How to Make a Glass Bottle From Scratch or Recycled Glass

Make your own glass bottles.

In nature, glass is created only by volcanoes and lightning, so it's easy to see why so many people are so fascinated with this art. Creating shapes with glass can be done a variety of ways, from cutting and soldering pieces together to creating molds or even sculpting objects free hand. Often when one wants to make a container for storing liquid, such as a bottle they choose to create it with a mold or by a process known as blowing glass.

Things You'll Need

• Glass Studio
• Glass
• Metal tubes
• Safety goggles
• Iron Mold
• Safety gloves
• Glass tongs
• Tubes
• Air Compressor
• Hammer
• 3-4 garbage bags

Instructions

1. Find a glass studio around that you can rent out, or someone who will let you use their tools. It can cost thousands of dollars to set up everything you will need otherwise. Also, obtain your glass and any other tools you will need.

2. Clean all your glass throughly and place it into a garbage bag. Place that bag into the other bags making the layer at least 3 thick and use the hammer to crush the glass into small pieces.

3. Heat your glass. This can take anywhere from a few hours to half a day, so be sure to ask your local glass expert about the specific type of glass you will be using.

4. Carefully with your tongs, pour some of the molten metal into a tube. This will create the starting stage of your bottle called a parison.

5. Transfer your pre-made parison to the iron mold and use an air compressor to blow the glass into the mold. Once you have obtained an even coating and the glass has taken the shape of the mold, release it carefully using tongs.

6. Place the finished piece into the annealer immediately. Annealing is necessary to ensure that your bottle does not shatter from uneven cooling. After anywhere from 12-48 hours in the annealer, the bottle will be ready to be removed and cooled at room temperature.

Tips & Warnings

• Glass art of any kind can be very dangerous, If you are not experienced please be sure to have a mentor help you with this project.

References

• WiseDude.com : Bottle Making Process