Speak of the devil - D just called and may come home today. Woot! There's a chance he will go out again next week because the bears are still staying out of sight, so I'm prepared for that. If he gets back to Anchorage, we can hit up the Sportsmans Show this weekend.
As promised, here is one of the wedding projects I am working on: wine bottle vases. I first saw this on a DIY website and then got the itch to try it out. The first step is to use a glass cutter of some sort and etch a continuous line across the circumference of the bottle. Um, easier said than done. D and I figured out that you need some sort of holder or vise to keep the bottle steady while etching it, otherwise the glass will spider-crack (during the heating process) wherever the lines don't meet up.
Start with a regular ol' wine bottle. The thicker glass is more difficult to work with. I've noticed that this process has a lot of collateral damage. Thank goodness one of my coworkers LOVES wine -- she is keeping me well stocked with bottles to practice with.
The glass cutter that D already had in his tool arsenal...score!
See the etched line? Didn't match up, despite my best efforts.
The next step is to make slow rotations of the etched line over a heat source and then cooling the area with an ice cube. The heating/cooling process causes the bottle to crack along the line. D and I tried the process before he left to go hunting and he used a propane torch to heat the glass.
Truth be told, I was a little intimidated by the propane torch. So when he left town and I wanted to work on this project, I instead went with the tealight method. My thoughts? The tealight sucks. Holding the glass too far away from the flame means the heating process takes forever. Holding it too close leaves a black sooty mess on the bottle.
The frustration finally got to me and I stomped down to the garage to tackle the torch. Result? Not scary at all! It took a fraction of the time as compared to the tealight and no sooty mess on the glass. You can see one of the finished products in the photo below.
Not sure if these will work out because the tops are not perfect enough for me. I still need to experiment with sanding down the rough edges. It's not like anyone will be drinking out of these but we don't need anyone cutting themselves!
