Archival Film: Grandma's Bottle Village: The Art of Tressa Prisbrey

Grandma's Bottle Village: The Art of Tressa Prisbrey (1982) by Allie Light, Irving Saraf, Philip Greene, Kirk Schuler (28min) - http://www.folkstreams.net/film,102


Grandma Tressa Prisbrey built her first bottle house to hold her 17,000 pencils. This was the beginning of The Bottle Village in Simi Valley, Calif. At 84, Grandma Prisbrey is a vivacious guide to her brilliant houses crammed with objects scavenged from the county dump. At her wittiest-she sings, jokes with her older sister, and combs through the dump. The film is an exploration of Grandma Prisbrey's creativity, pizzazz and sense of the absurd.The film lovingly documents the interiors of 15 of her houses, including Cleopatra's Bedroom, The Round House, as well as the marvelous sidewalk mosaics -- all masterpieces of assemblage art and tapestries of artifacts from the first half of the 20th century.

Rick, this was great - like an near modern "bone chapel" like the one in Kutna Hora.

All done of her own work. Amazing.

The bit where her and her sister get most heated? 60 minutes, and whether it's news. Hilarious. entertaining and inspiring.

I've been really fond of the idea of bottle and mortar walls but wonder about their vulnerability to earthquake and high winds (with the accompanying branches). I also wonder if it's R value has been discussed somewhere on this site.