Memory vessels were made by placing small everyday objects such as keys, screws and nails, glass vials, shells, nuts, and jewelry on the surface of bottles or ceramic jugs using putty, cement, or other adhesive material. Many of these folk art pieces were coated with gold or silver paint, and thus require especially close inspection to discern details; others were left plain so that each applied object was easily recognized.
i
A few years ago, I was kicking around a Halloween theme of something we called Wood Demons. Imagine the Bog Man but made entirely of wood and twisty things and mushrooms and fungus and dead bugs. Saw these memory vessels and thought of the idea again. Memory Men. Forest things. Rotten wood and all the soft detritus from a forest floor.
