Looking for a way to spiff up your wrought iron gate or fence? How about adding some cool wine bottle art!

Step 1: What You'll Need

Wine bottles (count on some bad 'cuts' and have extras).
Bottle scorer of your choice. We used one called the "Amazing Bottle and Jar Cutter" that we found on eBay
bowl of ice water
taper candles with some sort of holder such as a clamp or even a candlestick
something to grind the glass with
adhesive foam tape or rubber spots to hold glass in place
silicon caulk

Step 2: Collect Wine Bottles

This is the fun part, especially if you enjoy wine...

Drink wine. Boxed wine doesn't work, nor does oversize wine bottles
Encourage friends to drink wine. Usually this is not a problem - you'll find many who are wiling to help
Remember to save the bottle (depending on how much of Step 1a you did, this may present a problem)

Step 3: Score Bottles in Preparation for Cutting

Using your favorite bottle cutting gizmo, score a wine bottle 1-2 inches from the bottom. Circle the bottle just once to prevent multiple score lines.

Step 4: Turn That Scored Line Into a Fractured Line...

Once the bottle is scored, you will need to apply heat and cold to have it crack smoothly.

Add ice and water to a bowl or pan
For heat, we found that a taper candle held in a vise worked best. Boiling water is ok but with the number of bottles we were cutting, that was too time-consuming.
hold bottle over flame and turn slowly to heat all around the bottle where it is scored
After 2-3 complete turns - or when the entire scored line is heated - dip the bottle into the ice water for 5 or so seconds.
Your scored line should now be fractured all along its length. Hold it up to the light to check it out. Any spots that aren't fractured you can re-heat and dip in cold water.

Step 5: Separate the Bottom of the Bottle

Once the bottle is fractured, carefully pull the bottom of the bottle away from the rest of the bottle. These seems like the scary part but generally goes without a hitch. If it won't separate, you may need to have another heat/cold treatment.

Step 6: Smooth Bottle Edges

No matter how clean the cut is, its a good idea to grind the edges a bit to remove any sharp edges. Not all of our bottles cut this cleanly...sometimes the fractures had a mind of their own and we had uneven edges. Grinding is more important then.

Step 7: Place Bottle Bottoms Into Gate

Now for the meat of the matter: getting the bottoms into the iron circles. You will find that wine bottles are not uniform in size. And, of course, the many colors are what makes it pretty.

Use the adhesive bits to hold the glass in place and centered in the circle
Place all the bottoms in a color pattern that suits you. Ours was pretty random.
Have them all placed and arranged before you start caulking