Last weekend, the family and I spent the holidays in northern California, near Gualala. As we’re inveterate art nuts, we couldn’t resist the Fine Arts Fair that was taking place at the Gualala Art Center. We found a cool black walnut bowl to compliment the Kauri bowl we picked up last year in New Zealand. Alice made a beaded necklace and we generally had a nice time looking at art among the redwoods. But perhaps the most interesting thing we stumbled upon was the “Bottles Galore” recycled art of Pamela Wheatley, who makes “usable objects from beer, wine and fruit juice bottles.”
The main display showing her candle holders and drinking glasses made from recycled beer bottles.
Candle holders from brown bottles with cork bottoms.
A design for tapered candles using green glass. The middle was cut out, and the bottom and top sections glued back together.
Glass tumblers and tea light candle holders (I bought a pair of them in brown).
And a tall vase using a 22 oz. beer bottle (I bought one of these, too.) They’re very inexpensive and when I remarked about that as I was paying for my purchases, Ms. Wheatley remarked that she was “just selling fun.” What a great attitude. She told us that she only uses bottles she finds or that friends give her, which she says happens more and more once they see what she’s doing with them. She lives in Manchester, California, which is a little farther north from Gualala along the Pacific coast but still about 40 miles south of Fort Bragg, where North Coast Brewing is located. She doesn’t seem to have a website, but if you want to know where she’ll be selling her wares, you could probably ask her via e-mail, which is pam4mom (@) hotmail (.) com.