Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

memory jug

Making a Memory Jar Pt. 2

The modern day memory jar evolved from the old slave custom of making a memory jug to serve as a grave site memorial.  We’ve showcased my friend Susan’s memory jars with a brief tutorial on the process.  Creating a message in a bottle can be quite tedious and depending on the size of the jar, require an extensive collection of treasure to adorn it. Susan has switched up her technique and started using a black grout instead of the white. I love the look.

Memory Jar DIY

She’s embedded button covers, ear rings and pendants, old jewelry, and interesting bits of metal.  These jars are so visually rich and is a good way for a hoarder to cull a collection of artifacts and recycle old flower vases and jars into a work of art. Susan works a section at a time and recommends laying out the area you plan to cover ahead of time, so that once you lay the grout down you can start applying the ornaments and keep the project moving.

More of Susan’s work can be seen here:
Memory Jars

Corporate Collage

Making a Memory Jar

My friend the artist known as “Sooz” is making a memory jar. Last week I dropped in and snapped a few photos of her creation.

Soozie is an artist and sadly, one of the early members of the Widows Club (1998). 10 years later she’s made a major career change, had a child in mid-life and about to complete her master’s degree to teach- what else? Art!

While experimenting for this piece, she tried taking a smaller surface, covering it in glue and rolling the surface in beads.

Not what she had in mind.

This is the look. The bolo tie adds an interesting dimension. Now, show me how to work it.
memory jug

Tools of the trade. Jar or jug, junk, and white silicone. That gun looks a little unwieldy.

memory jug

But Sooz handles it like a pro.
memory jug

Using mostly flat trinkets to adorn the surface of the jar, working in small areas, letting it dry, repeat. Depending on your coverage area, this is not an afternoon project.

Love it!

Message In A Bottle

memory jug

Memory jars and jugs have always fascinated me. While they may look like a hunk of junk, they are actually messages in a bottle. Memory jars are thought to originate with Southern blacks as decorative grave markers. The art form later became popular with the Victorians and has become a rare collectible in the folk-art genre.

The jar pictured above is built on an old molasses jug and is covered with an extraordinary assemblage including old buttons, an onyx mourning cross, shells, marbles, keys, a belt buckle, broach, stones, English coins, bottles, ceramic people, metallic objects,screws, chains, jewelry, a wishbone, and more. It is topped with a glass finial. It has a pencil eraser holder with a date of 1886 on it. The three coins are all Victorian.

It was said that this jug had been given to a maid in the 1920’s by an English family who had immigrated to the US. It is 10 inches high, 8 inches in diameter and weighs over 7 pounds. While there has been some very slight loss over the years, it is almost complete; with the items now held very securely with old putty. It is signed in red on the bottom twice what looks likes “Mandelere”. Considered to be one of the best memory jars seen on the Folk Artisans site.

The price? $600.00