posed some advantages and disadvantages.  Overall she was about 5 ¾ inches long (approx. 145mm), allowing me to add a large amount of detail at a more realistic level, however, the boat became so large that it had to be inserted through the bottle in three separate sections with additional work necessary on the interior. 

Figuring out how I would break the boat up into pieces that would pass through the neck was a challenge, but I eventually decided on slicing the hull down the middle vertically and attaching the walls of the cabin to the hull. The cabin roof, rear bulkhead, and fore cabin section would all be one piece that would just barely squeeze through the neck of the bottle.

The bottle is a 4 liter pharmaceutical bottle which I found at the flea market.  It was the perfect size to allow me to display the entire body of the man eating shark fiercely swimming towards the“Orca,” and the width of the bottle was also substantial enough that I could sit the boat at an angle, making the overall scene much more appealing.  

The boat itself was carved from basswood and three small dowels inserted into the cut face between the two hulls aided in reconstruction within the bottle.  The cabin was constructed from different woods to suit paint or varnish.  The interior of the cabin is open allowing light to pass through the windows and provide an interior dimension.  When connecting the cabin roof to the hull, I simply pushed the piece down into place, the port and starboard walls holding it from sliding forward and aft and the cockpit walls hold it from sliding side to side.  I admit, the overall construction of the cabin roof was difficult and lots of readjusting and super glue was used the hold the fragile pieces together.  

On board are a multitude of details from harpoons on each cabin side, a ladder, and life rings  all made of wire , yellow barrels turned from bamboo skewers, a smoke stack, a tiny wooden fishing chair, and even a fishing rod whose line actually passes through the eye rings which were once miniscule watch washers.  The boats name is painted on the stern in a faded gold leaf fashion, and a set of jaws, dwarfed by the real predator, are hanging on the front wall of the upper deck.  The “shark proof” cage, which hangs over the side of the boat from the boom, was made of wire, and is ready to be lowered into the water.  The shark was sculpted from sculpey, a polymer clay, and I may have exaggerated on the size just a bit to make it a little scarier.  The men are all train model figures whose bodies were altered and painted to match the tasks they were doing.

Inserting the whole scene took nearly a full day including
drying time of glues and left me exhausted from keeping my patience and insanity in check; it never fails that every single line you have loose will get caught on everything!  The shark was set down into the sea made of plumber’s putty, to appear as if he is coming out of
the water.  The shark and the boat are epoxied to the sea, and all attached pieces are securely glued with white glue or super glue.  In all there were six lines to pull tight, glue, and cut after the boat was together.  Other interior work included gluing the antennas upright, pressing the cage and diver just into the surface of the sea,attaching the barrels to the shark, positioning the two people on board, and adding a few seagulls, made of painted paper and glued to the interior surface of the bottle with just a tiny drop of super glue.

The stand also played an important role for the overall
piece. Each side displayed a label with the words “Jaws 1975” and two of the most memorable movies lines: “you’re gonna need a bigger boat!” and “smile, you son of a bitch!”

Overall the project was a nice challenge and a great build!  More importantly, I was able to produce the ship to a happy customer.  I’ve also posted the building of the scene on my website, where you can more closely
follow the steps along with my descriptions on how it was made; you’ll find it under new bottles on my website: www.shipinbottles.com.  Enjoy!

After two years of constructing ships in bottles and completing over 30 bottles, I realized that I had not yet built a model that relates a more direct association with where I grew up.  I'm originally from Mathews, VA, just south of the Rappahanock River on the Chesapeake Bay.  I've built many Chesapeake boats, but nothing that could identify the state of Virginia and the county of Mathews precisely.  

Upon brainstorming for this model, I thought of old steamboats, oyster dredgers, large schooners, and buy boats of times passed.  However, these boats were common to all areas of the Chesapeake and I could think of no boat typical of Mathews itself. Finally it occurred to me, that there was a ship which could symbolize the state and a lighthouse, which could stand as a link to my home town.  This is how I came up with my state’s tall ship, the Schooner Virginia
passing the Wolf Trap Lighthouse, which sits on a shoal directly off of Mathews County.  
    The Schooner Virginia was commissioned by the Virginia Pilot Association and built in 1916 in Staten Island, New York.  She was a knockabout schooner, which means, having no bowsprit, all sails could be handled on the deck, and it was therefore possible to handle her with a very short crew, which was ideal for her mission as a pilot boat in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  She was also used as a training vessel that had no auxiliary power at first and was only subsequently equipped with a 75 hp engine.

I am also finding there is no prettier item to add with your ship in bottle than a lighthouse.  With this additional item, the scene becomes lively and can tell a story, displaying a typical event of passage, which was assuredly recorded in any captain's logbook. I myself have passed this lighthouse on multiple occasions, and with this structure as a reference, can nearly recall the exact weather we were having on the day.

As far as construction is concerned, the hull and its cabins are
carved of basswood.  A thin tipped
drafting pen was used to mimic the deck seams and the masts were turned from
strips of yellow pine.  All the deck fittings and the wheel are created from tiny watch pieces and sails are cut from archival calligraphy paper to avoid future deterioration or discoloration due to acid. The cove stripe on the hull is gold paint, and you can even read the hand painted name on its blue flame.  Overall, the relationship between ship and lighthouse are as close to scale as possible at this miniature size.

The Lighthouse was built in three separate pieces: the lower base and deck, the main house, and the light tower, all of which were pre-assembled before inserting it into the bottle.  It proved quite difficult to carve the octagonal shape of the house and roof as well as the cylindrical base from a square block of wood, but eventually it came to form.  The railings are
made from wire and string, windows and doors are paper, and the light tower is a piece of plastic tube with a shard of glass glued inside to reflect and appear as the light. 

    Having grown up in Virginia, in the USA, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, I was used to seeing traditional workboats, fishing, and transporting goods throughout the Bay region. It was only logical therefore, that once I learned my hobby of putting ships in bottles, that these boats would be among my creations.  
    In the past year and a half, with my companion Stefan, we have moved and are living on the shores of Lake Leman, his place of origin, and I have discovered the unique, typical, and traditional working boats of Lac Leman: The “Barques du Leman,”and that gave me the idea to use them as a subject for ships in bottle.
    The history of the” barques,” is the first thing I learned about.  Before the 16th century, Lake Geneva, and it surroundings, were entirely under the rule of the Counts of Savoie, with the exception of the free city of Geneva, that was a merchant city whose wealth came mainly from dealing in silk and spices. The Count de Savoie introduced on Lac Leman, the Mediterranean type galleys in order to control traffic, creating by that means, a navy fleet of respectable proportions.  Later, the Swiss, or rather the people of Bern, conquered all the northern part of the Lake and imposed their rule over most of the lake.  
     Progressively, the galleys whose purpose was military, were modified into a more utilitarian craft that still had the capability of being used as a galley, but whose main purpose was to transport goods.  That seems to be the origin of the” Barque du Leman.”

    For several hundred years, these ships of considerable size and rigged with lateen sails, were common on the Red Sea and the Nile, but certainly not seen often so far North, and especially not on a lake, became the main means of transportation of merchandise and heavy materials for construction.  In the 19th century, les
“barques”became essential in the building of almost all the towns around the lake, with their huge capacity to carry stones from the quarry of Meillerie (a small French town, not far from Evian), and timber from the hills. Many of the”barques” were built on the french side of the lake, and were operated by crews from those same places.  The name “barque de Meillerie” was more common to denominate those crafts in the 19th century than the more modern term, “Barque du Leman.”  This very busy and lucrative business was seriously hampered by World War I, and the period between the two wars only saw a mild revival of the trade, before World War II put a stop to all lake transportation and traffic. 
     Some attempts were made after World War II to revive the use of the “Barques”, by motorizing them, and using them as barges to transport sand, stone, and lumber, but that soon proved to be a failed enterprise, and road trucking took over.  The “barques” that had survived the war, rotted out in rivers and harbors, until there was only two left afloat: one in Geneve, La Neptune  and one in the Canton de Vaud, La Vaudoise (a ship of smaller size called a brick).  Those two boats were subsequently rebuilt and are now proud remains of the fleet.
    Two replicas have been built in the past 10 years, one in Vevey, Switzerland: La Demoiselle,and one in Thonon, France: La Savoie. The Savoie (32 meters on deck) was built using all traditional methods of construction, and can be considered the only true replica.  There is another boat called “l'Aurore,” whose appearance is similar to a
“barque” but is of much smaller size, and different design. She was built in St Gingolph, a little town famous for having the french-swiss border dividing it, and for having been the capital of Barque building, with several hundred craft lauched in the 19thcentury.
    While living on Lac Leman, I began to take up an interest in these peculiar boats, which were so different from the workboats of the Chesapeake Bay.  I had never
observed a vessel with such, immense, triangular lateen sails in combination with hulls that sit so low in the water.  I could only imagine these vessels to be near sinking when fully loaded with hundreds of tons of cargo of rocks, and was impressed by the structural integrity that they must possess to transport such heavy burdens.  Having realized that only five of those boats existed on the lake, I was newly inspired to create each of them in a bottle under different circumstances.
    The first barque I bottled up, was La Savoie. After studying many images of the original boat, I decided to depict her as I had seen her in a photograph, discharging a load of rocks in Geneve.  This was also my first scene in a bottle, and looking back on the project
now, it was a major stepping stone in what I could be capable of accomplishing.  In the bottle, La Savoie rests at the harbor wall, with sails furled around the antennas as four men, assisted by wheelbarrows, unload the cargo.  The rocks are stacked on land and some is loaded into a wagon for transport.           
     The hull of the boat was carved in two parts to pass through the neck of the bottle and reassembled inside.  The sails are made of paper, which I worked and crushed in my hands before wrapping them on the antennas and afterward painted to give a weathered appearance.  The small cargo of rocks and the harbor wall were made of tiny pebbles I collected outside of the house we live in, and one by one super glued together.  On deck, there is a capstan created from wire and watch gears.  Other details include small cleats on the mast, the flag, the “naviot” (the tender) tied to the bow, and the “apoustis”(the curved planks used by the crew to walk on the boat when loaded, glued to the exterior, upper edge of the hull), and of course, the crew unloading the cargo, with wheelbarrows.

    With a feeling of great success on the first model, I was motivated to begin the next, La Neptune.  I had seen multiple images of the barques taken while the sails were set to go downwind, each sail, like wings, on a different side of the boat, and found it to be the most attractive and picturesque moment.  This was how I would build La Neptune.  Her sails are paper, painted to show patches, and overall, the boat displays her blue, white, red, and yellow color scheme.  The capstan is present, and throughout the rigging and on deck, I've used miniscule watch washers and various other watch pieces to represent blocks, and deck fittings. 

    The third bottle I created was the brick La Vaudoise. This one rests inside a yellow tinted bottle with a flared opening.  Like the first, she was built in two sections to pass through the neck of the bottle. She contains the same elements as the previous two with a few extra details, most importantly, the representation of deck seams.  These were created using a .02 mm drafting pen against a straight edge. Additionally, there is a model train persona manning the tiller and the “naviot” trailing behind.  Another accomplishment was my ability to paint by hand, in tiny letters the name of the ship on the transom.  

    The Fourth bottle that I made was a second version of” La Neptune” passing the “phare des Paquis,” in Geneve (this is the only lighthouse in Switzerland).  This bottle is the one I found more impressive, and the boat is even more delicate than the previous three. There is one big difference in the construction, and it is that the masts are crafted with a pegged, wooden hinge.  The lighthouse was carved from air drying clay and detailed with various materials including wire, string, and wooden sections. I enjoy this scene a lot because it appears to tell a story of a special moment in the life of the barque.

    The fifth and final bottle I have created displays the Barque Desmoiselle chasing the small “cochere” L'Aurore around the “L'ile de Peilz.” This is a tiny artificial island, on lake Leman, built about 150 years ago, that has amazingly maintained the life of a single and huge sycomore tree which has a white appearance in winter due to the yearly visit of the Cormoran birds, and what they leave behind.   It was in this bottle that I combined all that I had learned with the previous four, and completed it with the intriguing scene of the island-tree. 
Ultimately, my goal has been to relate a story to those viewing my ships in bottles. I hope that I have captured a moment in time within each bottle that depicts the Barques in their historical importance, as well as their unique beauty upon Le Lac.

Article Written by: Heather Gabrielle Rogers and assisted by Stefan Auer.

Please note the historical information provided in this article has been developed from a multitude of sources and understanding ships.  The precise history of the origin of the Barque du Leman is continously under debate.

An Amazing parade on the water, tall ships from different parts of the world, of many sizes shapes and time periods, a beautiful day, and public boarding of the
ships for free!!  I call that one awesome and spectacular day that I wasn't going to miss!

This year, Norfolk's harbor fest hosted Opsail 2012 in
commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. 

Stefan and I went down on Friday June 8th to beat the crowd and watch the ships parade into the Norfolk/Portsmouth waterfront.  In the lead, surrounded by the spectacle of fire tugs, and makings its turn around the anchored "Schooner "Virginia," was the USCG Eagle.

One ship after another followed suit, turning around the schooner "Virginia" to dock within the Norfolk harbors or continuing on towards their place on the Portsmouth waterfront.  Every size ship could be seen from the 370' Jauan
Sebastien De Elcano, down to the 51.6' "Norfolk Rebel" Tugantine. 

Jamestown's "GodSpeed" was there, dwarfed by the immense size of the "Eagle."

It seemed like a never ending fleet of tall ships followed behind including the "Guayas" from Ecuador, "Picton Castle" of Cook's Island, Columbia's "Gloria," and Brazil's "Cisne Branco." (pictured in order below) 

Also parading was the US's Protugese fishing boat, the "Gazela,"  Mexico's Cuauhtemoc,"  and the final tall ship from Indonesia, "Deswaruci." 

Even with the immensity of some of those tall ships, the replica ships and long lived local vessels will always be some of my favorites, of which I have already put 4 in a bottle and am currently working on a fifth.  These iclude the "A. J. Meerwald,"  Schooner "Virginia,"  "Bounty," and the "Pride of Baltimore."  The "Pride" showed an excellent performance of seamanship, coming in under sail and holding her position with sails up while she slowly drifted (with motor assistance) to her docking place.  She also fired off her canons!

Another beautiful boat, that I can't forget to mention was the "Spirit of Bermuda," a three masted Bermuda Sloop (pictured below).

Sadly, I can't post every picture I've taken or I'd be here all day, but if you'd like to see more you can go to my S & G Ships in Bottles Page on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/shipinbottles  and look under the Opsail Album.  Don't forget to have a glance through the gallery to see how I portrayed four of the ships from the parade in a bottle. 
If you didn't catch Opsail in Norfolk or Baltimore, you still have time to see it in Boston or New London, and I highly suggest it.  Hope you have enjoyed the photos and look forward to a few new articles here on my blog very soon, including the "Jaws" scene in a bottle.

    "So, just what is it that you like so much about building ships in bottles?"  For me, this question is often the most enjoyable to answer allowing me to express my creative freedom, as opposed to the all too common question of "how did you get that ship in that bottle?"  That question, though easy to answer, is frustration to some extent.  You dictate a series of steps, almost set in stone, like a science project, lacking that creative spice, which is the real reason we miniature model builders spend hours upon hours of careful focus and attention, stressing our eyes to the extremes, and testing our patience to the level of near insanity!
    So, what do we like about it?  Now, that is a question
to answer!  Why, it’s exploring the world of critical problem solving.  Figuring out just what medium to use, how to apply it, and the distance you can delve into the miniature world with basically no rules to restrict you.  Our craft, allows us to explore a world of mimicry, turning a toothpick into a mast, a watch gear into a steering wheel, a shard of glass into the lens of a lighthouse, or even turning a medical injection needle into a stanchion of a railing. And once you’ve figured out what material to use, you’ve got to determine what you’ll use to put it together, whether it be glue, clear nail polish, epoxy, a length of string, a couple dowels, or a combination of those things.  This is what it means to
build ships in bottles, and the reason why, I’m so addicted.  
    Over the course of my building, I've created a list of tips, tricks and material usage.  These are ideas to explore.  You'll come up with many of them on your own, but I have found, that aside from building, the best part about ships in bottles is sharing with other builders, just how you created what you did.
 
Some Tools:
•   Create a tiny hoop at the tip of a piece of thin wire, which is attached to a flexible, long, piece of metal (clothes hanger length, flexible shish kebab stick, etc.). This will be used to suspend the super glue so that it can be applied to your object.  The smaller the hoop, the smaller the quantity of glue.

•    Make a pair of long tweezers with a coat hanger, but make them even better by strapping on two small, wooden slats (shaped the way you like).  These are better than those long model store tweezers which in the end are too bulky to really use inside the bottle.

Handling and Using Glues:
•     I use super glue to attach nearly everything on the ship, but it can be messy if you squeeze it straight from the bottle.  So, always dab super glue with a paper towel.  I cut paper towels into small squares and have a
pile of them accessible at all times when working.
•     Soak fine veneers in super glue before cutting with a blade (exacto knife). This helps to avoid splitting down the grain of the wood and breaking of very fine pieces.

•     Use super glue to stiffen lines so that they hold their shape in a bottle.  For instance, allow the sheets to your sails to absorb the glue so that it becomes stiff.  In this way, you can set your sails further out from the hull.  This allows you to display a boat sailing downwind.

Random Materials and Their Uses:
 •    Collect that flexible plastic that many items are packaged in from the stores.  Keep the flat sections and use these for making windows or anything that needs to be transparent on your models.  (Note: do not glue these with super glue, it will create a horrible haze on its surface!)

•    Watercolor paper is a great medium for mimicking wood.  It will take stain well, is flexible, and can be stiffened with super glue. I’ve used it to make the ribs of a canoe once before and rub rails on large boats.

I'm certain to have more tips in the future, but until then, I've provided you with some ideas to think about.