What to say… We live in Ottawa, Canada, with our daughter Violet and our delightful kitties, Lily and Sasha. We dabble in a lot of different crafts and hobbies, ranging from beekeeping to vintage scooter repair, crochet to ships in bottles, and a whole range of weird stuff in between. We started this blog in 2009 to document our crafty adventures  – please enjoy your visit!

A Little Bit About Our Ships

All our ships are hand carved and rigged using mostly scrap wood, toothpicks, wire, thread, and components from old watches, and sails, flags, and banners are made from paper. The ships themselves are constructed and rigged by Shawn, and paint details and sails are added by Emily before they are installed in the bottles (go team!). We use a wide variety of containers, ranging from tiny vintage aspirin bottles, to ornaments, light bulbs, liquor bottles, and antique vinegar jugs. All bottles have sand at the bottom, sealed in the resin that the ships “float” in. Other than the ornaments, all bottles are corked, their necks wrapped in sisal, and then sealed with our logo in sealing wax.

Ships range in complexity and are designed to complement their containers in size, shape, and style. Small bottles and ornaments usually contain simpler boat models, such as daysailers, whereas larger bottles contain more complicated models, such as 3 or 4 masted ships, Chinese junks, or multi-ship scenes.

We can be reached at acidtrix@gmail.com.