Introduction: Glass & Pine Lamp

About: If you like DIY you're in the right place!

Today I'm going to show you the steps needed to make this lamp.

With a glass bottle, wood and fairy lights you can create a beautiful soft light lamp.
It's a relatively easy project to carry out, although if you have a lathe it will be much simpler, but if, like me, you don't have one, you'll see that it can also be done!

Supplies

- Glass bottle - must be a clear glass bottle
- Wood - I used pine but any type of wood can be used
- Fairy Lights - I used IKEA VISSVASS lights

Step 1: Pine Wood

I used pine to build the lamp but you can use any kind of wood.

Pine was my choice for being a soft and beautiful wood, easy to work and very abundant here in Portugal!

I started with a 1.8cm thick board and cut it into squares about 12cm. Then I found the center of each square and drilled it so that I could pass a threaded rod through it.

When gluing the squares there are two important details to take into account, spread the glue evenly and alternate the direction of the wood grain. Alternating the direction of the wood grain is in this case a purely aesthetic matter.

Allow the glue to dry for at least 8 hours, preferably one day.

Step 2: Create Your Homemade "lathe"...

OK, it's time to turn the wood. Do you have a lathe? Great! You can go to the next step.

But if like me you don't have a fancy lathe, I'll show you how I turned wood without one.

It's relatively easy, securely attach your power drill to your workbench, fit and tighten the threaded rod with the wood to your power drill and with a rasp remove wood little by little until you have a wooden cylinder. Simple isn't it?

NO!!!

It's dangerous, you have to be super careful and wear protective glasses.
I ended up making a small change to my "lathe". I created a base with two supports where the threaded rod fits, making everything more stable and secure, but still dangerous.

Do this process at your own risk.


Step 3: Fit the Lights and the Bottle...

Now that the base of the lamp is round and smooth it's time to put on the fairy light.

I drilled an end-to-end hole with a 30mm drill bit. The diameter of this hole will depend on the diameter of the neck of the bottle you use.

IKEA's VISSVASS is fantastic. It's battery powered, so you don't have to worry about power cords when placing the lamp, and it turns on for 6 hours and then turns off automatically, turning back on the next day, fantastic isn't it!

I made a notch at the base to accommodate the batteries and not have exposed wires.

I decided not to varnish and use mineral oil to protect the wood, I think it looks better while keeping the wood's natural look.

The bottle I used in this project is from a Portuguese rosé wine. The wine was good and now it's time to recycle the bottle into a lamp!

Step 4: Assembly...

This is the best step of all, the one in which we will have the lamp working at the end!

Hot glue is a good choice for assembly, simple to use and quick drying.

I started by gluing the neck of the bottle and then I inserted the fairy lights into the bottle. To prevent under glow, I glued a circle of black felt to the neck of the bottle, so the light doesn't escape!

The last step is to glue the battery box to the notch in the base and the lamp is finished!

Step 5: Final Thoughts

This lamp is simple to make and allows you to have a light spot everywhere and to upcycle a bottle that would otherwise go for recycling.

In the video you can see all the steps of the construction of this lamp.

I hope you like this project and if you decide to make a lamp following this instructable please share!