Bottle Top Logo

My 1 metre wide big head logo in bottle tops.

What

A 1 metre diameter version of my personal logo with the spectrum background recreated with 557 plastic bottle tops.

When

Briefly in December 2022 but mostly January 2023.

Why

I can’t quite remember exactly why I decided I should do this. I think it was probably only very shortly before I began it in December 2022. I’m only typing this immediately after finishing it, so perhaps I should recall it better. I think I wondered what it would look like, and there was really only one way to find out.

Development & Progress

I printed the existing logo in two halves on Christmas Day 2022. This would be a guide for placement of colours and a further copy of my face. It was also a good background to avoid seeing an otherwise white base through the gaps

I cut out the logo shape from corrugated cardboard and because the edges looked open and ugly, I taped them all up like I had for earlier bottle top artworks.

I soon determined that that not only was the masking tape edging not adhesive enough, it also didn’t look good either. So I took to Fusion 360 and created an edging model that I could 3D Print in 14 2-arc parts.

The edging was glued to the scalloped perimeter of the cardboard shape. Each piece of edging took 37 minutes to 3D print .

The now properly cut out original logo was positioned in place ahead of spray gluing into place. Any gaps between the edging and the cardboard had been filled and painted.

112 White plastic lids were glued around the edge. Most of these were from cartons of fruit smoothie I have with my breakfast every morning.

To avoid any white areas of the base layer being visible, I decided I should extend the extent of the spectrum area. I printed out these extra borders in four sections. I think these bent bits of colour look quite nice by themselves.

The additional border over the edges of my face.

A selection of colour sorted bottle tops ready to be used.

I began arranging the bottle tops before gluing any of them. This took several hours in its own right. I went to two supermarkets to see if I could find some more transition colours on caps but I’d have to stick to what I already had.

With all of the lids assembled from the day before. I would begin my Saturday of gluing after eating my essential daily crumpets with Marmite and fruit smoothie mixed with orange juice.

After gluing each bottle top into place, I placed a coin on top so I’d be able to clearly see which ones were yet to be done. Without doing this, it would have been a confusing job.

Further lids were placed as support for the new face print that would be on top.

I reprinted my face after some colour tests and adjustments. I glued it to some sturdy un-corrugated cardboard. I decided that my face might need updating as I get older so I would make it removable. Velcro was hot glued onto both surfaces and my head positioned.

Me next to the big head logo.

Current Status

The 1-metre wide logo featuring my massive head was above my bed as if I’m some sort of rampant narcissist. Well, it had to go somewhere, and that was an empty space I had.

The logo isn’t exactly the same as the original in some ways but I quite like it even if it’s just another silly pointless artwork project.

In April 2024 I decided that having my beautiful dog Hera’s face on the artwork would be better than mine, so I printed out her head and glued a bunch more lids into place for the parts that had previously been covered by my head.

My head above my bed 2023 -2024.

Behold the beauty of Hera!

2 Comments

LisaMLord

29 December 2024 / 2:39 pm Reply

Your bottle-cap artwork is a joy to look at! I like using recycled materials in my collages, but I’ve never done anything this large or focused on one type of material. You must have far more patience than I do. Also love the wall. Wallpaper or did you paint all those designs? 😧
Morgs

30 December 2024 / 2:03 pm Reply

This is brilliant. Saw your post in Dull Men on Facebook and had to check your website out. I’m loving it and, as a hobbying craftster myself, am inspired to start collecting some bottle tops…although it may take some years until I have enough to do a tiny project as I mostly drink water 😂 But thank you for sharing, have really enjoyed!