Object Exploration

The object I have decided to explore a mason jar. It is a molded glass jar specifically soda-lime glass originally created to store food. The lid is made out of stamped steel. There is a rubber ring at the back of the lid which creates that perfect seal.The bands are apparently reusable. They come in two sizes,2 ³⁄₈ in (60 mm) inner and 2 ³⁄₄ in (70 mm) outer diameter, and wide mouth, 3 in (76 mm) inner and3 ³⁄₈ in (86 mm) outer diameter. It is designed to have some “head space” between the food and the top of the jar. When you hold a mason jar you can feel the thickness of the glass, there is also an engraving of the producer who made the glass. The ring of the lid and the center part are two separate pieces, you can choose to just have the ring on and remove the center part if you would like to make the item inside the jar easily accessible.

I want to understand how such a normal everyday object got transformed for so many other usages. It’s almost more of an aesthetic appeal now-days. You can see mason jars being used as cups for beverages in so called “Hipster cafes” and its not even just coffee now, people use it as a holder for juices and smoothies and fruit-infused water. People also use it for other craft purposes, there are many DIY ideas with the mason jar such as painting and decorating your mason jars, using it to make/store cute gifts or as a vase for flowers or put fairy lights inside. The design of it is so simple it allows for all these creative measures to be taken. A jar thats original purpose was to simply store food in a household has been taken into the artistic field with not just crafty projects but for presenting aesthetically pleasing food and beverages.

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