How to Make a Wine Bottle Pendant Light

It's easy to turn this empty wine bottle into a pendant light.

Make wine bottle pendant lights to recycle your empty wine bottles, giving them a new and useful life as a light fixture. This quick-and-easy project showcases your home interior design savvy and bottle-cutting skills. Glass cutting might seem hard at first, but with the right tools and a light kit it's easy to make a handcrafted pendant accent light for your wine cellar or kitchen.

Things You'll Need

• Wine bottle
• Bottle-cutting jig
• Light machine oil
• Candle
• 80-grit sandpaper
• Light kit

Instructions

1. Place an empty wine bottle lengthwise on a bottle cutting jig, loosen the backstop screw and adjust the backstop position until the cutter is positioned 1 inch from the bottom of the bottle. Place a drop of light machine oil on the cutting wheel.

2. Apply slight pressure against the bottle and rotate it on the jig one time to etch a cut line into the bottle. The less pressure you exert against the bottle the better the cut will be.

3. Heat the cut line by placing the etched line on the bottle 1/8 inch away from a candle flame and slowly rotate the bottle four times.

4. Place the bottle upright on a table and rub an ice cube along the cut line until the etched line becomes a crack. Lift the top portion of the bottle away from the base. Only slight pressure should be needed to separate the two pieces. If they do not separate easily, reheat the bottle and try again.

5. Rub the inside and outside edges of the cut edge on the bottle neck and body portion with 80-grit sandpaper to smooth them and prevent chipping.

6. Thread the cord of a light kit through the neck opening, with the plug end above the neck, attach the vinyl washers on the cord where it lines up with the narrowing of the neck, so that the bottle will not slide on the cord, and attach the socket to the cord inside the bottle body. A 20-watt bulb will fit comfortably in the bottle and shed adequate light.

Tips & Warnings

• Light kits can be bought at any large home improvement store. Look for a kit that has placement washers and a cord where the socket is not already installed on the cord.

• Wear safety glasses while working with the glass-cutting jig.

References

• HGTV: Home Decor Using Recycled Wine Bottles
• Glassmart: Bottle Cutter Instructions (PDF)
• National Art Craft: Lighting Kits for Tall Objects