Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Wine Bottle Light.....eh, not so much

I love bottles. The colors. The shapes. Everything. So when I saw, out there in blogland and pinterest, a super simple, fast way to "cut" a glass bottle I decided to give it a shot. I have not seen any step by step pictures of this process and thought I could be of help in that department. So I set my camera up to document the entire process.


Here are some examples of bottle lights you may have seen. The first one is a Pottery Barn light that uses whole bottles with a light in the middle.
My kitchen with bottles on the window ledges.

Or...how cool to recycle bottles into drinking glasses!

* I was so nervous about trying this! I set up in the bathtub, wore goggles and gloves in fear of the glass flying everywhere. One set of blog instructions I read said, "light string on fire and wait for the bang." WTF!!??  I was unsure what a "bang" with a glass bottle would entail, but I was prepared for the worst.
Here were the steps that I read about online: 1. Soak a string in nail polish remover. 2. Tie a few times around bottle. Place string where you want to cut the bottle. 3. Light string on fire and turn the bottle slowly. 4. Submerge bottle in cold water.

I let it burn for about a minute (no bang??) and then submersed it in my bucket of cold water. That's when there was a "BANG!!!" I peeled myself off the ceiling  pulled the bottle out of the bucket and...
TA-DA!!! But not straight, and a million little cracks around the edge. So many cracks that I would never be able to sand it smooth.
So I tried again up higher on the bottle and it just got worse.
Plus... it was starting to look and smell like a meth lab  (not that I know how a meth lab smells)!!!
FAILURE

I wonder if scoring the bottle first would have given a cleaner, crack-free cut. ???  I'm sure breathing in all those fumes killed a big chunk of the few brain cells I have left, not to mention all the other terrible things that breathing in those fumes did. I think I'm sticking with cutting tools, like a Dremel or a tile saw. That way it's only my fingers I'm putting in harm's way. When I succeed in making a light or drinking glasses out of a bottle I'll be sure to gloat about it explain and photograph it step-by-step in a future tutorial post.

3 comments:

  1. Very funny "light string on fire and wait for a bang"...Your kitchen is beautiful with the glass bottles on the ledge no need to put yourself in harms way!

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  2. Yeah *sure* you don't know how a meth lab smells (c: hahaha! This is a seriously *great* idea...I'm crossing my fingers for you that you figure it out! I was totally cracking up about all the safety precautions as well...only because i would've probably one-upped you in the paranoid department..."do you think this bunny suit is too much???" (c:

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  3. LOL! This post is epic. At least you saved me the disappointment of trying this myself. I'm all for big bangs, but not when it involves shards and fumes :) I totally dig that last picture *grin*

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