Tuesday, April 8, 2014

"G" is for Glasses


Here we go again! It's time for G!

G is for glasses!

These were all purchased specifically for this project...I promise. Though I admit that we didn't cry when we had to drink them to make them useful.

If any of you are on Pinterest, then you've undoubtedly seen one of the pins for making glasses out of beer bottles. Of course, I saw this and thought it would be fantastic considering we always have beer bottles hanging around the house. That really makes it sound like alcoholics… I promise that's really not that bad.

Welll...initially, this project was our first (and had to be probably one of our worst) Pinstrosities. 



Depending on which method you come across, they either tell you to use alcohol or acetone on a string. This string is round wrapped around the neck of the bottle, lit on fire, and then the bottle is dunked into cold water to cause the bottle to crack.

Well…we tried every method known to man. None of them worked. The acetone didn't work. The alcohol didn't work. Running the bottle under ice cold water after lighting the cord didn't work. Dunking it in a bucket of ice with water didn't work. Thick cord didn't work. Thin cord didn't work. It was extremely frustrating. Every time we tried something, the glass either chipped along the edge when it separated or cracked down the side. Not a single bottle came out in the shape that I would use for someone to drink out of.

I was about to just give up all together when I was saved by the Googles. I love me the Googles.


Just when I was about to throw in the towel, I came across a video on YouTube. The video said the same thing we had figured out...none of the methods with lighting a fire work. Instead, the guy in the video recommended and demonstrated an etching apparatus to score the glass before using the hot and cold water baths.

I managed to find one of these kits at a local Michael's craft store. It wasn't too expensive, I think it ran us less than $30. There is still a learning curve to it, but the success rate was much higher and we like it a lot better. 


You place a plunger in the opening of the bottle and score evenly around the neck. (Evenly is the primary trick here...both in height on the bottle and depth of the score.)


Once it has been scored thoroughly, you place the top of the bottle in boiling water until you hear a slight cracking. 


Next comes the dunk into ice cold water. The neck of the bottle should continue to crack and either fall off into the water bath, or slight pressure from your hands will cause the neck to separate cleanly from the rest of the bottle. 


Even with this method, things aren't perfect. I think we ended up having one out of every six or seven bottles break or crack. A nice, even score line is key.


After separating, a quick run around the rim using some coarse sandpaper will remove any rough edges and allow someone to drink from the glass without it cutting their lip. As a potential user of these glasses, I can say this a fairly important step. I don't advise skipping it.


And once you're all done, hopefully you have a nice set of glasses that serves as a pretty good conversation piece. We seem to like them.

Thanks to all of you stopping by from A-to-Z Challenge! I love new readers. Make sure to leave me a comment below so that I can return the favor by visiting you. 

27 comments:

  1. These sound like a lot of work, and are fairly risky for clumsy ole me, but I'd buy them off you in a heartbeat! They look cool :)

    Damyanti, Co-host A to Z Challenge April 2014, My Latest post

    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll actually be opening up my Etsy shop before summer...these will be in there! Stay tuned and maybe you can have a set of your own. :)

      Delete
  2. Hi Elle - that's amazing ... and yes I too would be a little worried .. but your ideas are incredible and what a wonderful fun present to be able to create appropriately .. fun! Cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Hilary! We made these as a Christmas present for my brothers and a friend. They liked them pretty well...though one of them broke in transit. It was sad.

      Delete
  3. Have you tried this method - http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-cut-a-bottle-with-string-and-nail-polish-re/ - Loved all your posts.

    http://jiljilramamani.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup. Tried that method as well. We really tried to do it without having to buy extra supplies. We tried both regular nail polish and pure acetone. No go. They did cut, but it was jagged or the glass cracked down the side.

      Delete
  4. They look amazing! I may have to keep my eyes open for interesting bottles

    Visiting from A-Z Challenge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Do! We've found some good ones. I'm kind of sad that so many bottles have paper labels rather than the etching. There have been some really cool paper designs that we've found. Of course, that doesn't work so well for something that needs repeated washing.

      Delete
  5. Very interesting glasses! Over the years I've learned to be skeptical of just about any so-called "easy" project.
    Visiting from A to Z
    http://jollettetc.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes...the "easy" projects have gotten me more than once. But...most of the time they do lend themselves to some kind of product, even if I have to reinvent the wheel to make it happen.

      Delete
  6. Huh...that's pretty cool!

    http://www.thingsmymothertaught.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like a little too much work for me.

    http://carolsnotebook.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. They look great! I don't think I'm game enough to try them myself, but I really enjoyed reading about your attempts :-) Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh you have a lovely blog. This thing is too much work for me :) Have you considered selling stuff that you make?

    http://themagicquill.blogspot.in

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Aarthi! Yes...I will be opening up an Etsy shop here shortly (I will be announcing it on the blog when I do as well as making a link from here). These glasses will be one of the projects for sale, as will the coasters and aprons shown earlier in the A to Z. Thanks for stopping by!!

      Delete
  10. I saw the burning string method done in a video and had no reason to think it would not work, so your news was a disappointment to me as I was planning to have a go. I am not sure I would bother investing all that money in the equipment, but I think your glasses came out great. Repurpose it always better than recycle any day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a disappointment to me as well. Collin was skeptical that it would work, but I held out hope. Unfortunately. I looked back at how much it cost us for the apparatus...it actually wasn't bad. It was priced at $24.95 at Michael's, but I had a 50% off coupon at the time. So I spent less than $15. Not bad for something that can be infinitely reused. We've already made over a dozen glasses with it.

      Delete
  11. Cool! I wanted to do this with some cobalt blue water bottles we used to get at Trader Joe's. I started collecting them and then they switched to plastic before I could make a full set.

    Thanks for reminding me about this great project.

    Leanne Ross ( readfaced.wordpress.com & @LeanneRossRF )

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very cool. Those pinterest fails are really something, huh? Thanks for spelling it out.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It really is a great project...as long as you use a method that works. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to try over and over again with no success. Thank goodness for YouTube!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ah man - now I wish I'd kept my massive beer bottle collection from college.
    Marlene at On Writing and Riding

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, the outcome looks great, but the process doesn't sound fun. I'm not a beer drinker, so it's not even worth me trying. I like what you ended up with though.

    AtoZ challenge: http://inkwellandpaper.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/h-is-for-home-by-stephanie-mills/

    ReplyDelete
  16. We have tried those other methods as well, to no avail. Will definitely have to try this now! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love the glasses! I'm glad I saw your post at Gingersnap Crafts...I've got a project I want to do with bottles and was going to try the string thing. I've been putting it off because I couldn't imagine how it could work. I'll bypass that method and invest in the cutter. Thanks for the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I’ve always liked the clear pint glasses with beer company logos on them at bars. Which is why I totally dig these, like having your own bar!
    You know, all these things you make are really good and I wonder if you’ve ever sold any, like on Etsy…or maybe that would take the fun out of it! Oh and it’d mean staying focused… Hmm… As a fellow squirrel-head, I can definitely see how the fun might go straight out of it!
    Miss A

    ReplyDelete
  19. That's quite a task and super awesome post:)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Love this! Hubby would like it just because that means I would buy him more beer, lol. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

Other Posts You Might LIke

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
01 09 10 11 12
Blogging tips