Mystified residents have been baffled by empty milk bottles appearing on their doorsteps for months with intricate art etchings created by an artist that’s been dubbed as ‘Pic-glasso’ and ‘Bottle Banksy’ after the enigmatic guerilla graffiti artist whose work appears overnight on buildings across Britain that continually escapes unseen.



When homeowners have gone to grab milk left from the dairyman to sit down to their morning java, they’ve been surprised to find the bottles replaced with an extra empty engraved with images of cows, mice, farmyard scenes and animals into the glass with incredible detail, and the artist long gone.

The bottles started appearing mysteriously at homes in Stourbridge, West Midlands, and surrounding villages last spring, much to the delight of the homeowners, but the identity of the artist remained unknown.




Dawn Jones, 81, from Stourbridge, said she received one drawing and was hoping to get another one. “I am collecting them for my grandchildren, they are marvelous.”

“I had heard something about this from a friend, but nobody knows who is doing it.” said Jackie Dimock, who discovered one of the bottles on her doorstep on Monday.



“I was putting out the empties and I noticed there was an extra one on the doorstep.” she said.

“When I picked it up I saw there was this amazing picture on it. The milkman came to collect the bottles, but I didn’t want to give him the one with the picture on it, I’m going to keep it.”

“Who knows, it might be worth something one day.”

Some of the bottles are left out for refilling and distributed to other homes, but many have been kept as souvenirs or artworks by thrilled residents, and others have even been traded on internet auction sites.

But unlike the ever-elusive Banksy, the artist’s identity behind the milk bottle creations has been revealed as Charlotte Hughes-Martin.



The 30-year-old artist painstakingly engraves the bottles with her own designs — some serious, and others humorous. Once completed, she returns the bottles to random doorsteps in the area, where they’re collected for refilling.



Originally from Cheshire and currently based at the Red House Glass Cone in Wordsley, Stourbridge — a former glass factory — Charlotte uses a variety of techniques, materials and styles to engrave the bottles, taking her inspiration from everyday life. And fittingly, many of her etchings are milk related or feature cows.

Two pieces of her work had been short-listed for the prestigious national Glass Biennale prize.





“Reaction to this milk bottle project has come as a bit of a shock to me. The project started out as something I was doing for myself, and so the immediate interest received from such a wide audience and the Press has been a little overwhelming.”





“The aim of this project was firstly to have a bit of fun; to release art into “the world” and see what would happen. If I introduced something new into the communal glass arena, being moved from one person to another, would it open peoples’ eyes to more of the everyday stuff around them? Would I make the milkman paranoid at the graffiti, and would it get back to the dairy?”

“I was curious to see what would happen.”

“I have started experimenting by taking glass forms and aim to make large scale, highly polished, cast glass.”

Visit 13above For More Fun

World's Smallest Baby : Amillia Taylor was born at 21 weeks and six days. No baby born at less than 23 weeks gestation had ever survived, but 10 ounce Amillia was able to pull through (and even was trying to breath and cry on her own at birth). Hospitals had initially hoped to release her yesterday, but decided to keep the now healthy baby a few extra days for observation.

Her mother doesn't mind the wait, she's just proud and happy that Amillia is healthy: "Even though she's only four pounds (1.8 kilos) now, she's plump to me."




44 pound Baby : This baby born in Iran six months ago, currently weighs an enormous 20 kilos (44 pounds)! The parents say the baby was born a normal weight close to 8 pounds when he was born, but he keeps eating every hour. The Iranian doctors do not know what this eating disorder is or where it came from.



Cyclop Baby : This baby was born with a only one eye in India. Medical staff who helped deliver the child believe that the child's condition was caused by an experimental anti-cancer drug. Another cause written in the report by the hospital was that it could also be the result of a chromosomal disorder. The child was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder, known as cyclopia. She was born with a single eye in the center of her forehead, no nose and her brain fused into a single hemisphere. With such severe deformities, it was a miracle that the girl survived even a few minutes after delivery. The baby died days later.



Frog-like Baby : this bizarre-looking baby was born in Charikot, the headquarters of Dolakha district, attracting a huge number of onlookers to witness the astonishing sight.

The neck-less baby with its head almost totally sunk into the upper part of the body and with extraordinarily large eyeballs literally popping out of the eye-sockets, was born to Nir Bahadur Karki and Suntali Karki at the Gaurishnkar Hospital in Charikot. The Karki couple is a permanent resident of Dolakha's Bhirkot VDC.

The bizarre baby, however, died after half an hour of its birth, Suntali, the mother, informed. It was taken to the hospital after its death. The news about such a baby being brought to the hospital spread like wildfire and there were hundreds gathered at the hospital to have a look. The police had to be deployed to control the crowd.

The baby weighed 2kg at birth and was born after the normal nine-month gestation period. Suntali, already a mother of two normal daughters, was not suffering from any illness during the pregnancy. Nir Bahadur, the father, says he does not feel any remorse for the newly-born baby's death. "I am happy that nothing happened to my wife," he said.
 
Note : The baby has a condition called anencephaly, a neural tube defect (like the cyclops baby), with no proper brain formation. The baby would have died a few days later. That's why women are advised to take folate in early pregnancy.



Baby with Three Arms : This 2-month-old baby named Liu Junjie from Anhui Province, China, was born with a third arm on 2006. Doctors successfully removed the extremely rare and well-developed third arm, but the baby required long-term physical therapy to gain function in his remaining hand, which has no palm and flexes in either direction. "We're hoping to exchange information with doctors who've dealt with similar cases anywhere in the world," said Chen, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. "This is so rare that we have virtually no information to go on.



Born with 17 pounds : A Siberian woman who gave birth on 2007 to her 12th child was stunned to find that little Nadia weighed in at a massive 17.1 lb (7.75kg). "We were all simply in shock," said Nadia's mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43. "What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing - he just stood there blinking." "I ate everything, we don't have the money for special foods so I just ate potatoes, noodles and tomatoes," she told the reporter, adding that all her previous babies had weighed more than 5 kg.

Visit 13above For More Fun

 


Merced, California (2008) : The unarmed security guards, metal detectors, and x-ray machine at the entrance of the Merced County Courthouse could not stop Robert Eaton. “Mr. Eaton is a rather sizable individual, standing at 6′4″ and 240 pounds. So he had a full head of steam heading down the hallway with two rather large knives in his hand,” said Sheriff Mark Pazin. Eaton was carrying one knife in each hand as he ran past security, nearly 100 yards down a hallway into a courtroom. Judge Brian McCabe was at the far end of the room when authorities said Eaton ran in waving the weapons. At that point, deputies began shooting, killing Eaton. It is not known exactly why Eaton stormed the courthouse, but he had driven his car into the courthouse just over a year before.



Reggio Emilia, Italy (2008) : An Albanian man opened fire in an Italian courtroom, injuring his estranged wife and killing her uncle before being killed himself by armed police. Three other people were wounded in the shoot-out during the divorce hearing. Klirimi Fajzo managed to smuggle a handgun through tight security as he and his wife Vyosa attended the hearing. Fajzo began arguing violently with her relatives before shooting her and her uncle.



Las Pinas, Philippines (2007) : Roberto Tubale shot his wife, Lolita, and her lawyer, Rebecca Basa, as they waited for a hearing to start. Both victims were shot in the head and later died. Lolita had filed for an annulment. In the ensuing commotion, Tubale was able to escape the courthouse. It is unclear how Tubale was even able to enter the compound without his weapon being detected by the security guards. He was apprehended several hours later without incident.



Istanbul, Turkey (2006) : A gunman opened fire on judges in Turkey’s highest administrative court killing one and wounding four after shouting “God is great!” and “We are God’s ambassadors!” Police and witnesses said the attacker was a lawyer who was incensed over a ruling further restricting Islamic dress in Turkey.



Seattle, Washington (2005 ) : Perry Manley didn’t want to pay child support, and the seeming unfairness of a system that hounded him to turn over his hard-earned cash to his ex-wife had made him angry and obsessed over a 15 year period. In the end, his obsession is apparently what got him killed, in what his friends believe was a last-ditch effort to draw attention to his cause. Manley was shot to death the day after Father’s Day, by two Seattle police officers inside the secure foyer of the federal courthouse. In one hand, he clutched a defused fragmentation grenade. Manley, dressed in camouflage and carrying a backpack strapped across his chest, walked into the courthouse shortly before noon and tried to inch along a small ledge that rings an indoor reflection pond in an apparent attempt to avoid the metal detectors. Eric Robertson, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Washington, said security officers saw he was holding a World War II-era hand grenade and confronted him. Security officers summoned police and spent more than 20 minutes trying to persuade him to surrender. He placed papers he apparently wanted to present to a judge on the floor and used both hands to cup the grenade to his body. Police fired twice after he “made a furtive movement with the grenade.”



Atlanta, Georgia (2005 ) : After a 51-year old female sheriff’s deputy, 5′2″ Cynthia Hall, removed his handcuffs so that he could change into civilian clothes in preparation for a court appearance, defendant Brian Nichols attacked the deputy and took her side arm. According to hospital sources, the deputy suffered bruising to her brain and some fractures around her face. After the attack, her condition was reported as critical, but she survived. Nichols then crossed over to the older part of the courthouse via a skybridge, where he entered the private chambers of Judge Rowland W. Barnes. While there, he encountered another deputy, overpowered him and also took his weapon. Nichols then entered Barnes’ courtroom from a door behind the judge’s bench, where Barnes was presiding over motions in a civil trial, and shot him in the back of the head. Nichols then shot Julie Brandau, the court reporter, and as he made his escape from the courthouse he shot Sgt. Hoyt Teasley, a pursuing deputy. Barnes and the court reporter died at the scene and the deputy was pronounced DOA at Grady Memorial Hospital. During his escape Nichols tried to carjack at least three vehicles, ending up in a multi-level parking structure for Atlanta’s Underground tourist area. He first took a tow truck at gunpoint outside the courtroom. Later he hijacked a Honda Accord from Don O’Briant, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nichols pistol-whipped O’Briant in order to gain control of the car. Nichols eventually surrendered peacefully to a SWAT team.



Jenin, the West Bank (2002) : An angry mob stormed into a Palestinian courtroom and shot dead three defendants who had just been convicted in a murder trial. The men were cornered in the toilet of a makeshift courtroom in the West Bank town of Jenin, as police tried to hide them. The gunmen then fired dozens of bullets at the three men and dragged their bodies into the street. The defendants had been convicted of the murder of a Palestinian security official. The defendants had been given prison sentences instead of death, which angered the mob.



Sonora, California (1993) : Ellie Nesler shot and killed her son’s accused molester in a courtroom in Sonora, California, during the trial. She served 3 years of a 10-year sentence, and was released after an appeal based on jury misconduct. She later went back to prison after a conviction on drug charges, for which she served more than 3 years.



Warren, Pennsylvania (1954) : "In a Warren, Pa. courtroom last week, Norman Moon, 26, an electrical construction worker, convicted of failure to support his wife, stood up to hear his sentence. “Have you anything to say?” asked Judge Allison Wade, 51. “No,” murmured Moon sullenly. Then he reached under his coat, pulled out a .45-cal. automatic and fired wildly at District Attorney Myer Kornreich. Kornreich fled from the courtroom and Moon turned toward the bench. Judge Wade jumped to his feet, shielding himself with a chair. “Don’t shoot,” he begged. “I’m not going to sentence you.” Moon fired twice. The judge staggered, clutched his chest and stumbled from the bench. “He shot me, he shot me,” he gasped. In front of the empty jury box, he fell to the floor and died. The killer waved his pistol at the frightened spectators, ran into the street and got into his car. Just outside town, two state troopers spotted him and began a careening cross-country chase. After six miles, Moon was forced to stop when one of his tires was shot out. As the police approached him with drawn revolvers, Moon jumped from his bullet-riddled car, put his pistol to his throat and fired, ripping out part of his tongue. This week he was expected to recover and stand trial for murder. Said a policeman at Connellsville, his home: “It should never have happened. That boy has never been in trouble in his life.”



Nashville, Tennessee (1917) : From The New York Times March 1, 1917: “E.G. Tompkins and Will Hoffstetter were killed and Jim Hoffstetter and Mrs. W. A. Bevington, a bystander, were wounded in the Davidson County Courthouse this morning at the trial of a case in the circuit court in which Tompkins is suing the Hoffstetters for alleged alienation of his wife’s affections. After his wife received a divorce Tompkins filed suit for $50,000 damages against the Hoffstetter brothers, and their sister, Miss Emma Hoffstetter, alleging that they had embittered his wife against him. The case was postponed today because of Tompkins’ counsel withdrawing. As the party was leaving the courtroom it is alleged Tompkins drew a pistol and shot Will Hoffstetter in the abdomen. Another shot struck Jim Hoffstetter in the arm. A third struck Mrs. Bevington, a bystander, in the leg. Before he fell, Will Hoffstetter stabbed Tompkins. The persons involved are farmers and live near Donelson.”

CLICK for another crime news.

Source
Visit 13above For More Fun