Ashes of Vampire


I made a new dark magic ingredient bottle for my ever growing collection of witchcraftian supplies. I thought the remains of a sunburned vampire would have to be needed in some necromancer's recipe.

This was a really quick to create, prop making palette cleanser between projects. The only unique trick used on this one that I've never done before on other such bottles was scratching up the glass with heavy grit sandpaper so it felt more antique. I like the effect and will definitely do more often.

Below is the label art I drew, scanned and finished in Photoshop. Feel free to use on your own prop if you want. Click to enlarge.

14 comments:

  1. That bottle looks so brilliant and your label is excellent thanks for allowing us mere mortals to use it ;p

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is really cool of you to share with us.

    Thanks.....now off to kill some vampires :D

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. looks great--love the effect of the sandpaper on the glass. thanks for the tip (and the label!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow!! It looks awsome, love it:) Good idea to use sandpaper to make it look old! Thanks for sharing, will absolutely have to include an example in our collection of eerie potion bottles;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful! I was wondering if you used a bottle that was already yellowish, or did you stain the glass in any way? (I'm referring to the color that can be seen in the thicker, bottom part of the bottle)

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the nice comments all!

    David,
    No staining on the bottle. I upped the warm hues a bit in Photoshop before posting this, because the picture was taken under a pretty harsh florescent light. That's probably were the yellowish color in the glass comes from.

    Staining the glass a good idea though for some in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HalloweeNut,
    The ash is real ash. Some gathered from the corners of our fireplace, most made carefully burning short strips of paper.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awesome prop! I've been playing around with using a Dremel engraver to etch bottles.. Have yet to use sand paper to age them! Looks awesome! I will definitely have to try this!

    I also saw someone using modge podge over glass and using acrylic paint to stain the modge podge making it a really cool transparent grungy color.. Not 100% sure I didn't see it on your page, but for the life of me I can't remember, but the effect was neat nonetheless!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Awesome! Thank you for sharing! I've got a great collection of bottles myself and this will make a great addition. Plus the sandpaper trick is genius, I've been using talc and this sounds way cleaner and smarter ;)
    Thanks! Love your blog btw, though I had never commented before.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dismal,

    Dremels are a great tool, I might try engraving.

    I know the talented PumpkinRot has created a terrific "Witch Jar" lantern using acrylic paints to stain and age the glass. Might be what your thinking of.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ale, thanks and glad you commented.
    Talcum powder is a great way to age things...fuller's earth works the same way. That can be found at some make up shops and railroad model stores.
    I've found a light dusting with regular hair spray can be a cool aging trick and also help keep the powder in place.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for this! I am determined this year to have my kitchen counter full labeled bottles. (my backsplash is black chalkboard paint)

    I have been finding some of my best bottles in really old antique shops and junk shops. They are happy to sell them for 25 cents to $1.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi!!!

    I'm from Sweden and I'm actually trying to get Swedes to understand the beauty of Halloween. So I'm doing a site all in Swedish with info about Halloween but also tips and tricks.

    Found you label and loved it. So I took it and translated it to Swedish and put it on my website. Of course I credit you and link here. For people who wants it in english and there are so much more fun here.

    I hope you don't min I just wich I would have had your cool font. But mine worked to :-)

    Ohh and if you want the label with Swedish text here to that would be great. Just take it by clicking on the tiny thumb.

    (I used a special Swedish candy called Hockedust for ashes so it would really be usable in a witches kitchen or Apotek :-)

    Thanks for this and I love your work.

    ReplyDelete