I made a bunch of drinking glasses. I used a jig to score and hot water to pop it off so it broke smooth and relatively even. Light polishing and there you go. After doing it a while I got the feel well enough to do with beer bottles which I would then drink liquor out of and shatter against the side of my house during bonfires. Unlimited possibilities
It’s technically up cycling but like, yikes. For the cost of a handle of Jim beam and a shit load of wax, you could probably just buy a bunch of candles instead, so the end goal here seems to be to showcase alcohol brands?! Is this like when people fill their house with Coke or Mickey Mouse stuff?
I suppose I’m just as confused as you are. It would make sense to me if they washed the labels off; some of the bottles are visually interesting enough to warrant making showpieces out of.
I’ve made lamps from liquor bottles. Easier to drill a hole in the bottom than to cut off the whole top. Not quite candles but probably the same basic premise.
Fill them with something - I’ve done coffee beans, crushed glass, colored beads, empty bullet casings, etc. I do usually try to find bottles that don’t have labels at all, but if it’s got a label I leave it there. That’s part of the charm, I guess, if you want to call it that.
Find visually interesting bottles with visually interesting labels and see what you can come up with. My favorite so far have been the bullet casings in a Hotel Tango bourbon bottle (military/MRE themed, looks sorts like an army canteen) and a beach color gradient of crushed glass (sand/white/dark blue/light blue) in a Bumbu rum bottle (looks pirate-shippy).
Not everyone’s cup of tea, for sure, but for me it’s a fun little waste of time to put them together and to think of ideas for what kinds of fillers would go with what kind of bottles. And it’s done as a “give one lamp as a gift to someone who would like/appreciate it” kind of thing, like the Hotel Tango one was for someone who used to be in the Army. I don’t just fill my house with empty liquor bottle lamps as a monument to alcoholism or anything. That would be super weird.
I used a jig with a small cutting wheel to score the bottle then heat the score line with boiling ( or near boiling for thinner glass) and then dip it in water to break along the line. Polish with emery cloth or high grit sandpaper. The less delta T between the hot water and the dip water the smoother the cut. Finding your preferred Temps for the thickness of the glass is the art.
Those square ones are harder for me to cut cleanly so good on this candle maker.
Oh I try cutting it one and it was a disaster. Better to user professional equipment
My cutter simply won’t handle some of what I’m seeing here. How do you think they did it?
something like this maybe. I haven’t shopped for this stuff in almost 15 years and the available options are much better/cheaper than they used to be
That’s a nice upgrade on mine! Much love.
please tell me why people cut these bottles, what is their end objective with this craft?
I made a bunch of drinking glasses. I used a jig to score and hot water to pop it off so it broke smooth and relatively even. Light polishing and there you go. After doing it a while I got the feel well enough to do with beer bottles which I would then drink liquor out of and shatter against the side of my house during bonfires. Unlimited possibilities
It’s technically up cycling but like, yikes. For the cost of a handle of Jim beam and a shit load of wax, you could probably just buy a bunch of candles instead, so the end goal here seems to be to showcase alcohol brands?! Is this like when people fill their house with Coke or Mickey Mouse stuff?
I suppose I’m just as confused as you are. It would make sense to me if they washed the labels off; some of the bottles are visually interesting enough to warrant making showpieces out of.
I’ve made lamps from liquor bottles. Easier to drill a hole in the bottom than to cut off the whole top. Not quite candles but probably the same basic premise.
Fill them with something - I’ve done coffee beans, crushed glass, colored beads, empty bullet casings, etc. I do usually try to find bottles that don’t have labels at all, but if it’s got a label I leave it there. That’s part of the charm, I guess, if you want to call it that.
Find visually interesting bottles with visually interesting labels and see what you can come up with. My favorite so far have been the bullet casings in a Hotel Tango bourbon bottle (military/MRE themed, looks sorts like an army canteen) and a beach color gradient of crushed glass (sand/white/dark blue/light blue) in a Bumbu rum bottle (looks pirate-shippy).
Not everyone’s cup of tea, for sure, but for me it’s a fun little waste of time to put them together and to think of ideas for what kinds of fillers would go with what kind of bottles. And it’s done as a “give one lamp as a gift to someone who would like/appreciate it” kind of thing, like the Hotel Tango one was for someone who used to be in the Army. I don’t just fill my house with empty liquor bottle lamps as a monument to alcoholism or anything. That would be super weird.
Yeah looking at the op’s pic, I can see some appeal, especially that Hendricks gin bottle, very unique.
How do you cut them? I’ve thought of getting a tile saw and doing that.
I used a jig with a small cutting wheel to score the bottle then heat the score line with boiling ( or near boiling for thinner glass) and then dip it in water to break along the line. Polish with emery cloth or high grit sandpaper. The less delta T between the hot water and the dip water the smoother the cut. Finding your preferred Temps for the thickness of the glass is the art.
Edit: Boiling water