Greg Alvey - Owner FolkArtinBottles.com

Greg Alvey is the owner, creator and author of www.folkfolkartinbottles.com. He was born in Owensboro, Kentucky and lives there today with his wife, Patty.

He is a graduate of Brescia College (now Brescia University) with a Bachelors of Science degree in Economics, and completed his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Murray State University. He now works for Brescia University as the Director of the STARS Program (Success Tracks for Adults Returning to School), and serves as an adjunct instructor in business, management, and international communications classes. His wife, Patty, also works At Brescia University as Manager of Public services in the Fr. Leonard Library.

Greg served four years in the United States Air Force and was stationed in Thailand and Taiwan. Following military service, Greg and Patty moved back to Owensboro where they raised their three children, Laura, Emily and Neal. They have five grandchildren.

As a child, he

was fascinated with ships in bottles and years later while stationed in Taipei, Taiwan he stumbled across a book by Commander Donald Hubbard, USN (Ret.) called "Ships-In-Bottles." This book rekindled his interest and fascination with ships in bottles and after leaving service he began to build his first model. With the book as his guide and using simple tools and materials, he built his first ship in bottle, a Gloucester Schooner, from a plan in Hubbard’s book (pictured on the right).

In the late 1990’s, Greg became an avid collector of ships in bottles and this interest later extended to other forms of folk art and whimsy built in bottles. Today, in addition to building and restoring bottles, he is still an avid collector and loves researching information about the bottles and their makers. Much of his time is devoted to working on his website at www.folkfolkartinbottles.com. He started this website with bottles from his own collection but it now includes bottles sent in from artists and collectors throughout the world. It is the largest website in the world devoted to this folk craft and it is growing each month.