John T. Unger Studio

Old Glory an American flag created from over 20,000 Budweiser bottle caps for Stagecoach Festival

John T. Unger — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 03:20:00 +0000

Old Glory is an American flag created from over 20,000 Budweiser bottle caps and was commissioned by Golden Voice and Budweiser for the 2015 Stagecoach Music Festival. Measuring ten feet tall by sixteen feet wide, for a total of 160 square feet, Old Glory is my largest bottle cap artwork to date.

The short documentary film shot by Stephen Blauweiss, above, shows how each cap was individually punched, crimped and then nailed to plywood to form the image. I love how he was able to really capture the process of making the artwork.

What inspired me in this project is how deeply iconic it is— You can't get more 'American Made' than a flag made from Budweiser caps. I also love that the artwork traveled coast to coast, from NY to CA, crossing the entire country it represents.

Whether people choose to see Old Glory as folk art or fine art, I feel the real beauty of the piece is how open it is to personal interpretation— whatever your idea of America is, I think this piece speaks to that. You can choose to view it as a monument to America, a critic of consumerism, a beautiful object or trash given new life. As an artist, my job is to make things worth talking about— I feel I've done that job best when there are a variety of meanings that are equally valid.

This quote from Jimmy Carter says it well: "We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."

I'm very proud of how well this piece turned out. The time frame was very tight— I had about 24 hours to do the proposal, and then the bulk of the work needed to be done in about two months. Normally, I would want closer to a year to do a piece as large as this.

I'd like to thank the following people for their help with the project: Budweiser, for donating the caps and commissioning the work; Craig Bernstein of H&H Fab Works who built the custom trailer; My studio Assistant James Genito who helped assemble the flag on the trailer; My neighbor Ed Szafran for last minute wiring help; my step-son Don Gilberg and his wife Stacie who drove the flag to the festival and helped set it up on site; Stephen Blauweiss who shot the documentary; my wife Marcie Vargas who had to live with a giant project that took over a room of the house and did so with good cheer.

Below are some images and close-ups of the finished project.

Me and Old Glory.

Artist and artwork on tear down day after the festival.

Old Glory.

A close-up shot.

Another close-up shot.

Old Glory lit at night with the Stagecoach Ferris wheel in the background.

Old Glory lit at night.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art at Stagecoach

John T. Unger — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 04:28:00 +0000

Old Glory was a huge hit at the festival! Here's a little video of just some of the Instagram selfies taken with the flag.

People lined up day and night to take their picture with Old Glory. One thing I really liked was how, as each person or couple or group climbed up on the trailer, they'd hand their phone to the people behind them to shoot the photo, and then reciprocate the favor.

Me and my wife Marcie in front of the flag.

At night when the festival was more packed for the bigger acts, there were even longer lines for selfies but I couldn't get a very good photo. I wish we'd had better lighting on the flag at night, but it still worked out pretty well.

Here's the placard that Stagecoach put up in front of the flag. The DO NOT CLIMB rule worked for about the first hour or so… then one person climbed up anyway, and from there on, that's what everyone did.

Old Glory makes a brief appearance at the end of this clip from AXS TV. A lot of people called me or mentioned on Facebook that they'd seen Old Glory on TV. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down any significant footage.

Here's Stagecoach's Instagram video that features Old Glory.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: Stagecoach Festival Setup

John T. Unger — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 19:42:00 +0000

My step-son Don drove the flag out to Indio, CA and helped me assemble it when we got there. I'd been very worried that the flag might be damaged by the vibration of a long road trip but it arrived fully intact. If you look closely at the front board of the frame, you can see a continent's worth of splattered bugs!

It took us forever to get through security and get to out spot on the festival grounds. Assembling the flag was quite quick, comparatively. Here, we've unpacked all the panel and laid them out.

Up goes panel one!

Panel two goes up, easy as pie.

The fourth panel fits easily as well. Sure glad I did the practice assembly at home!

We had to borrow a guy for the bottom panels so that we could both hold it in place while he shot the screws into the 4x4 behind the flag. It was a bit tricky to get these perfectly aligned because of the way the final rows of caps overlapped the seam, but it went nice and smooth.

Here's the back of the flag, showing the overall structure and the big bolts that doubled as alignment tools.

All done setting up! You can see the iconic Stagecoach Ferris Wheel in the background, as well as the very cool line of tents. After months of worrying about a deadline that should have been impossible, tomorrow I can kick back and watch people interact with the flag and see if it's as popular as I expect it to be.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: April 4-17

John T. Unger — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 04:10:00 +0000

The trailer is here and it's install day! My studio assistant Jamie and I carry out the first of the big sections.

Laying all the panels out and hoping that they fit easily into the framework as planned.

My plan was for the flag panels to mount to 4x4 posts that were attached horizontally across the steel framework. Ideally those would have had slotted attachments to allow a little give to the position of the 4x4s. When Craig Bernstein of H&H Fab Works built the trailer, he altered the design to make it stronger, but it's going to be a very precise and tight fit now. Will it work? The 2x4 frames of the flag panels have warped a little so I'm worried.

Lifting the first panel into place.

That one went in pretty easy! Maybe this will all assemble as easily as I'd hoped!

Lifting the second panel.

Placing the second panel.

It was a tight fit, but panel two went right in also. When we got to the third panel though, the frame was too tight and we realized we would have to make some modifications. There wasn't a lot we could do to alter the framework on the trailer, so the easiest way to fix it was to shave down the frames of the panels. After a few attempts to fit panel three, I called a break to make sure we took our time and got it right.

This is now the second day of install. The third panel had to be shaved down to fit. The fourth panel required quite some finesse as well and we had to remove one of the vertical 4x4s and replace it with a 2x6. The lack of symmetry bugged me, but at this point we only had a couple days before the piece was due to leave for California.

The view of the structure from the back as we install the last big panel. For the most part, the panels are held in place by 3 inch drywall screws screwed into the 4x4s. Once we had it fully assembled I also added several 1/2 inch bolts to tie the panels together. The bolts served a double purpose— not only did they add strength, but they would help align the panels during final assembly. That turned out to be invaluable later and made final assembly go much faster.

Putting on the bottom stripes.

All the panels are assembled and I can fill the last bits of the seam on the lower panels. It's a lot harder to nail the caps on when the surface is vertical! Look how the flag gleams in the sun though!

Marcie filmed me putting on the very last of the caps so we'd have footage of the beginning and end.

A little more seam to fill, but I wanted a good shot before the light failed. The truck gives you a pretty good idea of how huge this flag is.

And here it, Old Glory in all her glory, finally finished well within deadline. There's a cool glow to the caps on this photo.

Old glory with sunset.

Another look in different light.

And her she is in bright sunlight.

All packed up for the drive to California. I had intended to ship the piece fulled assembled but it's so high we were concerned about bridges and overpasses. Also, having the flag fully assembled would have been dangerous in high winds. So the final, final assemble will happen onsite at Stagecoach.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: March 22-28

John T. Unger — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 03:21:00 +0000

The four main panels are finally finished! I'll add a few fill caps to the seams once it is installed at the festival, but for now, it's ready to travel. Now onward to make the bottom two stripes.

To minimize the seams, the bottom stripes are made of two long panels rather than four short ones. I used cardboard to make a template of the edges of the four main panels and then cut the bottom sections. There were two tricky aspects to this. One was matching the curves as closely as possible using a hand held jig saw. The other was making the template itself… the flag takes up so much space that there was only about two feet of room to stand in and draw the template!

Mojo Cat inspects the work. The first bottom panel is nearly done.

Filling in the second bottom panel. The edges where these meet each other and the main panels will be finished once it is on the trailer. I need to see how everything meshes together before filling in that last bit.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: March 18-21

John T. Unger — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 02:19:00 +0000

The stars are finished on panel two!

A close up shot of the caps. I love the way this thing looks when you get up close and look across it at a low angle. Note that even though the copper coated nail heads are tiny, they add color to the entire piece and transform the overall color tone slightly.

Working on the last panel.

Another close up shot. Look how textured the bottle caps are. This is why I don't ever flatten them out completely. Once the flag is installed vertically, the slightly different angles of the cap's surfaces will make the work shimmer in the light.

End of week five of applying caps. All four panels are done except one little strip on the last panel at the far end (look by the lamp). I like the way the red caps gleam in this photo.

All four panels laid out side by side. The room feels a lot smaller now. There's just one little section of stripe left to do and a few bits of fill. I stayed up past dawn that night but couldn't quite finish the panel before I had to sleep.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: March 9-12

John T. Unger — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 01:26:00 +0000

Beginning the fourth panel. The first step is lining up the rows so that they match the edge of the last panel. This is slightly difficult because they're both 4 feet wide by 8 feet tall so it's quite a reach to get the caps nailed along the edge with the panels side by side. I work from both ends and then climb up on top of the panel for the last few caps in the middle. Once the edge has been nailed as seamlessly as possible, I can move the sawhorses apart to make it easier to reach.

Now that Stephen Blauweiss has visited to shoot footage for the documentary, I can return to panel two and finish that up. Since stars and stripes both present different difficulties, I divide my time between panel two and four to minimize repetitive stress.

Just a close up of the stripe's borders laid out on panel four because it's kind of pretty at that stage.

Progress on all four panels. Once I've finished all four, they'll need to be laid out side by side so that I can finish the bottom two stripes.

About a month into the assembly process, things are looking pretty good.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: March 4-8

John T. Unger — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 01:11:00 +0000

Week Three. The first panel is done and the stripes are finished on panel two. I moved on to the third panel partly to give my hand a rest from bending the stars and partly so I could get video footage of the second panel to show how the stars are done for the documentary film shot by Stephen Blauweiss.

You can see that I've marked the number and orientation of the middle panels on the sides.

This photo gives a good sense of how and why the curves throw off the staggered rows of caps and why fill in caps need to be laid in over the gaps. I never entirely flatten a cap… at least some portion of the rim is always left intact. Keeping part of the rim does two things— it interlocks the caps more tightly to make a stronger piece and it preserves the feeling of depth that makes the overall look of the work much richer.

Nearly finished with panel three. As I get deeper into the project, I realize that I can work fastest if I do all the parts that line up properly first, and then follow up to finish all the areas that need overlays. They key to getting a project this big done on such a short deadline is to batch process things as much as possible.

Very close now! Just small areas to fill in. These can be the most difficult part, really. Each overlay cap has to be crimped with the hammer and fit to a specific space. One difficulty can be figuring out exactly which space you modified a given cap for… with 1000's of caps on each panel, that all look a lot alike, you can lose your place when you turn your head to work on flattening the cap.

Overview of the work space. Panel one is done and leaned against a cabinet at the far wall. Panel two and three in partial states of completion.

Putting the last of the caps on Panel three.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: February 22-28

John T. Unger — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:37:00 +0000

Marcie videotaped the first cap being nailed to the flag. Only 19,999 or so to go!

The first couple rows of caps have been applied. Usually, I partially crimp all the caps so that they overlap and have no space at all between them. Because this piece is so huge, 10 feet tall by 16 feet wide, I felt that I could allow minimum spaces by staggering each row. Like pixels, or pointillism, the colors will read fine from a reasonable viewing distance. Staggering each row allows the caps to be as close as possible without overlapping each one.

The curves in the design cause the caps not to mesh up quite as perfectly as I'd like, so in those areas I'll crimp the caps with the hammer and overlap any spaces that are too large.

I knew that the stars would be the most difficult part of the piece… even though the flag itself is huge, the stars are still small enough to be difficult to render in detail. This photo shows how they would have looked without significant crimping and modification. This approach looked too much like a snowflake for me so I knew I'd have to find a better way. I also knew that the stars would throw off the rows of caps enough that it would require a lot of fill in caps lapped over the basic field of blue.

Here, the stripes are finished on the first panel and I've started filling in the blue. As much as possible, I tried to do large areas staggered in rows to minimize the areas that would need extra fill.

This is how I eventually decided to do the stars— Start with five caps organized into a tight pentagon and then extend the point with a cap bent into a triangle. I used a US nickel as a spacer when laying out the pentagon (if you use a bottle cap, you'll end up with a nice tight hexagon) and then covered the center with a cap that was raised above the others. Those got a longer, stainless steel nail instead of the copper plated nails used everywhere else. The raised cap on top gave the stars a nice prominence that helped them stand out in the field of blue. Note that on most of the stars, the swoop of the logo is oriented to the point of the star.

I tried build a jig out of plywood to bend the caps into the point shapes but ultimately it had to be done by bending the caps by hand in my fingers. By the end of the fifty stars, both hands had serious callouses and lacerations.

As predicted, because the stars were irregular to the rest of the piece, they left a lot of areas that required overlapping the caps to fill in the color around them. Overall, that was the most difficult and time consuming part of the project.

I made all the stars first, and then filled in around them as efficiently as I could.

Here you can see how most of the blue field can be staggered caps, and how much space around the stars will require customized fill caps.

Almost done with the first panel!

A close up of the stripes. You can see a few filler caps crimped and laid over the top the rows, but not all that many… I count ten in the silver row in the photo above.

Because the flag took up the whole room and the ceiling is kind of low it was very difficult to stand back far enough to decide whether a space between caps was too wide. The best thing to do was to circle the panel and look at it from all angles. When finishing the blue area on this panel, I'd use red caps to cover any area I felt needed more fill (just as a place marker so I didn't lose the spot). After filling all those spaces, I'd repeat the process until satisfied that the color was solid enough.

Here's panel two with most of the stripes filled in. In order to get nice staggered rows and minimize the areas that needed fill, I decided to lay out the edges of each strip first, then work inwards from both sides so that most of the overlapping caps would land in the middle. That made it much easier to work a bit faster and to get cleaner fields of color.

You can see almost all the tools used in this photo— a tack hammer, a wooden block used as an anvil to smash the edges of the caps for overlay and a little pry bar. I also used needle nose pliers to pull nails on occasion if I wasn't happy with the placement of a cap. I saved all the bent nails because it was easier to count the nails used than the caps. By the time I was done, only 90 nails had been pulled and 76 caps rejected because they bent or smashed wrong. Out of 20,000 plus bottle caps used that's a pretty amazing accuracy rate!

I did some napkin math about midway through the project and my guess is that I swung that little tack hammer (punching, nailing and crimping) about 300,000 times on this project! Maybe even more.

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Old Glory Bottle Cap Flag Art in Progress: February 12-21

John T. Unger — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 16:28:00 +0000

This is how 28,000 bottle caps arrived. The three boxes weighed 131.62 pounds altogether. I had no idea quite what to expect but rather thought the boxes might be a lot larger. It was fortunate that Budweiser donated the caps because there's no way I could have collected enough of them to do a project this large in such a short time frame.

And here is what the boxes look like open. 13,000 crowns of Bud Light Platinum, 10,000 crowns of Budweiser and 5,000 crows of Bud Light.

Projecting the source art onto plywood to sketch out the design in Sharpie.

If you look really closely, you'll see that two stripes fell on the floor but are nearly invisible in the dark (the projector only works in a dark room). I counted the stars to be sure I had the right number but I failed to count the stripes. That will come back to haunt me.

Because the flag was so large, I had to break the source art into two drawings— I didn't have enough space to line up all four sheets of plywood at once and a single sheet drawing didn't provide enough detail when projected. I scaled the drawings to the width of the plywood rather than the height, and that's how I missed the two bottom strips.

The first two panels are sketched out. It took some work to line up the next two so that the remaining stripes would match up cleanly. Even a tiny change of angle in the board or the projector will throw the drawing off. It's vital to be precise when projecting a large image onto multiple pieces.

Here are panels three and four sketched out.

All four panels laid out on the floor to get a sense of the scale of what's ahead of me. Mojo Cat inspects my work. This is also so I can look at how well the second and third panel mesh up… You can see I'll need to finesse where the stripes line up a bit.

I'm about six feet tall. Even when splayed out on just the two middle panels there's a lot of white space around me.

Before I can start nailing the bottle caps to the plywood, every single one of them needs to have a hole punched through with a strong nail… I spent days just doing that. I punched about half of each color and left some whole in case I needed to put the holes in a location other than center.

Building the framework to hold the flag together. Because of the wavy edges, I recessed the frame about 12 inches on the top, bottom and the end edges. The frame needs to be built before I can start nailing caps both so that the screws are hidden behind the caps and to lend support when I begin nailing. The flat edges where the panels will meet have the frame flush with the edge so they can be bolted together.

(Side note: I'm not the only one who still hadn't noticed that two stripes were missing… It looked so large and flag-like it was easy to miss. It would have been easier to fix if I'd caught it before I sawed the bottom edge. Matching that curve was much more difficult than adding to a straight edge.)

Follow the creation of Old Glory from start to finish—

The Making of Old Glory, Part One: February 12-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Two: February 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Three: March 4-8
The Making of Old Glory, Part Four: March 9-12
The Making of Old Glory, Part Five: March 18-21
The Making of Old Glory, Part Six: March 22-28
The Making of Old Glory, Part Seven: April 4-17
The Making of Old Glory, Part Eight: Stagecoach Festival Setup
The Making of Old Glory, Part Nine: Old Glory on View at Stagecoach Festival
The Making of Old Glory, Part Ten: The Documentary

Custom Torches Adorn a Stone Moon Gate in Maryland

John T. Unger — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:52:00 +0000

Patrick and Ann in Maryland own one of my very rare 52 inch Great Bowl O' Fire Sculptural Firebowls. But they also have something that no one else has as yet— custom Prometheus Torches that are not only plumbed for gas, but can be turned on and off from anywhere using his phone! Patrick was kind enough to send me a bunch of photos of their project, including process photos of how their contractor customized the torches. One of the coolest things about the project was that the gears used to decorate the torch handles were salvaged from a family member's factory. Here's the email from Patrick that accompanied the photos:

You may not even remember me but, I promised you some photos of the torches and the Great Bowl O' Fire.

The gears came from my father in law's light bulb factory in Newark, New Jersey. When he decided to retire and close the factory several years ago, I went through the four story building and filled a thirty foot U Haul truck up with all sorts of unique items from chairs, benches, lab equipment etc… Some of these items had not seen the light of day for over thirty years.

I was and still am in the process of cleaning out the garage when this landscape project started. I had actually planned on bringing the gears to the scrap yard, I am so happy I did not. So, Bob Michael (the installer) and I started trying to figure out what to do with the base of the torches. Below are some of the visual ideas we came up with. I thought you would appreciate the creative process. Needless to say, I am holding onto the remaining gears for future torches.

So, not only do we have these awesome, one of a kind torches, they possess sentimental value to us, since the gears came from Mr. P's factory. That part of it is priceless. We could not be happier with the finished product.

Bob set us up with an app for our phones that allows me to turn them on from anywhere and we have. If there are any drawbacks or something we didn't consider, it would be the amount of propane we use when they are lit. As you can see, the flames are huge and we like them like that.

I look forward to working with you in the future.

Patrick

Great Bowl O' Fire Sculptural Firebowl and San Francisco Bay Skyline

John T. Unger — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:56:40 +0000

Patrick in Hayward, CA bought his Great Bowl O' Fire Sculptural Firebowl four years and just sent me the following testimonial and photos:

I chose the bowl of fire because it's a perfect piece of art. You have made something beautiful out of recycled material. As much as I like eco friendly art, it all too often falls short of being something spectacular, which is what you have achieved.

Our family enjoys our yearly 4th of July celebration here at our home because we have a beautiful 180 degree view of the San Francisco Bay. The fire bowl adds a warm place to sit when the winds are a bit chilly.

You have helped me create a place that I truly love.

Thanks ever so much. Patrick, Tuyen and Samuel.

That's exactly the kind of satisfaction you hope to hear, especially from people who have had their firebowl long enough to really make use of it.

I love the two raised bed planters that frame the firebowl and can double as additional seating.

Here's a dramtic shot of the natural gas flame contrasted with the nightime skyline.

The skyline when the firebowl is unlit.

Another shot of the raised flowerbed that frames the gravel patio and firebowl.

Recessed stonework surrounds the firebowl, providing seating close to the bowl. The combination of masory and gravel is a nice contrast. The firebowl casts flame shaped shadows that accent it's design even when unlit.

Closeup of the lit natural gas flame at night.

The Great Bowl O' Fire as Celebration of New Family and as Memorial

John T. Unger — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 12:24:02 +0000

The second email quoted in this post brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. It is a beautiful, tragic yet ultimately inspiring letter. The woman who wrote these prefers to remain anonymous but graciously agreed to let me share her story and artwork here.

It's a story that reminds us of the power of art to heal. It's a story of art's ability guide us from grief into a renewed future of possibility. It's a story I'm really glad she shared, because after a long, dark winter of my own, it reminded me so viscerally of why I make art.

My hope is always that I can inspire others to find renewed or greater meaning through beauty. That the gathering of family and friends around a fire will bring them closer and make a space for them to celebrate love, friendship and life. That creativity can be contagious while carrying a cure for the world's ills. I make art to make joy. I make art to help people see the beauty in the whole world.

Her first email read:

I love your work! It resonates perfectly with my feeling of beauty of nature,imagination and art work that I do in my house. My daughter is getting married in August, and I want them to start a fire of a new family (maybe to make it a tradition). I'm thinking to buy the Great Bowl o'Fire and two torches.

She also called me, explaining that she wanted the bride and groom to carry the torches but wondered if they could be made lighter. We discussed various options, including using one of the torches as a wedding candle. In the end, we decided carrying the torches wasn't a good idea in case they became too hot during the ceremony. She did order a Great Bowl O' Fire.

The following day she sent this email:

I want to tell you our story because now you are becoming a part of it. Life is uncertain, unpredictable, beautiful, horrible, strange and magical. Almost like a fire, its flaming images, lights and shadows in your Great Bowl.

I was born in a beautiful and mystical land of Siberia. Its forests and rivers filled my heart with the love for nature that I carried through my life. We moved to US in 1992 with our three children who were 9 years old daughter and 7 years old twins (boy and girl). In some years we bought an old almost abandoned house in NJ. The house was in a poor condition, but in a very beautiful place with a small natural pond surrounded by the woods. There we started building our place. We cleaned the property with our own hands, built new house which I inlaid with the mosaics and painted with a dreamlike scenes. We built walkways, walls, arch that I also covered with the mosaics, planted a garden. The life wasn't easy but still like a fairy tale for me. I thanked God for the wonder and beauty of it every single day and night. But the creator is far more "creative" than a human being can ever imagine.

Two years ago our oldest daughter was diagnosed with the defused gastric cancer… in a matter of moment the whole world crushed into dust… the beauty of life betrayed me… the mornings turned into nightmares… the nights turned into hell… For two years we struggled and fought for her life… She passed away this year on Valentine's day…

Our other daughter's wedding is going to be at our house that she loves so much. She wanted me to help with the decorations of the event, but it was so hard for me to start creating again. I tried, but nothing worked. Every flower in my garden was missing my darling daughter, every piece of my mosaics cried about the nonsense of beautiful things.

There is one center spot in our backyard, that I didn't finish— was out of the ideas, but I had to do it before the wedding. I just wanted to fill it with the flowers for the event, but happened to come across your fire bowl. It changed everything… It ignited my artistic spirit again that I thought was gone with my daughter from this place forever. The idea of fire that is life itself made me wanting to work again. The fire of the spirit of my diseased daughter who was so passionate, loving, beautiful, magical, fearless will always live in our hearts and lighten them with love. It is the fire, the energy, the light that everybody needs to go on and to start something new (like a new family for example). Your design is unbelievably perfect for my vision of beauty. I have a mosaic of a phoenix-girl on top of the fireplace inside the house, which is done in the very similar lines, as well as my other works around the house.

So that spot outside that I didn't know how to finish just happened to be waiting for your Great Bowl o'Fire. I find that so many things in life are not accidental but happen to be for a reason.

Thank you John for the fire of your art!

Wow.

I'm so moved by her story. Struck by her sorrow and loss, how it washed away the joy in life, family and creative work. But also quite inspired by the spirit of recovery that arises through renewed creativity and the promise of a new family. In the end her story comes back around to new life, new stories, new art, a new world. That's brave and wonderful.

When her firebowl shipped, I included an Eternal Flame Sculpture in the shape of the Phoenix. It felt right to contribute something to this renewal beyond the firebowl itself. I wanted to share an additional gift of rebirth.

She wrote:

I got the bowl! It is magnificent!! I feel that it really was meant to be here. Absolutely perfect for our house and happened at such a right moment. Thank you, thank you thank you! And one more THANK YOU for your generous and beautiful gift! I found a great place for it. I will be in touch, tell you how the fire starting ceremony will go and sent you the new pictures.

I'm so appreciative she took the time to write and let me know my work has helped. I needed a reminder of why I make the work I do. So we have helped each other, which is the beauty of art.

To Anonymous: Thank you for allowing me to play a role in your story. I hope that from here on, it becomes a beautiful fairy tale again without any of the darkness of old tales. I hope you do continue to make more mosaic and art. It's wonderful, beautiful work!

DIY Network Features Great Bowl O' Fire Firebowl on Extra Yardage

John T. Unger — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 20:41:46 +0000

Caption

The Great Bowl O' Fire was the star of Caribbean Courtyard, Season 2, episode 5 of Billy Derian's DIY Network show Extra Yardage. The episode first aired September 4, 2012 but you can find a schedule for current airings here. The description on the site is a bit brief, but since I have great before and after pictures provided by Sean Boyriven, the Senior Producer I worked with, we can see how massively the makeover transformed this space. Here's the design brief from the show page:

Exterior Designer Billy Derian will help Emma and Greg turn their backyard concrete jungle into a lush, Caribbean-style tropical island paradise.

Let's look first at the Before picture of the yard before renovation— as you can see, the pool area is bare, harshly affected by the glare of the sun, lacking in shade, comfort or visual appeal. It's a swimming hole in a concrete yard.

Before the renovation

Now a view of the project after completion— So much has been done, the space is completely transformed. The fence has been painted a light blue to pick up colors from the pool and sky. New trees, bushes and tropical plants add color and shade along the wall, as well as adding a grass lawn at one end of the pool. Multi-level bridges and decks divide the space, providing both visual appeal and offering multiple entertainment areas. The Pergola has been replaced and updated, and now encloses an outdoor kitchen or bar area. The unforgiving concrete surround has been covered with mosaic tile. A shade awning is visible in the next photo below, again using a blue color to tie the space together.

Muti-level bridge and deck spaces offer multiple entertainment areas

The shade awning picks up the colors of the pool and harmonizes with plantings

Updated Pergola and outdoor kitchen area with Great Bowl O' Fire Firebowl

Great Bowl O' Fire with tropical plants and pool

Closeup of the Great Bowl O' Fire with black and green fire glass

Another closeup of the Great Bowl O' Fire Firebowl

Gas flames in Great Bowl O' Fire Firebowl with glass

I really enjoyed working with Sean Boyriven, the Senior Producer at Film Garden Entertainment, Inc. who contacted me to request a Great Bowl O' Fire for the show. He sent me the letter below when production on the episode wrapped. I couldn't ask for a better letter of recommendation. Sean really appreciates art and made that abundantly clear in all our conversations.

On behalf of the entire production staff here on the DIY landscape-renovation series Extra Yardage, I want to thank you for having featured your amazing firebowl product in Season 2 of the show. We are so pleased to have accomplished a dramatic yard transformation with your Bowl O' Fire firebowl. It's more a work of art then in firebowl in our opinion; a perfect balance of function, form and affordability. We work with a lot of different companies on our show, but organizing our fire feature portion of the episode 205 build with the John T. Unger Studio went particularly well. The firebowl was so simple to work with and the quality is beyond the standard we strive to use on camera for the series. It's evident that you hold yourself and your work to a higher standard, and we're honored be associated with the John T. Unger brand.

— Sean Boyriven
Senior Producer
Extra Yardage
Film Garden Entertainment, Inc. For The DIY network

Stunning stone patio with Great Bowl O' Fire on Galveston Bay

John T. Unger — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:46:40 +0000

Two colors of FireCrystals Fire Glass are used to make a spiral design

I don't usually get to visit my firebowls in their home, but I was so blown away by this Seabrook, TX installation of the Great Bowl O' Fire that I had to make a side trip through Texas to see it for myself. The firebowl is centered in a two-tone stone patio with integrated bench seating. The walls are built from native limestone and the floor and benches are bluestone. You can see in the top photo that two colors of glass were used to echo the blue and white stonework.

Clean rectangles of limestone with broken slabs of bluestone add to the patio's dynamic contrast

Rough-hewn limestone block contrasts nicely with the broken-stone masonry of the bluestone patio floor and seating. Both stones have a natural feel to them, while the overall effect is clean and geometri. There are four entrances to the patio area at the cardinal points.

Galveston Bay provides a backdrop to the firebowl and patio

John T. Unger seated on the stone bench

View of the patio facing west

The patio extends beyond the walls that make up seating

View towards the house

The clean edges of the masonry emphasize the curves of the installation

Firebowls Fit for a Castle in the Hamptons

John T. Unger — Fri, 31 May 2013 23:14:35 +0000

For his La La Land Record Release Party last summer, philanthropist and pop star Sir Ivan Wilzig installed two Great Bowl O' Fire Firebowls flanking the pool of his 13,000 square-foot castle known as the "Playboy mansion of the East." The event has been described as "sexiest party the Hamptons has ever seen" and the single of enjoyed two weeks on the Billboard Top 40 list.

Sir Ivan abandoned a career in banking to performs music the stage names "Peaceman" and "Sir Ivan." Business Insider ran profile of his rather adventurous and interesting life here. Hamptons.com has a slideshow of the castle estate and environs that gives a sense of scale and also features a couple photos of the firebowls.

The Youtube video below shows scenes from the party (which certainly does look pretty wild) and interview segments with Sir Ivan discussing his history, music and charitable works. There are numerous shots that include the firebowls burning brightly to light the pool scene.

Firebowls warm the Stars at Cannes International Film Festival

John T. Unger — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:35:00 +0000

Last night my firebowls warmed the stars at the Cannes Film Festival. It was a cold, rainy evening for an outdoor seaside party, so I'm sure the firebowls were appreciated.

Calvin Klein purchased SIX Big Bowl O' Zen Sculptural Firebowls for the company's annual Women in Film Party at the Cannes International Film Festival. The five women honored this year were actresses Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Carey Mulligan, Naomie Harris and director Lynne Ramsay. The party, cohosted by Independent Filmmaker Project’s Joana Vicente and Calvin Klein Collection designer Francisco Costa, was held at L’Ecrin. Vogue has a nice write-up of the party with photos here.

As it turns out, the one drawback to having work at such an exclusive event is that no one photographs the decor when they're surrounded by movie stars and celebrities. The only photo I've found so far is a close up shot that could have been shot anywhere:

On the other hand, the photographer was Francisco Costa, and it's not every day that an artist gets their work shot by the Women's Creative Director of the Calvin Klein Collection. Also, working with Benee Meade, the Special Events Manager who made the event happen, was an absolute joy. I really hope I can work with them again… everything came together very quickly rather than the months of planning and committees that are often required for corporate purchases.

HGTV's Decked Out Features the King Isosceles Sculptural Firebowl

John T. Unger — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:29:05 +0000

The King Isosceles Sculptural Firebowl is featured this week on Season 3, Episode 2 of Decked Out with Paul Lafrance from HGTV You can see a photo slideshow of the project here. The full episode is available to stream online here, but only if you're in Canada. The episode will be available in the US next season.

I haven't been able to see the episode myself yet, but I love what I can see from the photos. Here's the description of the project from Decked Out's site:

Paul and Ronit love their yard, but feel it is missing a deck. Their space has particular challenges including incorporating a beautifully landscaped pond and leaving enough green space for their playful pugs. They also want a deck that can be used for three seasons. Paul accepts the mission and builds three separate deck spaces including a breakfast bar with 700-pound glass top, a gorgeous metal fire feature, and a lounge area with hot tub that gives a perfect view of the pond.

I really enjoyed working with Rachel Burden, the Production Manager at Cutting Edge Designs to help make this project happen. She was kind enough to say some nice words on Twitter also:

@johntunger You beautiful fire bowl is on #deckedout tonight in Canada, can't wait for everyone to see it! You're a true artist.
— Rachael Burden (@RachaelBurden27) May 7, 2013

Fire Features and Fountains Add Amazing Light Effects to Montreal Pool

John T. Unger — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:00:20 +0000

These photos of the King Isosceles Sculptural Firebowls were shot by Drew Hadley for a feature in Montreal Home Living last year. Several of the shots were used in the magazine, but I was so blown away by those that I contacted Drew to license the photos from the entire shoot. I'm so glad I did!

My firebowls are often used in pool settings and it's fairly frequent that a pool design will call for at least two firebowls to flank the pool, but this is one of the most interesting fountain concepts I've seen. Water flows between two glass plates to create a waterfall effect that seeming comes from thin air. The glass sheets are backlit so at night, the pool catches orange reflections from the fire and a cool blue reflecting from the fountain. Although I've seen harsh critiques of the prevalence of orange/blue color schemes to boost contrast in recent movies, I feel the complementing contrast of colors does wonders for reflected lighting!

This project was designed and built by Montreal designer Endrée Villeneuve of Vision enVert. Now that I've seen the entire collection of photos, this has become truly one of my favorite installations of my fire sculpture yet!

Fountain with Font O' Fire Firebowl at Glenn Hotel in Atlanta

John T. Unger — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:00:41 +0000

Click photo to view larger image

The Font O' Fire Sculptural Firebowl is aptly named as it has become the centerpiece of several fountains in top notch hospitality environments. Brian Sweeney created a Japanese inspired fountain for the Glenn Hotel in Downtown Atlanta using my 24" Font O' Fire firepit. The serrated top of the firebowl was added later.

The Glenn is an upscale boutique hotel that prides itself on treating guests like actual guests. This paragraph from their website makes the experience of staying at the Glenn sound pretty wonderful:

Upon entering the hotel, you are greeted with a welcome experience instead of a check-in process, a refreshing libation to delight you and a warm, scented towel to refresh you after your journey. Now imagine that you are offered the services of a Personal Host throughout your stay at our Downtown Atlanta hotel. Your needs are known, they are proactively tended to, and you are treated as if you are staying in the home of your very best friend.

The fountain design presents a nice balance of falling water with still water that reflects the tile and flame. The combination of fire and water elements is handled very nicely.

Photo courtesy Brian Sweeney of Sweeney Gardens