How to Upcycle your Holiday Glass bottles

What do you do with all those leftover bottles? Recycle them? Sure. But what about making them into glassware, planters, windchimes . You have probably seen these upcycled bottles for sale online or even in boutiques.So save those champagne (they work best), wine, Grolsch or any decorative liquor bottles like Grey Goose or JD . With a little practice and a $20 basic bottle cutter you can easily upcycle some glassware, planters, windchimes and more to use at home or give as gifts.

Here is what you need:

1. Bottles. Thick wine and champagne bottles work best. Beer bottles are generally too thin. However, I have had good luck with Grolsch beer bottles and these make a nice set of glasses for the cabin or to give as a gift.

2. Bottle Cutter. I use the Diamond Tech G2 Bottle Cutter. There are a number of cutters out their but for the price this works well.

3. Gloves, eye protection, dust mask.

4. Boiling hot water.

5. Ice bath or snow bath.

6. Emory sanding cloth: Coarse, Medium and Fine grits.

Step 1: Step 1: Cutting your bottles

1. Clean and dry your bottles. You will have a better score (cut) if your bottles are clean. Whether you remove all the labels or not depends on the look you want.

2. Set up your bottle cutter and adjust to the height you want for your cut. Put on your eye protection.

3. Hold your bottle firmly in your gloved hand while you make a single score around the bottle. If you make more than one score the glass will not separate properly when heated and cooled.

Comments

[Cezsaria]

Fabulous instructable :)
I wonder if that is wet'n'dry paper that you are using? If so, then wet sanding of the bottles is possible (preferable?!) because dust is not produced. Just wet the paper, and keep it wet whilst you sand.

[goodforcatfish]

Agreed, it is never to late to strip the label if it gets burned or melted, but if the original goal was to keep the glued on label I would say it would be better to use a bottle cutter. Depends on the bottle and the label, if you don't have a cutter on hand acetone is dirt cheap at dollar stores and the like.

[stringstretcher]

I use this method. Works amazingly well. Be careful, sometimes that bottle jumps apart before you are even expecting it. What can I do with the necks?

[goodforcatfish]

Good instructable, high quality pictures and easy to read. The key would appear to be the bottle glass cutter, I hear wrapping a flammable string or chord soaked in acetone also works well. Have you ever attempted? You light the acetone and set it aflame, and spin to keep the heat consistent, then plunge in the ice bath. Obviously wouldn't work well with any type of label.

[The_Tom]

It works with labels as well just cut off the top after it breaks. And if too much label is gone and it doesn't look good you can just take all of it off.

[TheNewHobbyist]

After sanding are these safe to drink from? They look pretty cool! I might have to order myself a cutter.

[Satrek]

I need to try that. I've seen many instructables about bottles-to-glasses/vases, but I have to admit it never occurred to me to use larger bottles. Prior to this instructable, my imagination ended with coke bottles... Thank you!