How to Melt Wine Bottles into Jewelry

© GeltDesigns 2009 All rights reserved.

Turn your trash into treasure. If you have access to a small table top glass fusing or jewelry kiln, it is easy to take common glass containers and readily available jewelry supplies and turn them into fused glass art. This tutorial will show you how to take old wine bottles destined for the recycling pile and turn them into stylish sterling silver button earrings.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• empty green wine bottle
• glass cutter
• small table top kiln (jewelry kiln, fused glass kiln, bead annealing kiln, lampwork kiln, enameling kiln)
• sterling silver ear posts with a 6mm pad
• glue

1. Clean your wine bottle with soap and water. Dry thoroughly.

2. Using a glass cutter, cut the wine bottle until you have four small pieces of glass that measure 1 inch by 1 inch. In this case we used green glass from a bottle of red wine.

3. Take two pieces of glass and place them on a kiln shelf that has been painted with kiln wash and prepared for firing.

4. Take the second two pieces of glass and place them on top of the first two pieces so that they are arranged in a "star" pattern.

5. Put the shelf with the glass in a table top kiln and fire using the following schedule as a guide. Ramp as fast as possible until your small kiln reaches a target temperature of 1630 F. Hold for about five minutes. Flash cool by venting the kiln. Allow the kiln to drop to an annealing temperature of 960 F. Hold the kiln at that temperature for one hour and then allow the kiln to cool to room temperature.
   The glass pieces will fuse into a round circle during the firing process.

6. Once firing is complete and the glass is cool to the touch, remove the two glass cabochons from the kiln. Clean any kiln wash off the cabochons with soap and water (or a household glass like Windex). Dry.

7. Glue the sterling silver posts with a 6mm pad to the back of the fused glass. Allow to dry overnight.

Tips & Warnings

• Different types of wine typically are bottled in different colored glass. Chardonnay is often bottled in amber colored glass. Red wine is often bottled in green glass. Pinot Grigio is often bottled in blue glass.

• Never leave a kiln unattended while firing.

• Wear eye goggles when cutting glass.

• Most glass will fused to itself, so you can usually fuse glass cut up from one bottle. Different bottles will not safely fuse together unless they are the same COE (coefficient of expansion).

Resources

• GeltDesigns
• eHow Going Green Guide
• Paragon Quikfire 6 Kiln
• Book: Contemporary Warm Glass: A Guide to Fusing, Slumping & Kiln-Forming Techniques by Brad Walker
• Book: Warm Glass: A Complete Guide to Kiln-Forming Techniques: Fusing, Slumping, Casting by Philippa Beveridge
• Book: A Beginner's Guide to Kiln-Formed Glass: * Fused * Slumped * Cast by Brenda Griffith