How to Melt Wine Bottles in a Kiln

Placed in a kiln, this bottle can become art.

Wine bottles don't have to go into the recycling or garbage bin once they've been emptied. If you have a kiln at home, you can melt them --- also known as "slumping" into flat, but still bottle-shaped plates that make excellent serving dishes or hanging ornaments. Heating them with the right temperature schedule is important, both to preserve the clarity and color of the glass and to avoid having it break during the process. The basic procedure for melting a wine bottle is actually quite simple.

Things You'll Need

• Wine bottle
• Kiln
• Water
• Soap
• Devitrification spray
• Kiln shelf
• Kiln wash
• Kiln paper

Instructions

1. Soak your bottle in soapy water and scrub it thoroughly to remove any paper labels and any dirt. Allow the bottle to air-dry completely; water will disrupt the slumping process in the kiln.

2. Spray your bottle with devitrification fluid if it is made of colored glass. The fluid helps preserve the color through the melting and cooling process, and is available at craft and glass shops.

3. Prepare a kiln shelf by covering it in kiln paper or spraying it with kiln wash. Either will keep the bottle from sticking to the shelf during heating. Both of these products are available at craft stores.

4. Lie the bottle downon the prepared kiln shelf and set the shelf into the kiln. If you wish the bottle to hang as an ornament later, you can set a piece of wire into the neck; it will be surrounded by the glass as the bottle slumps.

5. Warm the kiln at a rate of 500 degrees per hour. Moving any faster risks damaging the bottle with thermal shock.

6. Hold the temperature for 10 minutes when it reaches 1100 degrees, then resume heating at a slower rate of 250 degrees per hour until you reach a temperature of 1300 degrees.

7. Turn up the heating rate as high as you like until the bottle is fully slumped or the kiln reaches 1425 degrees.

8. Cool the kiln very quickly to 1100 degrees by cracking open the lid slightly. This will help prevent the glass from clouding caused by devitrification.

9. Anneal the glass by turning off the kiln and letting it cool to room temperature.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful around hot glass and heated kilns; they operate at temperatures that could hurt you badly, especially if skin contacts the melted glass.

References

• Glass Fusing Made Easy: Slumping Bottles in a Kiln