Hobby Glass Bottle Cutting Crafts
You can craft many different items from glass bottles. Projects include vases, drinking glasses, storage containers, wind chimes and ornaments. You can easily find bottle cutting tools through art and craft outlets. It's also possible to cut glass bottles using string and wire, but use these techniques with caution as they are more risky. Once you've cut and shaped your glass item, you can embellish it with paints or other decorative touches.
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Bottle Glass Cutter Tools
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Use tools that allow you to score a straight, even line all the way around a glass bottle. Some come in kit form, with a tapper used to tap along the scored line to make a neat break. Alternatively, you can fill the bottle with hot (not boiling) water, then run an ice-cube along the score or douse the outside of the bottle in cold water. The temperature differential between the inner and outer surfaces of the bottle causes it to crack cleanly along the scored line.
Other Methods
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You can use other methods to cut your glass bottle. One possibility is to use a length of natural-fiber string soaked in isopropyl alcohol. Tie the string tightly around the bottle where you want to cut it. Light the string on fire, letting it burn through. As soon as the string has finished burning, plunge the bottle into a bucket of cold water. The heat from the burning string, combined with the sudden cooling from the water, should cause a temperature fracture around the line where the string was tied. You can also use a wire twisted around the bottle and, then heated, followed by a plunge into cold water to achieve the same effect. Scoring with a bottle-cutting tool is more effective and reliable, however.
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Other Tools and Materials
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Safety goggles and gloves are a necessity when cutting glass. You'll need fine sandpaper to sand the cut edges of the glass to make them smooth. If you wish to bore holes in the glass, you need a drill with a diamond bit. Lint-free cloths and isopropyl alcohol are useful for cleaning the glass. Corks and lids are available through craft stores and kitchen or home-brewing supply outlets. You can find glass paints, decorative accents, glass adhesives and engraving tools in craft stores.
Ideas for Glass Bottle Crafts
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You can make wind chimes out of glass bottles by cutting them into sections and attaching the sections to a hanger with strong cord. Make storage jars using the cut-off bottoms of wine bottles with large corks for lids. Shorter cut sections can make attractive drinking glasses, too. If you cut your wine bottles near the shoulder, you can use the longer part for a vase. Once your item has been cut, sanded and carefully cleaned, you can paint it using glass paints or make designs on the surface using glass engraving tools. Add decorative accents such as rhinestones, glass pebbles and beads to your bottle crafts.
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References
- Photo Credit wine bottle image by javarman from Fotolia.com
