Today we're thrilled to guide you through creating beautiful Apothecary Jar decorations with specimens from our 'Wunderkammer' Collection! These jars make for unique and sophisticated Halloween decor, and look wonderful on a bookshelf or curiosity case year round. It's a simple project with few materials, and best of all you don't harm the paper specimens in any way when creating these jars! We've written out the steps below to three different jars, and you can also follow along on Youtube!
The materials you'll need are really simple and easy to come by! In this project we use:
Glass Apothecary Jar: We sourced ours online at Amazon - they were sold as a set of three for under $50. You can find many different shapes, sizes, and styles, and you really can't go wrong.
Moss and Natural Materials: For some styles of jars, you'll want to use moss and other types of natural materials to add texture and visual interest. In our Seahorse Apothecary Jar, we use two different types of moss (which you can often find at a floral shop) and a bit of dried seaweed we collected from the beach!
Paper Specimens: The double-sided paper skeletons and specimens in our Wunderkammer Relics Collection are perfect for these Jars. In this tutorial, we are working with the 'Seafoam' Seahorse, 'Temptress' Snake, and limited 'Weaver' Spider & Spiderweb sets.
Optional Adhesive: You can create this Apothecary Jars without using any glue or adhesive, but we use a small amount of Museum Putty in the snake jar.
We sourced moss from a florist, and collected dried seaweed from a local beach.
Glass Apothecary Jars are easily sourced online. Ours came as a set of 3 with different silhouettes.
The first Apothecary Jar we'll create features the largest seahorse from our 'Seafoam' Wunderkammer Collection. We chose the longest jar for this, because it complements the shape of the paper specimen.
Begin by placing a bit of moss in the bottom of the jar. We started with Spanish Moss, which we gently placed in the bottom (there's no need to smush it down!), and continued layering with a different type of moss to add more texture.
Continue layering with your natural materials. We used a darker piece of dried seaweed next, so that the light coloration of the seahorse pops out against it. Once you're happy with the natural materials, it's time to gently pop in the paper specimen!
All that's left now is to put the glass top on the Apothecary Jar! We decorated ours with a small moth from the 'Witching Hour' Collection, which we attached with a small amount of Museum Putty.
Next, we'll create the Spider & Spiderweb Apothecary Jar. This is one is very simple, but also very stunning, and features the 'Weaver' Set. This soft-spun Spiderweb is also sold individually in the 'Gossamer' Set or, as a Multi-Pack, but it's only here until October 31st!
Begin by gently placing the spiderweb into the jar. We chose a slightly wider Apothecary Jar for this specimen, to show off the details of the web.
When you're happy with how the web is positioned, it's time to add the spider. Gently bend the legs around your fingers to give them a bit of shape. There's no need for glue to attach it - just work two or three of the little legs into the gaps of the spiderweb, and it will stay in place!
Next, put the glass lid on the jar, and enjoy this spooky seasonal creation!
Finally, we'll create an Apothecary Jar with our 'Temptress' Snake Skeleton. For this jar, we use two snake skeletons. The first step is to gently bend the ribs of the snake around your fingers, to give them a bit of natural shape. We also break the few ribs where the paper snake is connected, to make it more flexible.
We take the first shaped snake, and work it into the bottom of the Apothecary Jar. You can play with the positioning, but the first snake is mostly there to add shape and volume.
When the first snake is in place, it's time for the second one! We work the tail and a few of the coils into the jar, but leave the head out, wrapping around the outside of the jar. This gives a really interesting dimensional look to this Apothecary Jar!
If you're having a hard time getting the snake's head to stay positioned how you'd like it, a bit of Museum Putty will help keep it in place.
This project takes under an hour, but you can take your time collecting natural materials and playing with the placement of the specimens. We hope you're enjoyed this tutorial, and are inspired to work with our paper specimens for yourself!
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